Dr. Yousef Abdul Haq Photo: Tanweer Enlightenment Forum
The Israel military court has extended administrative detention for two months in addition to three months already detained for civil rights lawyer Dr. Yousef Abdul Haq, a lecturer at An-Najah National University and the Cultural Coordinator for the Tanweer Palestinian Cultural Enlightenment Forum, currently detained in Ofer Prison near Ramallah.
Yousef Abdul Haq was arrested November 7th, 2011 at his home at 2:00 AM, suffering from illness which requires constant dosage of medicine, forcing his transfer to a hospital immediately after his arrest in Ramla.
He was sentenced to two months in administrative detention immediately.
This arbitrary administrative detention is legally incompatible with the most basic international standards of human rights, because it is without any specific charge against the prisoner. These arbitrary detentions depend on the military file and “secret evidence” which cannot be seen by the detainee or defense lawyers. This file is prepared by Israel intelligence and is “collected” illegally.
This type of detention is internationally banned and is impacting lawmakers in the Palestinian Legislative Council, members of local councils, university students, political activists, academics, trade unionists and even women and children.
The imposition of administrative detention by Article 111 of the military state of emergency imposed by the British colonial authorities of Palestine September, 1945 is illegal on the grounds that Article 43 of the Hague international agreement of 1907 prohibits an occupying power to change the legislative reality of the country occupied.
Administrative detention is the endless suffering of the prisoners because they may de detained for a decade, physically and psychologically impacting the detainee and their family based on the expectation that the next decision will be an extension of detention.
The International Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights received from the Israeli military court in Ofer, that the number of additional administrative detentions issued by the Israeli military governor reached a total of 5,971 since the beginning of 2004 until the end of 2010.
We in the Tanweer Enlightenment Forum, call for the release of our colleague Dr. Yousef immediately from behind bars, and we hold the Government responsible for the conditions of Israel’s occupation, in respect to his health. We demand the end of the administrative detentions which are contrary to international law..
On this occasion, we declare our solidarity with the prisoner hero Khader Adnan, who is continuing his hunger strike battle in his 55th day to end the administrative detentions. We also call on international institutions and the Arab and local media to expose the policy of administrative detention. We uphold the work of a united front for the release of Palestinian prisoners including lawyers, members of the Legislative Council, academics, students, children and women.
We call for the end of administrative detentions forever.
Freedom for political prisoners.
Close the detention camps and prisons and abolish administrative detention.
no indication of course why they picked him up. i wonder if it had anything to do with the work at Tanweer Palestinian Cultural Enlightenment Forum. i followed that link and opened some of the embedded links and translated them one has a bunch of photos and this text (translated)
http://www.tanwer.org/link.php
are they just grabbing people left and right?
Is this man a citizen of Israel, or a Palestinian? If he is a citizen, then his detention like this is wrong. If he is a Palestinian, then how is it different from being a POW? You don’t need individual evidence against a captured soldier and Israel is in a war with people who fight without uniforms or other identifying insignia. Suppose Israel has info from a Palestinian informant that this guy was helping terrorists. Even the accusation that someone is a collaborator with Israel is enough to get someone in the Palestinian territories killed without trial. So should Israel expose confidential informants who live in Palestinian territories and would be killed if exposed?
You write:
“The imposition of administrative detention by Article 111 of the military state of emergency imposed by the British colonial authorities of Palestine September, 1945 is illegal on the grounds that Article 43 of the Hague international agreement of 1907 prohibits an occupying power to change the legislative reality of the country occupied.”
Actually this is wrong, and the law is legal for exactly the reason you bring:
The Brits never repealed the emergency regulations when they left in ’48, and when Jordan illegally annexed the territory they also did not repeal the regulations. Israel in ’67 likewise did not repeal the regulations in accordance with international law so as to keep the existing “legislative reality” when they occupied the territories. Thus the regulations are in complete accordance with Hague.