Category Archives: Administrative Detention

Israel renews the use of administrative detention against Palestinian citizens

16 Wednesday Jun 2021

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Israel holds hundreds of Palestinians in the 1967 occupied territories under administrative detention. Lately it renewed the practice also in the 1948 occupied Palestine.

(The following article appeared in Mondoweiss)

Israel’s claim to be a democracy is based on many false conceptions. The most obvious falsification is the idea there is a “democratic Israel” existing alongside “temporarily occupied territories”, the West Bank and Gaza. In actuality Israel is pursuing aggressive ethnic cleansing all along the occupied territories and illegal settlers are the strongest force in Israeli politics. The complementary falsification is the idea that Palestinians in the territory occupied by Israel since 1948 are citizens enjoying full civil rights, even if denied national rights. Whenever those Palestinians, who are formally citizens, organize to protest their discrimination, the state reveals it true dictatorial nature as an occupying power.

The area around the Haifa court entrance was sealed by guards and armed police – June 9, 2021

One of the most extreme measures of military oppression is administrative detention. Under Israel’s “emergency laws” — and mind you the “emergency” in Israel has lasted for the last 73 years since its establishment — the military authorities can order the detention of any person without indictment for up to six months, renewable for an unlimited number of times. Administration detention is commonly used against Palestinians in the territory Israel has occupied since 1967, but there is also a long history of it being used in the territories it occupies since 1948, where Palestinian are officially regarded citizens of Israel.

These types of laws were used to crush the “al-Ard” movement – the first Palestinian political movement that tried to organize in “48 Palestine” in the fifties and sixties. In 1988, at the height of the first intifada, some 10 leading members of “Abna al-Balad”, a leftist grass-root movement, were placed under administrative detention. The last cases that I know about were in 2017, and I reported some of them in Free Haifa (here and here).

Now, with the latest popular uprising in solidarity with Sheikh Jarrah, against the bombardment of Gaza and against the fascists’ attacks on Palestinian residents in the mixed cities, it is being used again. In addition to mass detentions and violent attacks by police and border guards against the population at large, Israel is resorting again to administrative detention of Palestinians who are formally recognized as citizens.

Herak Fahmawi Demonstration in front of the Haifa court for the release of Zafer Jabareen, June 9, 2021

On Friday, June 4, as part of the mass detention campaign in Umm al-Fahm, the police arrested Zafer Jabareen. A day after his detention Jabareen was brought to the court with the rest of the detainees and his detention was remanded for 3 more days on claims that he should be interrogated for taking part in disturbing public order. He was taken to Shabak (the secret security services) detention – but was not really interrogated. On Tuesday, June 8, instead of releasing Jabareen or bringing him to another remand hearing, he was informed that Israel’s war minister, Benny Gantz, signed an administrative detention order for four months against him. The next day he was brought before Judge Ron Shapira, the head of the Haifa district court for the “judicial supervision” over his detention.

Zafer Jabareen, age 44, was arrested in 2002, at the time of the Second Intifada, accused of membership in a banned organization and activities against the state. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison. After his release in 2019 he married and was working in construction. His wife is now pregnant with their first child, and will be missing her husband at this critical period. 

The “United Fahmawi Herak” and the popular committee of Umm al-Fahm called for a demonstration in front of the Haifa court at the time of the hearing on Wednesday, June 9. About a hundred people gathered in front of the court, including leaders from all the Palestinian political parties, the mayor of Umm al-Fahm Dr. Samir Subhi Mahamid and many youth activists from the Herak. The police also were present with many heavily armed military-style types, and completely sealed off all the area around the court’s entrance. The demonstrators carried placards in Arabic, Hebrew and English in solidarity with Zafer Jabareen, calling for an end to administrative detention and denouncing the detentions campaign against the Palestinian masses.

Lawyer Mahmoud Jabareen updating the demonstrators and the press at the end of the hearing – June 9, 2021

When Zafer Jabareen’s lawyer, Mahmoud Jabareen, came out of the hearing, he updated the demonstrators and the press about what happened in the hearing. He couldn’t hide his frustration. He tried to ask questions about the accusations or suspicions against Zafer, but was told that all the materials are secret and no answers will be given. He told the court there is nothing he can do to defend his client without knowing why he was detained. He was not even allowed to be present in the courtroom when the Shabak presented “secret evidence” to the judge.

