Quarterly Update on Palestinian Prisoners (15 July – 15 October 2011)

This Quarterly Update covers the period from 15 July to 15 October 2011. It provides the most up-to-date statistics on prisoners and arrests and an overview of the important trends this quarter. In addition, it gives background on individual prisoner cases and summarizes the most relevant legal, UN and EU news, as well as Addameer‘s activities over the reporting period.

 

Prisoner Swap

 

Addameer has represented, or provided legal advice to, 39 of the 477 released prisoners on some aspect of their most recent detention or previous arrests. Addameer lawyers notably followed 14 of the released prisoners during their interrogation, 5 throughout the course of their arrest and trial, and 2 during previous detention in administrative detention. In addition, Addameer has also followed 9 of the prisoners with regard to medical issues and 5 with regard to isolation.

Following the speech, the IPS notably cancelled all prisoners’ access to university education, newspapers, and books from outside prison, in addition to limiting the number of TV channels available to prisoners. The IPS also started shackling all prisoners’ hands and legs to and from all visits, and in some prisons, the duration of family visits was shortened from 45 to 30 minutes. Perhaps most importantly, in recent months the IPS increased the frequency of its punitive use of isolation for so-called “security” reasons, a policy that has long been decried by prisoners. The IPS also intensified the frequency of night raids and cell searches, including individual strip searches, another long-time grievance of the prisoners. As a result, prisoners from the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), gradually joined by prisoners from other factions in prisons across Israel, launched a campaign of disobedience composed of several elements, including a hunger strike and refusal to cooperate with a number of IPS rules, such as wearing prison uniforms and participating in multiple daily roll calls.

 

• Change and Reform PLC member Ali Romaneen was released from administrative detention on 31 July. He had been rearrested on 3 May and placed in administrative detention for 3 months, after serving over four years in Israeli detention from June 2006 to October 2010.
• Change and Reform PLC member Khaled Abu Tos was arrested on 30 July in a dawn raid near Tubas, and was released on 27 August after 28 days of interrogation.
• On 21 August, Change and Reform PLC member Muhammed Abu Jahaisha was detained during a mass arrest in Hebron and placed in administrative detention for four months, due to expire in December. Abu Jahaisha had previously served a 40-month sentence after being arrested following his election in the 2006 legislative elections and was released from Israeli prison in June 2009.
• On 26 August, Change and Reform PLC member Anwar Zaboun was arrested and placed in administrative detention for six months, due to expire on 4 March 2012. Zaboun had previously served a 49-month sentence after being arrested following his election in the 2006 legislative elections and was released from Israeli prison in April 2010.
• On 31 August, Change and Reform PLC member Hassan Yousef was rearrested by Israeli authorities after being released from a 6-year sentence on 4 August 2011. After 6 days in detention, he was released on 6 September 2011.
• On 6 September, Change and Reform PLC member Mohammed Abu Tir was arrested from his home outside Ramallah, receiving an administrative detention order for a period of 6 months, due to expire on 6 March 2012. He was previously arrested on 30 June 2010 and served four months in prison for entering East Jerusalem after the Israeli interior ministry stripped him of his Jerusalem residence permit following the 2006 elections and expelled him to Ramallah.
• On 15 September, Change and Reform PLC member Sheikh Fadel Hamdan was arrested during a night raid and placed in administrative detention for six months, due to expire in March 2012. Hamdan had previously served a 39-month sentence after being arrested following his election in the 2006 legislative elections and was released from Israeli prison in September 2009.
• On 26 September, Change and Reform PLC member Ahmad Attoun was arrested by undercover police at the entrance of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) office in East Jerusalem. Attoun, along with another Hamas legislator and a former Hamas government minister, had been taking refuge in the ICRC office for over a year, after Israeli authorities revoked their Jerusalem residencies. He is currently detained in Moskobiyyeh Detention Center until the end of his trial and has been charged with entry into Jerusalem without a permit. Ahmad was presented with a plea bargain to be released on a 50,000 shekel bail if he signed a pledge not to enter Jerusalem, which he refused.
• PLC member and Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmad Sa’adat, was at the center of the prisoners’ hunger strike launched on 27 September, with one of the main demands being the immediate end of his and other prominent prisoners’ isolation. Sa’adat, who entered his 32^nd consecutive month in isolation in October, actually started the hunger strike three weeks before its official launch along with Sheikh Ahmad Abu al-Heija, with whom he is held in isolation. On 6 and 9 October, lawyers from Addameer and other organizations were finally able to visit Sa’adat in Nafha Prison. They reported that he had already lost 5 kg and was showing signs of extreme fatigue and low levels of concentration, with the visits having to be cut short as a result. During both visits, Sa’adat fainted and reported that he had been coughing up yellow liquid. On 9 October, Addameer sent a request to the IPS for the immediate hospitalization of Sa’adat and all other hunger-striking prisoners in bad health. On 16 October, the IPS complied with this request, but at the time of publication, Sa’adat had just been transferred back to Nafha Prison from Ramleh Prison hospital and had his isolation renewed by an Israeli military court.

