Israel military implements cosmetic reforms for detention of Palestinians

Israeli authorities have reduced the maximum amount of time a Palestinian may be held before being brought before a judge, but only “for offenses unrelated to security”.

As the vast majority of Palestinians detained by Israeli occupation forces are accused of so-called “security offenses”, the impact of the changes will be negligible.

According to Haaretz, the Israeli military has signed an order that reduces to three days “the maximum period that a Palestinian criminal suspect may be held before being brought before a judge”; currently, Palestinian adults can be held for up to six days.

The order also “affects Palestinian children who are suspected of offenses unrelated to security.”

While Israeli military law today allows Palestinian children under 14 to be held for up to 24 hours, with a 24-hour extension for “urgent interrogatory activities”, the new order “cuts the extension period in half, to 12 hours”.

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“Palestinians between the ages of 14 and 18 can be held for 48 hours, which can be extended by an additional 48 hours; the order cuts the extension to 24 hours,” the paper stated.

The changes do not eliminate the disparity between detention terms for Palestinians and Israelis prosecuted in local criminal courts, “as Israeli adults cannot be detained beyond 24 hours without being brought before a judge, with the exception of cases of administrative detention”.

Moreover, the vast majority of Palestinians in Israeli detention are held under suspicion of “security offenses” and tried in military courts.

According to Israeli rights group B’Tselem, recent changes made by Israeli authorities with respect to Palestinian children in detention “have had no more than a negligible impact on minors’ rights”, and have “far more to do with improved appearances than with what happens in actual practice”.

In February, British parliamentarian Sarah Champion (Labour) noted during a debate on Palestinian children in Israeli military detention that so-called “reforms” which are “limited…to non-security offences” are “largely redundant”, since “most offences involving Palestinian children, including stone throwing and protesting, are classified as security offences”.