Sixty Palestinian detainees boycotting Israeli courts

At least 60 Palestinian administrative detainees are boycotting the Israeli military courts in protest against their detention without charge or real trial, Press TV reports.

Two of the prisoners have been on a hunger strike for over 25 consecutive days so far.

The prisoners were being held in Ofer, Naqaab, and Mejido prisons located across the occupied Palestinian lands.

According to Jalal Rumaneh, an expert on Israeli affairs, “administrative detention means keeping Palestinians in Israeli jails indefinitely, accused by Tel Aviv to revenge against the Palestinian people for their insistence to fight the Israeli occupation in every possible way. Thousands of Palestinians are kept behind bars without doing anything.”

Administrative prisoners are arrested based on secret information, which neither they nor their lawyers can review.

Detention orders can also be indefinitely renewed by Israel and often their detention can last up to ten years for the prisoners.

“Some 450 Palestinians are held as administrative detainees. The majority of them receive automatic renewal of administrative terms. The Israeli soldiers take those prisoners to the military courts and the judge orders that they should be held without any reasons. This is why 60 administrative detainees reject to attend the Israeli courts,” said Adel Aal al-Nani, from the Palestinian Prisoners Club.

Tel Aviv continues to systematically use administrative detention in blatant violation of international law as a mechanism of deterrence and punishment against the Palestinian society.

Several international organizations have urged Tel Aviv to end its practice of administrative detention as hundreds of Palestinians are held behind bars without charge or trial. Palestinians say thousands have been held in Israeli jails as administrative detainees for extended periods of time. They argue that Tel Aviv is in fact seeking to pressure Palestinians for their struggle against Israel.

Palestinian prisoners have been trying to resist the policy by all possible means including boycotting military courts and going on hunger strikes.

For decades, Palestinian prisoner movements have been fighting against the Israeli policy of administrative detention which allows Tel Aviv to incarcerate Palestinians without charge or trial.

The Israeli occupation forces have issued more than 50,000 administrative detention orders against Palestinians since the occupation of the West bank and al-Quds (Jerusalem) in 1967.

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