Statement issued by the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Society Prisoner’s Club on following up the administrative detainees’ files in military courts after more than 7 months of the aggression

الموقع الاخباري الرسمي لمنظمة التحرير الفلسطينية

Statement issued by the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Society Prisoner’s Club on following up the administrative detainees’ files in military courts after more than 7 months of the aggression

Since the beginning of the massive aggression and constant genocide against our people, detention operations escalated in the West Bank, afflicting more than (8600) citizens of all categories, besides the transformation in the issue of administrative detainees, whose numbers increased and constituted the highest percentage historically, as the majority of those who were arrested after October 7 , were sentenced to administrative detention, including women, children, sick, wounded and elderly.

Throughout 7 months of following up on thousands of files by the legal team, we confirm on the following:

First: the military courts of the occupation, used its historical role after October 7 in consolidating the crime of administrative detention, and contributing to support the intelligence device to carry out more arrests, as military courts have been for many decades an integral part of the occupation’s tools to impose control over the Palestinians to undermine any role that may contribute to the Palestinian self-determination.

Second: we as institutions, confirm on our solid attitude since the beginning of war, that dealing with the occupation’s courts on its different levels, especially the case of administrative detention, is useless. Rather, it contributes to legitimize the unjust courts of the occupation. However, upon the request of detainees, in light of crimes, torture and abuse they are subjected to, and according to the desire of their families, who were deprived of visitation, we continued to follow up on files of administrative detainees in order to maintain communication between lawyers and detainees in the light of the restrictions imposed against them by the IPS.

Third: the Commission followed up on thousands of detainees in the phases of sentence confirmation and appeal, and recently the commission submitted petitions for administrative detainees to the supreme court of justice upon their request, despite of our historical experience which confirmed that the supreme court used as a platform to support its racist policies, have turned into a tool to implement the desires of settlers gangs. In this context, we confirm on our deep conviction in the uselessness of dealing with the supreme court of justice and all courts, noting that the court imposed additional restrictions on the follow up of administrative detainees files when detainees’ institutions started to submit petitions.

Forth: detainees’ institutions raised their voices throughout the past years in order to take a comprehensive national decision to gradually boycott the occupation’s courts, especially in following up the case of administrative detainees, as it has significant national dimensions on the fate of detainees’ cause. However, we are still looking forward to support our orientation on the national level to take this significant step.

Fifth: we assert to detainees families that we will continue our efforts to follow up the cases of your sons, despite the difficult challenges we face in the light of constant aggression and genocide.