RAMALLAH, February 15, 2018 (WAFA) – More than 450 Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli jails began on Thursday a general and open-ended boycott of all Israeli courts, according to Mahmoud Halabi, an attorney with the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

The detainees, who are held without charge or trial for prolonged period of times that sometimes reach many years, said this week in a statement that they are going to boycott all Israeli courts including the High Court.

They said that Israel uses its judicial system to appear as democratic while at the same time the courts rule against the detainees in more than 99.9 percent of the cases.

Halabi, who represents administrative detainees in courts, said the detainees and their lawyers are upholding their decision.

He said there are currently 450 administrative detainees in Israel, some have had their six-month detention renewed several times and some have been incarcerated for 14 straight years without charge or trial.

Israel passed 1248 administrative detention orders against Palestinians in 2105, 1742 in 2016 and 1060 in 2017.

Rights groups have condemned the widely-practiced administrative detention in Israel as illegal and a violation of international law for failing to provide a fair trial to the accused.

M.K.