Palestinian Prisoners’ Day

April 17th marks Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, in solidarity with Palestinians imprisoned for standing up to Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid rule.  The prisoner support organisation Addameer monitors the number of political prisoners currently in Israeli prisons and detention centres.  At the time of writing there were a total of 4450 Palestinian political prisoners, including 140 children. 

To mark Prisoners’ Day, Addameer has released a publication, Palestinian Prisoners and Detainees in the Face of Apartheid, which outlines the multiple ways in which Israel has continued to flaunt international law through its treatment of Palestinians in the prison system over the past year.  The following excerpt highlights the role of torture within the system:

To further compound upon the military courts’ grave violations, military courts avoid evidence of torture in collusion with intelligence services, the military prosecution, and the broader apartheid system.  In  recent  times,  and  in  light  of  the  increasing  practice  of  torture  against  Palestinian detainees,  Israeli  military  judges,  approve  the  extension  of  detention  of  detainees  subjected  to torture, despite their acquaintance with the physical evidence of torture on the bodies of detainees, and despite detainees’ verbal testimonies of harsh interrogating conditions. Such negligence and action grant further legitimacy to interrogators’ use of physical and psychological torture.

As well as torture, Israel continues to routinely practise administrative detention. The practice allows Palestinians prisoners to be kept indefinitely, without charge or trial, with evidence kept secret from the accused and their lawyer.  Of those Palestinian prisoners currently held, 440 of them are administrative detainees; the routine, rather than exceptional, use of administrative detention is illegal under international law.

The recent Addameer report ends by highlighting the apartheid nature of the Israeli criminal justice system, stating that: “…the time has come for the international community to take the necessary steps to declare this  occupation,  and  all  its  policies  and  practices,  an  illegal  reality  that  must  end  immediately, along with an end to prosecuting Palestinian civilians in military courts. The Palestinian people’s right to self-determination must be guaranteed, and the occupying power must be held accountable for its ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people.”