I talked with the lawyer later and he explained that the administrative detention is based on an old “emergency law” and is not subject to the newer law governing criminal detention. In the criminal detention law, the judge is obliged to consider the detainees human rights and, if he finds that there is a legal basis for detention, he still should consider whether there are other ways to supervise the detainee without holding him in prison. In the emergency law that governs administrative detention, even as there is no indictment and no way the detainee can defend himself or disprove “secret evidence”, there is also no consideration of the detainee’s human rights and the court is not allowed even to consider other means of supervision. 

The police and Shabak love to use the threat of administrative detention as a way to break the spirit of people under interrogation. They can tell the interrogated that, if they don’t confess to any crime, and even if there is no evidence against them, they can still find themselves in prison for an unlimited period. So, better close a plea bargain and you will know at least when you will get out of prison. 

Meanwhile, Haaretz, while reporting on Jabareen’s administrative detention, mentioned that there is another administrative detainee from the Nazareth area. This detainee was also detained for interrogation (on May 17th) and later transferred to administrative detention. 

On Sunday, June 13, Judge Shapira issued his decision ratifying General Gantz’s administrative detention decree against Zafer Jabareen. Jabareen’s family and friends, and some political activists gathered outside the courtroom’s closed doors and were not surprised to hear the ruling. Some of them repeated the popular saying: “When your judge is your oppressor, to whom do you complain?”

The Pseudo-Judicial Execution of Maher al-Akhras

02 Monday Nov 2020

Posted by in Administrative Detention, Hungry for Freedom

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(The following article appeared today in Mondoweiss)

Tuesday, November 3rd, will be the 100th day of the hunger strike of Maher al-Akhras. That is, if he will still be alive. His body, deprived of all the vital ingredients for life except for water, is betraying him ever more. He shivers and trembles, suffers from all kinds of pains and sometimes loses his consciousness.

Israel is now waging a deadly campaign, over al Akhras’ decaying body, to rob the Palestinians of their weapon of last resort – hunger strikes. This weapon, which involves endless suffering and dangers, is anyway only used against the harshest and most brutal cases of injustice, like, in al-Akhras’ case, against administrative detention, a detention without indictment, without trial and without an expiration date.

Maher’s challenge to his torturers constitutes a uniting focus for Palestinian struggle in these dark days when it seems that the world hardly notices. Solidarity events were held all over Palestine, on both sides of the green line, and for tomorrow there is a central demonstration planned in front of the Kaplan hospital, where he is held against his will.

As he explained all through his hunger strike, al-Akhras is not striking for his personal freedom but as part of the Palestinian people’s struggle for liberty. The readiness of the striker to suffer, to scarify and to put his life in danger, help to draw solidarity and to concentrate minds. But the goal of the hunger striker and of his supporters is to get him free and alive. For this reason, as his medical condition is deteriorating, Maher is ready to stop his trike with a symbolic step to freedom by being transferred from the Israeli hospital to a Palestinian hospital, still under the same occupation. But, in a twist of events, it seems that the Israeli authorities are trying to use the opportunity and push Maher to his death as a “lesson” for Palestinians in general that their lives have no value at all.

The hierarchy of the Shabak state

The people that decided to put Maher al-Akhras under administrative detention, like many other hundreds of Palestinians every year, has no names and no faces. They are the agents of the all-powerful “Shabak” – the Hebrew acronym for General Security Service (GSS) – which, as far as the Palestinian population is regarded, is running the show unimpeded like a criminal gang.

I read the official protocol of what is called Israel’s “high court of justice”, in its hearing on October 28th, hearing al-Akhras’ lawyer appeal against his detention. The judges describe how “after hearing the arguments of the parties, we held a hearing with one side, with the consent of the petitioner, beyond closed doors, looked at the material presented to us by the security elements, we had a conversation and views-exchange with them.” To describe this “conversation and views-exchange” they use a very special Hebrew phrase, “sig va-siah” (שיג ושיח), that is sometimes translated to “powwow”, implying a special closeness. Unlike “the parties”, whose names appear at the head of the protocol, those “elements” that the judges throw everybody out of the court for a “get together” with them, are not mentioned by name, not even by the name of the organization that sent them.

And what did the “honorable” judges learned from their get together with those nameless elements? In a previous hearing they were presented with a false translation (as exposed in Haaretz) of an interview that al Akhras gave from his hospital bed. On the last hearing, they only say that “in the bottom line we have come to the conclusion that there is not in the petitioner’s arguments any medical advantage in transferring him to al-Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem, over leaving him at Kaplan Hospital.” And this conclusion comes at the continuation of the very same sentence describing the “get together” with the “elements”!

