PRESS RELEASE

RELEASED @ 13 January 1998

The Israeli Occupation Forces

Renew the Administrative Detention Policy Against Gaza Resident

The Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) have renewed the use of administrative detention on Gaza residents. On 2 October 1997 the IOF arrested student Ashraf Atta Ahmad Kandil at the Rafah crossing point while he was on his way to Egypt (where he attends university). On 19 November 1997, after interrogating him without formally accusing him of anything, the Israeli intelligence detained him for six months. He spent that period in Damoun Prison in Israel.

Ashraf Kandil is the only administrative detainee from Gaza in an Israeli prison. He joined about 600 administrative detainees from the West Bank, some of whom have been detained for the last five years. Compounding the difficulty of an imprisonment without formal charges or the benefit of a trial, the detainees live in substandard conditions.

Administrative detention is the policy which the IOF has made ample use of during its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. An administrative detainee is someone detained without benefit of the legal due process, but simply by military fiat During the Intifada the number of administrative detainees amounted to about 150,000.

The policy of administrative detention sharply contravenes the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention which protect civilians in times of war. Article 7.a of the Convention stipulates that administrative detention should not be used as a punishment but only as an exceptional measure based on imperative security necessities. In this case, those arrested by the IOF must remain in the Occupied Territories and not be transferred to Israeli prisons. The Fourth Geneva Convention provides the detainees this treatment, on account of their “exceptional” arrest.

The IOF, however, once again shows no regard for internationally formulated principles. Administrative detention is being used as a widespread and punitive policy. Moreover, detainees are prohibited from receiving visits from their families, they are subject to brutal treatment by Israeli guards, and they suffer from the poor sanitary conditions and poor nutrition – again, in the manner the detainees are being accommodated, UN standards for prisoner accommodation are being violated.

The detention of Ashraf Kandil by the IOF is a very serious issue. Kandil, according to the Oslo agreements signed by the PLO and Israel, is under the jurisdiction of the PNA. If there are valid grounds for his arrest, his arrest should be carried out by the PNA, especially as Kandil is innocent of perpetrating any offense against Israel or its citizens. What Israel is doing is an illegal extra-territorial arrest – whose precedent implies Israel’s right to arrest anyone when and wherever it wants.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights condemns the administrative detention of Ashraf Kandil and demands the release of all administrative detainees. Without due process of law, all such detentions are illegal. The international community, especially those nations party to the Fourth Geneva Convention, in order to fulfill its obligations under international law and to ensure respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention, must work to secure the release of all administrative detainees. We ask all international/human rights organizations and individuals to condemn the Israeli government and to demand the release of all administrative detainees.

Please write to:

Benjamin Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister

Fax #: 03-6917915

Yizhak Mordechai

Minister of Defense

Fax #: 03-6976218

Tzachi Hanegbi

Minister of Justice

Fax #: 02-6285438