RAMALLAH, July 25, 2016 (WAFA) – Israeli jailors in the Israeli military prison of Ofer brutally attacked two Palestinian detainees who have been on a hunger strike for 21 days to protest their administrative detention without charge or trial.
A lawyer working for the Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission, Lo’ay ‘Akka, said Israeli jailors brutally beat up two brothers, who are currently incarcerated in Ofer prison, after they appeared for a hearing before the Israeli court of appeal.
The lawyer said both Mohammed and Mahmoud Balboul showed beating marks on their bodies.
He reported on the brothers determination to continue with their strike until their demand to end their detention without charge or trial is met. To be noted, both brothers rely on water only.
According to Addameer prisoner support and human rights association, “The Israeli occupation policy of administrative detention is used in a widespread and systematic manner, which violates international human rights and humanitarian law.”
“PHROC holds that the use of administrative detention as a policy practiced by Israel, the occupying Power, is systemic and arbitrary, in contravention with international law.”
The use of administrative detention has attracted widespread condemnation from local and international organizations as a violation of fundamental human rights, it stressed.
“Therefore, PHROC calls on all international organizations, including the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the European Union, and all High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to fulfill their obligations towards protecting human rights and enforcing the implementation of international humanitarian law, especially when grave breaches are being perpetrated in times of conflict and occupation.”
PHROC called for administrative detention, as practiced by the Israeli authorities, to be recognized as a form of psychological torture that should be prohibited in line with the UN Convention Against Torture.
According to B’Tselem, the Israeli information and human rights center, “Administrative detention is implemented solely on the basis of an administrative order, without either indictment or trial. Under certain circumstances, this type of detention may be lawful. However, due to the substantial injury to due process inherent in this measure, international law stipulates that it may be exercised only in very exceptional cases – and then only as a last possible resort, when there are no other means available to prevent the danger.”
Nevertheless, ‘Israeli authorities routinely employ administrative detention. Over the years, thousands of Palestinians have been held in Israeli custody as administrative detainees for extended periods of time’.
T.R.