So, as far as Israel’s “high court of justice” is concern, the Shabak is not only responsible to know how “dangerous” Palestinians are, but also what is best for their health… No doubt, the Shabak “medical” experts found that it is better for Maher al-Akhras to die in confinement at an Israeli hospital (where he refuses any treatment) than to have his life saved at a Palestinian hospital (even if under occupation).

You are not detained so you can’t be freed

The “legal” pretext that is supposed to justify administrative detention is that it is not a punishment for any offence, but a preventive measure against imminent “danger”. In an attempt to save face, the same court decided, on September 23, to suspend al Akhras’ detention as “in his current medical condition he doesn’t constitute a danger, so that the preventive intent of his detention doesn’t currently exist.” But they also decided that he should “stay in the same hospital where he is” and that in case that his medical conditions will improve his administrative detention may be resumed.

On September 30, the court refused another appeal to abolish al Akhras’ detention claiming that he is not under detention. So, on what basis is he held against his will in the Kaplan hospital? They claimed that, as his detention might be resumed, it will be hard for the all mighty occupation to bring him again from his home or from a Palestinian hospital. So, he is not detained but must stay in the Kaplan hospital just in case the faceless people would decide to detain him again.

On Friday, October 23, (as we reported in Mondoweiss before) the hospital management tried to get rid of the uninvited ghost and release itself from the role that was imposed on it as a jail keeper for a potential detainee. The security apparatus renewed the administrative detention, even though al-Akhras’ medical condition has much deteriorated since the court decided to suspend it, and declared its intention to drag him back to Ramleh prison.  This intention was blocked by the court on the same day – and the status quo of limbo leading to slow death was restored.

The punishment for hunger strike is death

On October 12, during another appeal against al-Akhras’ detention, the judges suggested a “compromise”. As his detention was initially set for four months, ending on November 26, they suggested that the detention order will not be renewed after this date. They left an open door for a common Israeli cheat, as they added “if there would not be new information about the danger that he constitutes.” But they demanded that, in order not to renew the detention, al-Akhras will immediately stop his hunger strike. They actually stated, written black on white in the “high court of injustice” protocols, that al-Akhras may be punished with another administrative detention for the crime of starving himself as a protest against his detention.

Armed with more medical evidence about the imminent danger to al-Akhras’ life, lawyer Ahlam Haddad appeared again in the “high court of justice” on October 28. This time, to prevent any excuses of possible hardship to supervise or re-arrest her client, she suggested to transfer him to (the Palestinian) al-Makassed hospital in East Jerusalem, that is under strict Israeli occupation and, according to Israeli annexation laws, an integral part of Israel proper.

Contrary to all logic and law, the judges didn’t bring any reason why Maher al-Akhras should not be allowed to choose the hospital in which he will be treated. In the reverse – the very fact that he is putting his life in danger for his right to get out of the hospital where he was brought and held against his will is their main reason to keep him there. They write: “The petitioner’s claim that in one hospital he “chooses” to go on a hunger strike but not so in another hospital, does not justify granting his request. The petitioner did not bring any reason why the respondent should be required to transfer him to another hospital”.

The judges, or, as we can understand from their own description in the protocol, in fact the Shabak, were stubborn in their insistence that Maher al Akhras should die rather than have even the smallest symbolic achievement to show for his hunger strike.

Save Maher al-Akhras!

25 Sunday Oct 2020

Posted by in Administrative Detention, Hungry for Freedom

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New Israeli aggression puts the life of Palestinian hunger striker in immediate danger

(The following article was published in Mondoweiss)

Maher al-Akhras, on hunger strike since his administrative detention on July 27, is waging an uneven battle against the mighty Israeli occupation apparatus.  Every quite day brings him closer to death, with Israel trying to prove through his case that the life of Palestinians, like their freedom and human rights, are worth nothing. But the formidable insistence of Mr. al-Akhras that his hunger strike is against the principle of administrative detention, and that he would stop his strike only when free or martyr, is mobilizing more and more people to his support. Last Friday, on the 89 day of his hunger strike, it seemed that his Israeli torturers lost their nerve.

Short History

On the August 27, after he completed the first month of his hunger strike, Maher was transferred from the Ofer military prison to the central clinics of the Israeli “Prisons Service” in Ramleh prison. It is an institute with a very bad reputation called by the prisoners “a graveyard for the living”. On September 9, after farther deterioration in his medical condition, the prison’s doctors said they can’t treat him anymore and he was transferred to Kaplan hospital, a civilian institution in the town of Rehovot.