Samer Allawi, Al Jazeera’s Kabul bureau chief, was detained on 10 August by Israeli Shin Bet officers at the Allenby border as he attempted to cross back into Jordan after a three-week vacation in his hometown of Sabastiya, near Nablus. Samer, who holds a Palestinian identity card, was interrogated about his work, finances, and personal relationships. Despite a public outcry against his arrest, Samer was detained until 26 September. He was convicted by an Israeli military court of having links to Hamas, and received a suspended eight-month prison sentence and 5,000 shekel ($1,351) fineunder a plea bargain and was permitted to return to Afghanistan. Following his release, Samer commented that his contacts with Hamas and other Islamist groups were solely part of his work as a journalist, and that Israel used his arrest to “extort” Al Jazeera, which Israeli officials have historically targeted.

In East Jerusalem, arrests continued throughout the reporting period, with at least 108 Palestinians arrested between July and September. In Silwan alone, the Wadi Hilweh information center, which monitors detention cases in this East Jerusalem neighborhood, documented 91 detentions between June and August. Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) persisted in their targeting of children, with 73 of the 91 arrests documented by the Wadi Hilweh center concerning children, 39 of them under the age of 15. All the children arrested reported that they were subjected to ill-treatment during their arrest and prevented from receiving appropriate medical care. On 22 July, a security camera recorded the arrest of three youths, including a 13 year old, in Ras al-Amud, exposing the reality and brutality of such operations.

STOP ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION CAMPAIGN

Ahmad Qatamish, a prominent writer and political scientist, received his second administrative detention order on 2 September for an additional 6 months. Although the order was due to be reviewed by a military judge on 5 September, the hearing was postponed upon request by the military prosecution. On 25 September, Ahmad was brought before the judge but no decision was given regarding the administrative detention order until 2 October, when the judge confirmed the order. Ahmad was originally arrested on 21 April and issued an administrative detention order for a period of 4 months. His lawyer and international human rights groups assert that there is no evidence against him and that he is a prisoner of conscience. Ahmad’s case has been taken up by Amnesty International and the World Organization against Torture. Ahmad was previously held in administrative detention for a period of five and a half years from 1992-1998, making him one of the longest-serving administrative detainees held without charge in Israeli prison. His writings include a memoir in which he accounts his experiences of being tortured while in detention. Ahmad Qatamish is the second case in Addameer’s prisoners at risk campaign, which was launched on 17 April with the case of Ayed Dudeen (see below). Click here for a detailed profile of Ahmad Qatamish.

Ayed Dudeen,the first case in Addameer’s prisoner at risk campaign,was re-arrested on 9 August. His arrest came two months to the day after his release from over three and a half years in administrative detention. Just before his release on 9 August, an Israeli military commander had warned Ayed that he would not be free for more than two months. On the night of his arrest, the same military commander was present at the house and aggressively reminded Ayed that his threat was now being fulfilled. Ayed was interrogated for two weeks at Shikma prison, during which time he was not asked anything about his time outside prison but instead about what political action he was planning to take in relation to the Palestinian Authority’s upcoming bid for statehood at the UN. Ayed was given a 6-month administrative detention order, which was confirmed on 25 August, due to expire in January 2012. At the time of his release in June, he was the longest held administrative detainee, receiving 30 administrative detention orders since he was arrested in 19 October 2007.

The administrative detention of Mazen Natsheh, the administrative secretary for a charity working with disabled persons, was renewed for the fifth time on 4 August and is due to expire on 4 December. Mazen was arrested from his home in Hebron on 7 October 2009 and has been held in Ketziot Prison for the past two years. Since his first arrest in 1994, Mazen has spent a total of 8 years in Israeli prisons, 7 of them in administrative detention. His most recent arrest came only 4 months after his release from 4 consecutive years in administrative detention after his fifth arrest 2004. Mazen suffers from colitis (an inflammation on the wall of the large intestine), a condition that requires continuous treatment, regular medical check-ups and a special diet including large amounts of fluid and fruits. Despite this, Mazen has been deemed healthy by the IPS and is therefore not entitled to a special diet or proper health care in prison, receiving only painkillers when he demands them.

Fourteen-year-old Islam Dar Ayoub Tamimi, who was arrested on 24 January and placed under house arrest on 5 April, awaits the verdict in his ongoing trial. The military prosecution has yet to file its final pleas, though Islam and his lawyer have been waiting for over a month since the expected date. Islam remains on house arrest and is only allowed to leave home to attend school. His lawyer is in the process of filing a motion to release Islam from house arrest. Throughout Islam’s “trial-within-a-trial” procedure, his lawyer has disputed the admissibility of the evidence against him due to Islam not having been granted access to a lawyer or family member for 5 hours, during which time he was subjected to ill-treatment. In May, Islam’s lawyer attempted to submit expert opinions from former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, and from a child psychologist who underlined the effect of detention on minors, which were initially rejected by the military judge. Though the child psychologist’s expert opinion was eventually heard by the court in July, Mr. Nowak’s testimony was officially rejected during the reporting period. Although a verdict has not yet been reached in his own trial, Islam has also been expected to give testimony in the trial of human rights defender Bassem Tamimi. Due to a failure of the military prosecution to properly summon him as a witness to the past two hearings, he is set to take the stand in November. Click here to read Islam’s full profile.

