Ref: 59/2012
Date: 30 May 2012
Time: 11:30 GMT

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the renewing of administrative detention order for 8 Palestinians, including Mohammed Maher Bader, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) from the Change and Reform Bloc, by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). PCHR calls upon the international community to put pressure on the IOF to put an end to the policy of administrative detention, as it violates the basic right to a fair trial.

IOF made this decision two weeks after an agreement was reached between the Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli jails and the Israeli prison service. Based on this agreement, Palestinians in the Israeli jails ended their open-ended hunger strike on 14 May 2012, in exchange for meeting many of their demands.

Approximately 1,600 Palestinians in the Israeli jails started their open-ended strike on 17 April 2012, while others had started their hunger strike individually since 29 February 2012. The demands of the prisoners on hunger strike included improving detention conditions in Israeli jails and detention centers, allowing family visitations, especially for prisoners from the Gaza Strip, putting an end to solitary confinement, putting an end to administrative detention, allowing prisoners to pursue their education and putting an end to night search campaigns.

It should be noted that over 300 administrative detainees, including 20 PLC members and a PLC Speaker, Dr. Aziz Dweik, are detained in Israeli detention facilities in violation of the right to a fair trial, including the right to receive an appropriate defense and to be informed of the charges against them. Administrative detention is applied by an administrative order only, without referring to a court, thus violating the standards of impartial judicial procedures, including fair trial.

In view of the above, PCHR calls upon:

1. The international community to put pressure on the Israeli authorities to respect and completely fulfill the agreement, and to reconsider their policies against the Palestinians prisoners to ensure respect of the international standard rules for the treatment of prisoners; and
2. Human rights organizations and international solidarity organizations to combine their efforts in order to end the policy of administrative detention adopted by Israel, a policy that violates the basic right to fair trial.