As Mr. al-Akhras continues his hunger strike, and as his body becomes ever more fragile, his lawyer Ahlam Haddad applied several times to Israel’s High Court to demand his immediate release. As usual in such cases, the high court judges heard the “secret accusations” against Mr. Akhras from the security services officers behind closed doors, without disclosing them to the prisoner or his lawyer, and refused to void the detention decree. However, on September 22, taking into account Mr. Akhras’ medical condition, they decided that in his current situation he couldn’t constitute any “danger to state security”. On this basis they suspended his detention, but said that even as he is not a detainee, he can’t go back home or to a hospital in the West Bank, so that if his situation will improve and the security services will want to renew his detention, he will be easy to get.

Still actually detained as “potential-administrative-detainee” in Kaplan hospital, Maher’s wife joined him in the hospital, there were several demonstrations in solidarity with him from of the hospital and his hospital bed became a point of attraction and pilgrimage for solidarity activists.

Prisoner Re-Arrested

On Friday, October 23, the occupation authorities informed Mr. Akhras’ lawyer that the Kaplan hospital is not ready to keep him, due to the fact that he refuses their medical treatment and claiming that his visitors endanger other patients with viruses. They renewed his administrative detention and said Mr. Akhras was transferred again to the Ramleh prison clinic. This contradicts the High Court decision given on September 22, more than a month ago, that in his current medical situation Mr. Akhras doesn’t constitute any danger. Since then he was on hunger strike and there are clear medical reports about his deteriorating health to the level of imminent danger to his life or to permanent damage to his body systems. It also contradicts the prison medics themselves that stated on September 9 than they can’t treat him.

Lawyer Haddad immediately turned to the high court again, asking both to stop the prison authorities from moving Mr. Akhras to the prison clinics (it came out that he was not transferred yet), to abolish the renewal of the administrative detention and to order his immediate release based on his deteriorating health. On Friday their struggle won a small victory in the court, which ordered to suspend Mr. Akhras’ transfer and leave him in Kaplan hospital until the deliberations. The main plea is expected to be heard on Sunday, October 25.

Torturing the family

On Saturday afternoon, Maher’s family, his mother on wheelchair, his wife and three of their six children arrived in the Kaplan hospital to see their beloved son husband and father. They couldn’t come from their home in Silat a-Dhahr, near Jenin, in the permanently sieged West Bank, without special security clearance.

But, as they came, the prison guards now surrounding the patients’ room prevented them from entering even to have a glance of their dear one. The mother and the kids didn’t see Maher since he was arrested three month ago. Now, as there is an immediate danger to his life, this stubborn insistence by the guards was heart breaking.

The family and some of their supporters, including Knesset member Ofer Cassif from the “Joint list”, announced that they will be on hunger strike in the hospital until they will be allowed to meet Maher.

Widening Solidarity

Despite the harsh political conditions and powerful distractions, there is a growing wave of solidarity actions with Maher al-Akhras.

The previous Saturday (October 17) there was a demonstration in Haifa, called by prisoners’ support activists and by Herak Haifa. The main street of the German Colony was closed and one activist was arrested. On Monday there was a central demonstration called by the “high coordination committee” – the united leadership of all Palestinian parties and movements in the 48 territories – near the Megiddo prison in the north.

When the news came of Maher’s transfer to the Ramleh prison clinics, activists immediately declared a vigil for Saturday in front of the Ramleh prison. When the news came later that Maher is actually still in the Kaplan hospital, the demonstration was extended – after finishing in Ramleh the demonstrators gathered again in front of the hospital.

Maher’s Will

On Saturday morning Mr. Akhras’ lawyer, Ahlam Haddad, visited him in the Kaplan hospital. She wrote down his words, describing Friday’s events and expressing his last wishes for his funeral and for the future of his people. Here is a translation to English of his words as she wrote them:

“This report that I write is in the words of prisoner Maher al-Akhras, who has been on hunger strike for 90 days, when I visited him today, Saturday morning, he says: “Yesterday 23-10-2020, 12 o’clock a force of prison guards, security service agents and hospital guards entered. They forced my wife to exit the room so I was left alone. Three prison guards got me out of the bed. I don’t know if it was on purpose or not, but they removed their grip and I fell on the ground on my face. Then they carried me and took me in a wheelchair to room 303 in the same department.