Mohammed Halabiyeh, now 17 years old, was sentenced on 19 July to three years in prison, which his lawyer is appealing.He was arrested in February 2010 and subjected to torture and ill-treatment by Israeli forces during his arrest. A year and four months after his arrest, on 6 June 2011, hewas found guilty of all charges against him, despite the fact that the Israeli military judge explicitly stated in her decision that she believes that he was tortured. Disconcertingly, the military judge argued that the torture did not influence his confession and should therefore not be taken to nullify his statements. Click here to read Mohammed’s full profile.

• Lina Jarbuni, 35 years old, was arrested in April 2002 and sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment. She is therefore due to be released in April 2019.
• Wurud Qassem, 25 years old, was arrested in October 2006 and sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment. She is therefore due to be released in October 2012.
• Khadija Habash, 44 years old, was arrested in January 2009 and sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment. She is therefore due to be released in January 2012.
• Suad an-Nazzal, 25 years old, was arrested in August 2009 and sentenced to 2 years and 4 months in prison. She is therefore due to be released in December of this year.
• Muna Qa’dan, Bushra al-Taweel, Haniya Naser, Fida Abu Sanina and Rania Abu Sabeh were all arrested between June and September of this year and were being held for interrogation purposes at the time of the prisoner exchange deal.

The trial of Bassem Tamimi, protest organizer and coordinator of Nabi Saleh’s popular committee, was continuously postponed throughout the summer months due to cancellations by the prosecution, but finally opened on 25 September with the testimony of the prosecution’s first witness, Major Michel Dahan. The testimony contained contradictory information and the witness was unable to provide evidence beyond hearsay and speculation, further delegitimizing the prosecution’s case against Bassem. On 11 October, the military judge rejected a motion filed by Bassem’s lawyer to revisit a decision to hold him until the end of trial proceedings. Filed nearly seven months after his March 24 arrest, the motion argued that Bassem was not receiving a fair trial, as only one witness had come before the court during the entire period of his detention. Because the prosecution still maintains another 23 witnesses, Bassem’s lawyer claimed that the duration of the trial would exceed his anticipated sentence if he is convicted. The judge denied the motion despite the exceptional delays in the trial. The trial was expected to continue on 24 October, but was further postponed when the military prosecutor failed to summon witnesses.

• The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, Frank La Rue, will visit Israel and the oPt between 4 and 18 December 2011. His visit, originally planned for January 2011 had been postponed several times. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur is to gather all relevant information of discrimination against, threats or use of violence and harassment directed at persons seeking to exercise or promote the exercise of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
• The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is set to review Israel’s 14^th to 16^th periodic reports during its 80^th session, which will take place from 13 February to 9 March 2012. NGO “alternative reports” should be submitted to the Committee before 30 January 2012.

• The EP’s Delegation for Relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council will visit the Gaza Strip between 30 October and 4 November 2011, where they plan to meet with Palestinian political prisoners released as part of the prisoner exchange deal concluded by Hamas and Israel on 11 October.

During the reporting period, Israel imposed restrictions on the movement of two Addameer Board members, Yousef Habash and Abdullatif Ghaith. On 13 September, Mr. Habash was prevented from leaving the oPt to travel to France for the second time in three months, clearly indicating that a travel ban has been imposed on him, although he has yet to be informed of the duration of, or the reason for, this ban. On 10 October, one of the founders of Addameer and Chairman of Addameer’s Board of Directors, 70-year-old East Jerusalem resident Abdullatif Ghaith, received a six-month ban on entering the West Bank, due to expire on 3 April 2012. Similar to the vague language of Israeli administrative detention orders, Mr. Ghaith’s order states that his ban was deemed necessary to protect the security and public order of the “area.” Addameer stresses that the de facto annexation of East Jerusalem by Israel has never been recognized and violates international humanitarian and customary law. As such, Mr. Ghaith, who resides in East Jerusalem, already finds himself in the West Bank, effectively rendering the ban meaningless. Both bans violate these individuals’ fundamental right to freedom of movement, and fail to acknowledge the protections afforded to them as a human rights defender, as defined by the UN General Assembly.

• Addameer has published its annual report on violations in PA prisons in English. The report focuses on politically-motivated arbitrary detention and violations of detainees’ rights by the PA’s security forces between January 2009 and September 2010.
• In late summer 2011, the Israeli military courts published an annual report on their activities during 2010, providing detailed statistics on files considered by the courts, hearings held, administrative detention orders issued, and appeals filed by defense and prosecution lawyers. Addameer has published a summary of the most important aspects of the report on its website.
• Addameer’s 2010 annual report, detailing the activities and strategic goals and objectives of Addameer’s four units throughout last year, is now also available.