An Israeli Military Court in the Ofer Prison has issued an administrative arrest order against a female student at Birzeit University for a period of three months. The order has been made even though Asmaa Abdul Hakim Al-Kadah, 21, is already in detention.
Her brother told Quds Press that the ruling was issued in absentia at a time when his sister was detained in Hasharon Prison. She was arrested on Saturday at the Za’atara military barrier on her way to her university in Ramallah, explained Islam Al-Kadah. The occupation forces, he added, assaulted the driver of the public vehicle in which his sister was a passenger because he refused to take her out of the car. After arresting Asmaa, they transported her to an unknown destination.
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Asmaa Al-Kadah’s father is also being held in an Israeli jail. She is a member of the student council at Birzeit University, representing the Islamist bloc. Israeli security forces have arrested a number of Muslim student activists recently.
In the past five years, Israel has arrested about 500 male and female students from Birzeit University. Seventeen have been detained since the start of the Jerusalem Uprising at the beginning of October. Administrative detention orders allow Israel to hold Palestinians indefinitely with neither charge nor trial. They are a relic of the British Mandate period.
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