“At around 2pm, from the intensity of anger of what happened, I felt a strong headache, stress in my heart and severe pain throughout the body, the first time I felt these aches. My whole body shuddered and I did not hear anything and did not see anything. The medical staff gathered around me. According to what I remember, I told them not to touch me, I do not want you to treat me, and not to approach me. I don’t know what happened after that. I just woke up with the doctor next to me trying to wake me up and it was five in the afternoon. Three hours passed while I was unconscious.

“Today I feel very weak, my body shivering and trembling. I hardly can focus, talk or see. I feel stress on my heart.

“Maher’s message and will:

“I ask that my mother, my wife and my children will visit me.

“I do not want to die in Kaplan and I do not want them to help me. If they want to help me, let them take me to a hospital in the West Bank. I want to die among my family and my children.

“I do not want them to put me in the refrigerator and not to dissect my body at all, neither here nor in the West Bank.

“I want the veteran prisoners who wages the battle through hunger strikes and the families of the martyrs to carry my coffin.

“My will to my people is to protect the homeland.”

Administrative Detentions of Arab “Citizens of Israel” Expanding

08 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by in Administrative Detention

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Administrative Detentions are a perplexing phenomenon, as they contradict all the basic notions that we have about justice and the rule of law.

Today (Monday, August 7, 2017) we had another exemplary “round” of this strange process in the Haifa district court. The families of the detainees, together with some of the main leaders of the Arab Palestinian population and democratic activists, gathered out of the closed doors of the courtroom of Judge Yizhak Cohen, the court’s vice president, who was “reviewing” the administrative detention of three youth from “the Triangle”.

Arab Leaders

Arab leaders out of the court (from the right): Sheikh Raed Salah, Muhammad Barakeh head of the Follow-Up Committee, Knesset member Jamal Zahalka

When the lawyers emerged from the closed court, everybody flocked around them, but people found it hard to understand the process… Were they sentenced to 6 months? No, they were not sentenced at all. They were arrested on July 23 for a period of 6 months by the order of Israel’s war minister, Avigdor Liberman. The judge only reviewed the administrative orders and confirmed their validity according to Israel’s law that upholds such unlawful detentions.

When I tell friends about this detention they ask me: “What are they accuse of?” Well, sincerely, I don’t know. “Did you see their lawyers? They must know”, people continue to ask nervously… But the lawyers, and even the detainees themselves, who were allowed to be inside the courtroom for parts of the “review”, are also not allowed to know what “threat” they are supposed to constitute against “state security”. All the evidence is “secret” and it is presented by the security services (the “Shabak”) only to the judge.

Today’s 3 detainees

The detainees are three young Palestinians, aged 24-30. One, Mu’atasem Mahamid is from Mu’awiya, near Umm al-Fahm, and the other two, Ahmad Mar’i and Adham D’eif from Ara-Ar’ara, a few kilometers to the south.

Closed door and window

Closed door and taped window – “security” measures

As the hearing started the guards didn’t only block us from entering but also glued papers to seal the glass window in the door, to prevent the families even from waving hello from afar to their loved sons and brothers. As we scorned the justice of this system that hides behind closed doors one of the guards apologized and said he is only a small screw in the machine, it is only his work and he was acting on orders from above.

The first lawyer that came out was ‘Adel Bwerat, a private lawyer that represents Mr. D’eif. He was very proud to say that the judge reduced the period of the detention from 6 to 2 months. At first I thought this decision covered al the 3 detainees. Soon I understood that the “review” process for the other two was just beginning. Some two hours later lawyers Omar Khamaisi and Mustafa Mahamid from Al-Mizan, who represent the other detainees, came out with the bad news that their clients’ detention was approved to the full extent of 6 months.

In a declaration to the (Hebrew) site Local Call lawyer Bwerat said that the judge, after reviewing the secret evidence, was convinced that the danger from his client was low-level. Well, this is the type of things we celebrate today, when for an imaginary low level potential that you might do some harm you get just 2 months of prison without trial.

Some historic perspective

Whenever some Palestinians inside the green line get Administrative Detention many people put the same astonished face: We know this kind of detention is massively used in the occupied West Bank, but are they really used also against citizens of Israel? It is a severe precedent!

