RAMALLAH, January 20, 2015 (WAFA) – A total of 12 Palestinian prisoners, held in Israeli jails without charge or trial, decided to boycott Israeli military courts, Tuesday reported the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club (PPC).

PPC said that the 12 prisoners, whose administrative detention was renewed multiple times by Israeli courts, decided to boycott the latter in an effort to protest their illegal detention without charge or trial.

The prisoners were identified as Abd al-Rahman Hindyeh, Murad Shaqiqat, Abdallah Omla, Ammar Ilyan, Ahmad Ra’e, Amir Yaish, Ahmad Ghnaim, Badr Rzeh, Mahmoud Fayyid, Abdallah Shaba’an, Ali Ikmil, and Omar Talahmeh.

Administrative detention is a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold prisoners indefinitely on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial.

Addameer human rights association stated that, “The frequency of the use of administrative detention has fluctuated throughout Israel’s occupation, and has been steadily rising since the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000.”

Statistics show that over the years, thousands of Palestinians have been held in Israeli custody as administrative detainees for extended periods of time.

Palestinian detainees have continuously announced open-ended hunger strikes as a way to protest their illegal administrative detention and to demand an end to this policy which violates international law.

According to Israel Prison Service (IPS) data, more than 60% of administrative detainees held at the end of August 2014 had been held for three months or less. Some 10% had been held for three to six months, some 13% from six months to one year, and some 13% from one to two years.

Four detainees had been in administrative detention continuously for over two years.

Until the moment there are 500 administrative detention detainees, 18 of whom are members of the legislative council.

T.R/M.H