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Israel issued 12,000 administrative detention orders in 9 years

January 26, 2023 at 11:59 am

People stage a demonstration, for supporting Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, Gaza City, Gaza on January 16, 2023. [Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency]

The Israeli occupation authorities have issued 12,000 administrative detention orders against Palestinians in the past nine years, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club (PPC) said on Wednesday. The most orders came in 2022, when 2,409 were issued.

So-called administrative detention allows Israel to arrest and detain Palestinians with neither charge nor trial for renewable periods, meaning that they can be held indefinitely. The system is a malign legacy of the British Mandatory authorities which has been used by Israel against Palestinians since 1948. It is not used against Jews by the apartheid state.

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At the end of 2022, there were 866 administrative detainees held in Israeli prisons, including two women, seven children and a 76-year-old man. According to the PPC, a staggering 80 per cent of the administrative detainees are former prisoners.

The Israeli occupation authorities have renewed the detention of Palestinian icons such as Nidal Abu Akar, Thaer Halahleh, Ghassan Zawaheereh and Saleh al Je’edi. Although she has never been charged with any crime nor gone to trial, Shorouq Al-Badan from Bethlehem has also had her detention renewed. She has been held under administrative detention since 2019.

READ: Israel extends detention of Palestinian child