Bwerat explains

Lawyer Adel Bwerat explains the situation

It might be helpful to remember that Israel is under “emergency laws” for all and every of the 69 years from its establishment in 1948. Every area of the country has its “military governor” that has absolute authority to detain or restrict the freedom of any citizen. Until 1966 the military government was the main tool of the state to handle the Arab population in the 1948 occupied territories. The first Arab national party to organize after the Nakba, Al-Ard, was successfully oppressed out of existence by such measures.

In the 1980s Arab student leaders (among others) from both the Israeli communist party and the (leftist Palestinian) Abna Al-Balad movement were regularly confined to their villages of origin by military decrees. In 1987 and 1988, after the outbreak of the first Palestinian Intifada, about 10 of the leaders of Abna Al-Balad and like-minded movements spent time in Administrative Detention for organizing solidarity action.

In the last 2 decades the usage of administrative detentions against Arab citizens of Israel actually never stopped, but it was becoming rather rare, used on individual basis.

Assessment of the latest development

When Muhammad Ibrahim from Kabul was put under administrative detention last year, probably for his indulgence with the Al-Aqsa mosque, it was a challenge for the Arab population. For the first 6 month nobody said anything. As administrative detention is not limited in time – it can be extended indefinitely – it is a very stressful situation for the detainee, his family and his lawyers. There are always those people that advise you to keep low profile in order not to annoy the security apparatus even more.

Barakeh Interview

Muhammad Barakeh, head of the Follow-Up Committee, interviewed: Even one day of Administrative Detention is injustice!

After 6 month of keeping quiet, Muhammad Ibrahim’s detention was extended for another 6 months for no reason at all. The popular committee in Kabul and “The follow-up Committee” – the united leadership of the ’48 Palestinians – started to organize public protest. Finally the detention was shortened and he was released.

The case of the three youth from the Triangle is different. Muhammad Ibrahim was initially detained and interrogated by the Shabak. Only after they failed to force a “confession” out of him he was transferred to administrative detention. Our new detainees were administrative to start with, not suspected of anything and not interrogated about anything.

Collective administrative detention, not known since the 1980s, is also a sign both of escalating oppression and of the politicization of the process. Over the last month some ministers, including Liberman himself, demanded to issue administrative detention against Sheikh Raed Salah, the legendary leader of the Islamic movement.

While the crisis around Al-Aqsa and the provocative Israeli “security” checks around it was at its height, Israel’s housing minister, General Galant, from the “moderate” Kulanu party, suggested to give up the magnetometers and use mass administrative detentions instead (see an Hebrew news item here). So we see that the issue of administrative detention became both a political game for racist politicians competing for the love of the racist electorate and another indiscriminate way to pursue “collective punishment” in the disguise of “security measures” against the Arab public.

Now we know that at least one more Arab citizen of Israel is under administrative detention but nothing was reported about it. So, if you happen to live in “democratic” Israel and a neighbor suddenly disappears you can still hope that he is alive and well, just spending some time in Magido prison, where the 3 detainees from the Triangle are staying now.

 

Free Muhammad Ibrahim – Administrative Detainee from Kabul in the Galilee!

21 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by in Administrative Detention, Political Detention

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When the news about the administrative detention of Muhammad Ibrahim were first published in December 2016, after he was already more than half a year in prison, it was written in some papers that this is the first case of such detention against Palestinians inside the 1948 occupied territories, who are formally citizens of Israel. But it was less than a year since Asmaa Hamdan, a woman from Nazareth, spent 3 months in administrative detention which started at the turmoil of “the third intifada” of October 2015. At the heights of the first intifada, in 1988, some ten leading members of Abna Al-Balad and related Palestinian movements were held in the same way. Several Palestinian activists inside ’48 spent times in administrative detention before and after these days…muhammad-ibrahim-with-al-aqsa

In the 1967 occupied West Bank (and previously also in Gaza) Israel is using administrative detention en-mass as a tool for political oppression. The use of administrative detention also against Palestinian in ’48 is another proof that it is basically the same occupation and the same oppressive system that is used all over occupied Palestine.

The Administrative Detention of Muhammad Ibrahim

[The following article was published in Hebrew on 23/01/2017 in “Local Call” and Haifa Hahofshit]

They say that if the police would look hard enough at the past of any person they would find a legal reason to arrest and put him or her on trial. It turns out that this rule has exceptions. One of them is the case of Muhammad Ibrahim, a 20-year-old computer technician from the Western Galilee town of Kabul. Not only the police, the Shin Bet (Israel’s notoriously harsh “internal security services”) also made every effort to bring him to trial, but they didn’t find any legal reason for this. So he was subjected to administrative detention, without indictment and without trial.

