RAMALLAH, (PIC)
The Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies said Israel’s policy of administrative detention is systematically designed to disrupt the normal course of Palestinian prisoners’ lives and deprive them of social, professional and educational stability.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the center said administrative detention is used as a continuous punitive tool to break Palestinians’ will and destroy their futures by holding them for years without charge or a fair trial.
Figures released by the center show that former prisoners are specifically targeted. More than 80% of Palestinians currently held under administrative detention have previously been imprisoned and repeatedly rearrested by Israeli authorities, keeping them in a constant state of anxiety and uncertainty.
Of the approximately 9,500 Palestinians currently held in Israeli prisons, 3,324 are administrative detainees.
The center said the suffering caused by the policy becomes more severe as detention orders are repeatedly renewed.
Some prisoners have been placed under administrative detention more than 10 times, while others have spent more than 15 years of their lives behind bars under arbitrary detention orders that are automatically extended.
On the academic and social levels, repeated administrative detention has prevented thousands of prisoners from completing their school and university education.
It has also directly caused many detainees to lose their jobs and sources of income, severely affecting their living conditions and the economic well-being of their families.
The report also documented the profound humanitarian impact of the policy, which forcibly prevents detainees from sharing important moments in their families’ lives, including weddings, graduations and the births of children.
The center accused Israel of targeting every aspect of Palestinian prisoners’ lives, rather than merely depriving them of their freedom.
It said released prisoners are repeatedly rearrested within short periods to deny them any opportunity to live safely and securely or plan their futures without disruption and obstacles.
The Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies said the repeated targeting of former prisoners could not be viewed as a series of isolated or random measures.
Instead, it described the practice as an organized and comprehensive policy led by Israel’s far-right government, with security and judicial institutions playing coordinated roles.
The center said Israel seeks through this policy to exhaust and weaken Palestinian society, break its will and push Palestinians to abandon their national liberation project and leave their land through forced conditions presented as “voluntary migration.”
It called on international and human rights organizations to intervene urgently and exert serious pressure on Israeli authorities to end administrative detention or strictly limit its use.
The center said such action was necessary to bring Israeli practices into line with international humanitarian law, which prohibits depriving individuals of their liberty without a publicly stated legal basis.