“For the first time since the previous intifada (1987-1993), more than 1,000 Palestinians are being held in administrative detention,” said the group, which monitors human rights in the occupied territories.
“B’Tselem urges the Israeli government to release all administrative detainees immediately. Detainees against whom there is evidence should be brought to a fair trial, and given the right to present their case,” the statement said.
Administrative detainees are held without trial or charges, sometimes without even being told why they are being held, for extendible periods of six months.
Their imprisonment is authorized by a major general’s order rather than by judicial decree. It is permitted under international law, but B’Tselem charged that Israel ignores many restrictions on its implementation.
Former justice minister Yossi Beilin had planned to abolish administrative detention, which is based on notorious emergency regulations introduced in 1945 by the British authorities who then ruled Palestine.
In an end-of-year report, the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and Environment (LAW) also slammed Israel’s systematic use of administrative detention.
“Israel’s treatment of administrative detainees, including the location and conditions of their detention, contravenes not only international human rights standards but also the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention,” the group said in a report.
“For many years, Israel has abused the system of administrative detention, using it to punish without charge or trial those it believes have acted against its interests, rather than as an extraordinary and selectively used preventative measure,” LAW added.
Israeli troops carry out daily sweeps in the Palestinian territories, arresting suspected militants in a bid to “dismantle terrorist infrastructure”.
According to LAW, 24,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel since the beginning of the present intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in September 2000, most of whom were released after questioning.
ACCORD: Israel and the United States have agreed on a mechanism to transfer frozen customs duties Israel owes to the Palestinians, an Israeli official said on Thursday.
“We reached an agreement with the United States under which US accountants will monitor the Palestinian Authority’s accounts to make sure the unfrozen funds are not used to finance terrorism,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“The payments will start in a few days on a monthly basis, but if we see that the money is diverted to finance terrorist activities, we will freeze them again,” the official added.
Earlier this month, Israel transferred 27 million dollars in frozen custom revenues to the Palestinian Authority.
The handover came following heavy US pressure on Israel to release the funds as part of efforts to ease the dire humanitarian situation in the occupied territories after 27 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Earlier this year, Israeli transferred some 200 million shekels (42 million dollars) to the Palestinian Authority in line with an agreement reached by former foreign minister Shimon Peres and a Palestinian team that included Palestinian finance minister Salam Fayad.
Israel controls the custom duties of products brought into the Palestinian territories through Israel according to peace agreements reached in the 1990s.—AFP