Muhammad gets into troubles

Muhammad’s troubles probably stems from his love to the Al-Aqsa mosque… He was not a political activist but used to travel frequently to Jerusalem to pray at this mosque. This mosque is the third holiest site for Islam, but some of Israel’s leaders seek to destroy it in order to build “The Third Temple” in its place.

Muhammad’s first encounter with the law was when Israeli police wanted to arrest a woman in the mosque’s yard and he threw himself before her and was arrested instead. He spent the night in custody in the “Moskubiya” (a Russian Church’s compound in the middle of Jerusalem used as a detention center). On the following day he was released by the judge in the absence of any offense.

After the first detention cops already knew Muhammad and when they saw him in the mosque’s yard they used to arrest him. He was arrested five times, and was released five times, without being accused of any offence. Occasionally he was required to sign a pledge to stay away from Jerusalem for a while as a condition for his release.

On May 11, 2016, at 3 o’clock in the morning, a police force from Nazareth, including riot squad, accompanied by a Shin Bet operative, surrounded Muhammad’s house and awakened his family. The Sin Bet agent in charge of the region did not even know the young Muhammad whom he came to arrest. He turned to Muhammad’s father and asked him “who is Muhammad?”… This is just another piece of evidence proving that the reason for the arrest belongs to a different place – to Jerusalem.

Harsh Interrogation

After searching Muhammad’s room and some other rooms in the house, the police took with them Muhammad himself and also all the computers that they found, including computers of customers who brought them for repair.muhammad-ibrahim-sitting

The terrified family spent the next day running around between police stations and detention centers to find their son. Finally, they were informed that he was detained by the Shin Bet in a special interrogation center in Petah Tikva.

During the interrogation Muhammad was not allowed to see a lawyer. He was questioned in difficult conditions and was subjected to the harsh “special interrogation methods” of the Shin Bet, including sleep prevention. Later he told how he was interrogated for 22 hours non-stop while tethered to a chair.

25 days of intensive interrogation did not produce anything; the mountain did not give birth even to a mouse. Finally came the court session in which Muhammad was supposed to be released. But then the Shin Bet people informed the judge that they are going to put Muhammad under administrative detention. The judge delayed his release for a day until the defence minister will sign the decree, which was signed by Avigdor Lieberman on June 5, 2016, for a period of six months.

The other likely reason for issuing the administrative detention order is revenge of the Shin Bet’s failure to extort a confession from Muhammad and prosecute him. It constitutes a threatening message to all detainees: if you do not confess you can be arrested anyway, so you should better confess even if you never violated any law.

Significantly, although the investigation was concluded long time ago, and although no indictment was filed, the confiscated computers, including those of Muhammad’s customers, were not returned until this day.

Administrative Detention as a tool of the Military Regime

“Judicial supervision” on the procedure of administrative detention against Muhammad Ibrahim is being held at the Haifa District Court. At the first hearings in this procedure he was represented by the “Adalah” legal center. In fact this is not a proper judicial proceeding that allows any viable legal defence but a meaningless formal procedure. The contents of the “charges” or “suspicions” were not disclosed to Muhammad until this day, neither to his lawyer. All the Shin Bet’s claims are “secret material” submitted to the judge without the presence of the suspect or his representative. Once, when Aram Mahameed, Adalah’s lawyer, was order to leave the courtroom when confidential materials were submitted, he left behind his briefcase. State officials rushed to distance the briefcase also.

Not only that Muhammad’s lawyers are not present when secret materials are submitted, family members are not allowed at all to be in the courtroom, not even to hear the arguments of the defence. At the same time a blanket GAG order was issued to prevent the press from covering the case. Only on January 2017, following an appeal by journalist Jacky Khoury (from Radio Al-Shams and Haaretz), the military censorship confirmed that there is no reason to prevent reporting. In any case, there is nothing to report except the fact that there is nothing as there was nothing, and that this nothingness is a state secret.

On December 5, Muhammad’s six months detention was due to expire, but then the family was informed that the detention order was renewed for another six months period. This time he was represented by lawyer Omar Khamaisi from “Mizan”. The judge himself found it difficult to understand the justification for the continued detention without indictment and asked the Shin Bet representative whether, in their view, administrative detention is life imprisonment… But eventually the usual ritual was repeated: The detainee and his lawyer were ordered to leave the courtroom and the Shin Bet operatives stayed alone with the judge who finally reaffirmed the detention. The next hearing of this judicial farce, which takes place every three months, of “legally supervising” this unlawful detention, is set for March 15.

