JERUSALEM: Israel is detaining nearly 800 Palestinians without trial or charge, the highest number since 2008, an Israeli rights group said Sunday.
The group, HaMokewhich regularly collects figures from the Israeli prison authorities, said that 798 Palestinians are currently being held in so-called administrative detention, a practice in which prisoners can be held for months, do not know the charges against them and do not have access to evidence against them.
The group said the number of people held in administrative detention has risen steadily this year, as Israel carries out nightly arrest raids in the occupied West Bank in response to a spate of attacks on Israelis earlier this year.
Israel says it uses administrative detention to prevent attacks and detain dangerous activists without revealing sensitive information. Rights groups and Palestinians say it is an abusive system that denies freedom without due process, leaving some Palestinians behind bars for months or even years with no evidence against them is not made accessible. Some resort to life-threatening hunger strikes to draw attention to their detention, which often heightens tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.
“Administrative detention should be an exceptional measure, but Israel makes extensive use of this detention without trial,” he said. Jessica Montell, executive director of HaMoked. “This must stop. If Israel cannot bring them to justice, it must release all administrative detainees.”
HaMoked said the figure was a new spike in a growing wave of administrative detentions that began last spring following a series of attacks by Palestinians on Israelis that killed 19 people. These attacks triggered the Israeli raids which killed around 100 Palestinians, many believed to be activists or local youth who had come to protest the incursion into their towns or villages, but civilians also died in the violence.
The Israeli army says some 1,500 Palestinians were arrested during this period, including those held in administrative detention. He says the raids are necessary to dismantle militant networks and thwart attacks on Israelis. The Palestinians say the raids are aimed at keeping Israel’s 55-year-old military rule in the territories they want for a future state.
The last time Israel held so many administrative detainees, in May 2008, also coincided with an increase in Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Israel’s Shin Bet Internal Security Service did not respond to a request for comment.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and has since established some 130 settlements there, which are home to 500,000 settlers. The Palestinians want the territory, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip for their hoped-for independent state.
The group, HaMokewhich regularly collects figures from the Israeli prison authorities, said that 798 Palestinians are currently being held in so-called administrative detention, a practice in which prisoners can be held for months, do not know the charges against them and do not have access to evidence against them.
The group said the number of people held in administrative detention has risen steadily this year, as Israel carries out nightly arrest raids in the occupied West Bank in response to a spate of attacks on Israelis earlier this year.
Israel says it uses administrative detention to prevent attacks and detain dangerous activists without revealing sensitive information. Rights groups and Palestinians say it is an abusive system that denies freedom without due process, leaving some Palestinians behind bars for months or even years with no evidence against them is not made accessible. Some resort to life-threatening hunger strikes to draw attention to their detention, which often heightens tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.
“Administrative detention should be an exceptional measure, but Israel makes extensive use of this detention without trial,” he said. Jessica Montell, executive director of HaMoked. “This must stop. If Israel cannot bring them to justice, it must release all administrative detainees.”
HaMoked said the figure was a new spike in a growing wave of administrative detentions that began last spring following a series of attacks by Palestinians on Israelis that killed 19 people. These attacks triggered the Israeli raids which killed around 100 Palestinians, many believed to be activists or local youth who had come to protest the incursion into their towns or villages, but civilians also died in the violence.
The Israeli army says some 1,500 Palestinians were arrested during this period, including those held in administrative detention. He says the raids are necessary to dismantle militant networks and thwart attacks on Israelis. The Palestinians say the raids are aimed at keeping Israel’s 55-year-old military rule in the territories they want for a future state.
The last time Israel held so many administrative detainees, in May 2008, also coincided with an increase in Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Israel’s Shin Bet Internal Security Service did not respond to a request for comment.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and has since established some 130 settlements there, which are home to 500,000 settlers. The Palestinians want the territory, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip for their hoped-for independent state.
