Israel urged to Stop the Detention Without Courts

Israel must release all Palestinians held without trial based on the so-called system of "administrative detention" or they were tried in an honest, Amnesty International said on Wednesday (6/6).

"Release all administrative detainees unless they immediately tried by a fair trial according to international standards," says human rights group said in a new report. "Stop the practice of administrative detention," he added.

Administrative detention imposed under the British mandate in 1948 in which pre-military courts can detain people without trial for up to six-month period, which can be extended for an unspecified time. Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails to end hunger strike on May 14 in exchange for a promise to improve the condition of Israel and that the prisoners are detained without trial would be released at the end of their detention right now, unless there is new evidence emerged against them.

However, the Palestinian minister of prisoner affairs Issa Qaraqaa Sunday said Israel did not keep his promise. "Israel began violating the agreement signed by the prisoners, and within 10 days after the announced cessation of hunger strike, Israel extended the detention of some 30 prisoners," said Qaraqaa told a news conference.

One prisoner, who Thaer Halahla fasting for 76 days in the protest were released Tuesday afternoon, said family members told AFP. Family members in the West Bank town of Al Khalil (Hebron) saying that Halahla, which includes inmates Bilal Diab, a record Palestinian hunger strike, was freed after being held without trial since June 2010.

In its report, "starved of Justice: detain Palestinians without trial by Israel," Amnesty said that at the end of April at least 308 Palestinians were subject to administrative detention. "Among them 24 people are members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), including its chairman Aziz Dweik, the defenders of human rights such as Walid Hanatsheh and at least four journalists, in addition to students and academic staff of universities.

Among its recommendations is that Israel stop the forcible removal of Palestinians from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip and the authorities "to protect all those who are in Israeli detention of all forms of torture and other mistreatment.