I sat with lawyer Khamaisi who explained to me the legal basis for administrative detention. The practice of detention without trial was inherited from the colonialist laws used by the British Mandate (see Wikipedia: Defence Emergency Regulations 1945). When Zionist leaders were subject to these laws they severely criticized them as draconian, but later Israel continued to use the same draconian British laws against its Palestinian Arab citizens.

Now Israel has a wholly “Blue and White” Made in Israel detention without trial, under the “state of emergency laws” from 1979, in full accordance to the Jewish and “democratic” character of the state. (The law is so new, only 38 years, that it still doesn’t have an entry in Wikipedia). The authority to issue administrative detention order is given by the Minister of Defence, stressing the fact that this is basically a military act against the “enemies of the state”. It should remind us that beneath the thin camouflage of democracy we are all subject to a regime of military occupation.

Abusive Conditions at the Families’ Visits

Although not indicted for anything, Muhammad is held in harsh conditions with “security prisoners” in the desert Ketziot prison in Nizzana sands, near the Egyptian border.

Khaled Ibrahim, Muhammad’s father, told me in detail about his harsh experiences while visiting his son in this remote prison.

khaled-ibrahim-abu-muhammad

Khaled Ibrahim, Abu Muhammad

The Israeli prisons’ authority requires that the family will register in advance for visiting, but Ketziot prison guards are not answering the telephone number designed for coordination. He only learns about the dates of the visits from families of prisoners from the West Bank which are coming in pre-arranged transportation.

Travelling from Kabul to Ketziot, almost 300 kilometers, can take three and a half hours in each direction when the road is free, so it is by itself a torture for the body and the soul. When he arrived at Ketziot he was imprisoned with his car in the parking lot of the prison and had to wait about an hour and a half to the arrival of the buses from the West Bank. The guards forbade him to extricate himself by walking in the parking lot and ordered him to stay in the car. When the buses arrived all visitors were guided to an internal courtyard and had to wait there another two hours until visits actually began. At the time of the visit, which lasted three-quarter of an hour, they were separated from their beloved ones by a glass wall and could talk only through a phone.  Later they had to wait closed in the yard until the second round of visits finished and they were allowed to return to the parking lot… Why should the guards make an extra effort and open the door twice?

The three-quarters of an hour visit lasted in total over fourteen and a half hours, from six in the morning until eight thirty at night. This systematic abuse against the families of prisoners and detainees causes many of them to reduce their visits.

Popular Struggle

The family expected that the six-month administrative detention will pass just as the 25 days of the interrogations and that Muhammad will be released… After all, he was not accused of anything. The secrecy of the hearings and prevention of media reports created an atmosphere of fear and they did not know what to do or who to contact. This secrecy has allowed the authorities to keep the entire subject far from the public awareness. The oppressive apparatus like to abuse their victims in the darkness under the cover of media blackout. However, one of the most difficult problems with administrative detention is that it has no time limit.

The extension of Muhammad’s detention for another six months resulted in breaking the isolation and silence. Over the last several years, a “popular committee” was formed and is operating in Kabul, as part of the policy of “the follow-up committee” of the Arab population inside the 48 occupied territories for the construction of the organs of popular struggle in every community. The popular committee undertook to publicize the case of Muhammad’s administrative detention and to coordinate the struggle for his release.

The activists of the “popular committee” organized protest, invited the Follow-Up Committee and Arab Knesset Members from “The Joint List” and turned to the media. They opened a special Facebook page called “Free the administrative detainee Mohammed Ibrahim from Kabul” (in Arabic). At the last hearing in the Haifa District Court there were already about 30 people who were not allowed in… My visit to Muhammad’s family in Kabul and this article are my modest contribution to this campaign.

Now the family’s sole hope is that the public struggle will expose the severe unjustified abuse caused to Muhammad by the administrative detention and will embarrass the authorities and bring about his release. At the end of our conversation the representative of the Popular Committee expressed his hope that until the next hearing, on March 15, the protest will expands, and maybe there will be a demonstration in front of the court. I expressed my wish that, even before, due to the exposure of the case, the public pressure will bring to Muhammad’s release and we’ll come to congratulate him for that. We never lose hope, but in the current public atmosphere to speak of “a danger to democracy” rings like a hollow mockery while we face a regime which prides itself for abusing democratic rights.