Written by Alternative Information Center (AIC)
Thursday, 30 November 2006
An Israeli military court approved the extension of Ahmad Abu Hannya’s
administration detention until 14 May 2007, by which time Ahmad, an
Alternative Information Center (AIC) staff member, will have been
imprisoned for two years.
Ahmad, coordinator of the AIC youth group in Bethlehem, was detained at a checkpoint on his way to work on 18 May 2005 and placed in administrative detention, which is imprisonment without trial or charges. As with all of the approximately 600 Palestinian administrative detainees currently being held by Israel, Ahmad and his attorney are not even permitted to know the evidence against him.
As Ahmad stated before the military court, “They tell me that I am a danger to the security of the region. Yet for years I have worked with Israelis. I have Israeli friends. I always emphasize the fact that on this land it is possible to live in peace. How am I dangerous exactly?”
Ahmad has been adopted as an appeal case by Amnesty International, and is supported by the American National Lawyers Guild.
The continuing detention of Ahmad and so many other Palestinians blatantly violates international law, which permits administrative detention only as an exceptional and highly regulated measure. Administrative detention violates the fundamental right to liberty and due process, and is used by Israel as a tool to oppress political activists in Palestine who struggle non-violently against the Israeli occupation and for a just peace between Palestinians and Israelis.
We do not know the secret evidence that Israel claims to have against Ahmad. We do know, however, that Ahmad has worked with progressive Israelis and Palestinians since 1998 on behalf of human rights and fundamental freedoms of all peoples in the area. Ahmad has a demonstrated commitment to a just peace and joint life for Palestinians and Israelis in the region.
