Administrative or open-ended detention

Not even for a moment did Engineer Wasfi Izzat Qabha, forget the pain of his fellow detainees who remained in Israeli detentions and prisons, after he was released.

Wasfi spent three years in detention, he was repeatedly transferred between Majeddo, Ofer and the Negev detention, which is a policy Israel uses in order deprive the detainees from settling in one detention for a long period, thus attempting to break ties between them.

Wasfi was released on Thursday, yet and after suffering the darkness and very bad conditions of detention he can’t inhale any breeze of freedom yet, “How can I feel happy, or enjoy freedom, while my fellow detainees are still imprisoned, facing daily suffering, while the army tries to deprive them from their basic rights, and even from their smile”, Wasfi said.

Wasfi spent more than three years in administrative detention, without charges of trial, yet directly after he arrived home, and met his family and the people who came to great him, he logged to the Internet and took the Hebrew list of names of detainees who will be released, and translated it into Arabic in order to inform the families of detainees he met, that they are coming back home.

“Freedom is the most worthy issue in this life, although I miss my family, and children, I felt very happy translating the names of detainees who will be released, I wanted their families to feel happy too, I wish that every detainee will be able to achieve his freedom, and move out of the daily suffering in Israeli prisons, and detention camps”, Wasfi added.

Wasfi, the chief engineer of Jenin municipality, received repeated renewals of his administrative detention period without knowing the reasons behind his imprisonment, while the Israeli security kept renewing his detention period using the ‘secret file policy”.

Israel uses the so called “secret files” in imprisoning the detainees under administrative detention orders without revealing the reason behind their arrest.

“I was arrested June, 2002, after the army conducted wide scaled arrests against members and leaders of Hamas, they did not present any charges against me, yet they renewed my administration detention period for six times, which is the same procedure they use against thousands of administrative detainees”

“The worst thing in administrative detention is that its open ended, and completely controlled by the Israeli intelligence, dozens of detainees were even sent to administrative detention after finishing their terms, others remained under administrative detention orders even without any official orders”, Wasfi added.

An example to this policy is the case of Sheikh Saleh al-Aroury, who was transferred to administrative detention after finishing his 12 years term, he spent additional 3 years under administrative detention orders, yet during this period his son was shot killed by the army, and his home was leveled.

Wasfi was arrested during the “defensive shield” operation carried out by the Israeli army in the Palestinian territories in April 2002; Israel placed 1200 Palestinians in administrative detention since then.

“Now they are placing high concrete walls dividing the branches of the Negev detention, and forming a new separation wall dividing the detainees in the several branches of the Negev from each other, each wall is 9 meters high, and ceiled with iron bars which transforms each branch into a cage, in the full sense of the word, each branch includes 120 detainees, with an electronic gate at the entrance of each branch, each electronic gate has an x-ray search machine, which the detainees have to pass through each time they are asked to move out or into their cage”. Wasfi added.

The detainees held several protests, and strikes against the caging of the branches, and voiced appealed to humanitarian organizations to interfere and inflict pressure on the Israeli authorities to remove the walls which are strangling them and separating them from each other.

Currently, there are 585 administrative detainees imprisoned in Ofer and the Negev detentions, and 15 administrative detainees in solitary confinement in al-Ramleh prison, and deprived of their basic human rights guaranteed by the international law.

Dozens of detainees in the Negev detention need medical attention, some need surgeries, while prison administration is neglecting their rights and depriving them from the needed medical care and attention.