Five Palestinian detainees in the Israeli Nafha prison have been on an open-ended hunger strike for seven days in protest of their administrative detention without charge or trial, according to a Detainees and Ex-detainees Committee attorney.The detainees are Nedal Abu ‘Akr, 45, Shadi Ma‘ali, 39, Ghassan Zawahra, 32, Bader al-Ruzza, and Munir Abu Sharar, according to WAFA correspondence.
Fadi ‘Ubeidat, an attorney representing the Detainees and Ex-detainees Committee, said that the detainees gave the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) until September 1 to respond to their demand to end their administrative detention. It said that if the prison administration failed to meet their demand, they would stop taking liquids as well.
Nedal Abu ‘Aker, who has been held in administrative detention since 28 June 2014, said that he together with the four other detainees would boycott Israeli courts, for holding false unjust trials.
Having no access to evidence that led to their detention, Abu ‘Aker said that these pieces of evidence are merely malicious files.
Under administrative detention rules, Israel may detain Palestinians without charge or trial and on the basis of secret evidence for up to six months, indefinitely renewable by Israeli military courts.
The use of administrative detention dates back to the emergency laws of the British colonial era in Palestine, said the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.
Many human rights groups have accused Israel of using administrative detention as a routine form of collective punishment against Palestinians, as well as using it when failing to obtain confessions during interrogation.
There are around 500 detainees serving administrative detention in several Israeli jails.
Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes as a way to protest their illegal administrative detention and to demand an end to this policy, which violates international law.
Last week, prisoner Mohammad Allan from Nablus agreed to end his two-month hunger strike against administrative detention, after he was almost on the verge of death at an Israeli hospital, following the Israeli supreme court’s ruling to temporarily suspend Allan’s detention without charge. The court ruled that he could apply again for release if and when his condition improves.
Condemning the court’s ruling to suspend Allan’s administrative detention, Palestinian human rights organization Addameer said the ruling “condones arbitrary and administrative detention used by Israeli occupation forces in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”
“The court’s decision to suspend Allan’s administrative detention and not to repeal it affirms that Palestinians cannot seek justice from the Israeli judicial system. Israeli courts at all levels merely serve as an instrument to legitimize the Israeli occupation’s policies including administrative detention,” said Addameer in a press release.
Search IMEMC: ‘Addameer’
