Prisoners

At the Prisoner museum at Al Quds University we learnt that since 1967, when reliable records started to be kept, over 800,000 Palestinians have been detained by the Israeli forces. 

At Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association in Ramallah we were told that Israel’s military courts have a 99.74% conviction rate and of the current 5,500 prisoners 500 are in “administrative detention”, a process through which all evidence is kept secret from both the detainee and their legal representative and terms of detention can be extended almost indefinitely, the grounds for which are also kept secret. 

Addameer, which means conscience, is an independent organisation which offers free legal advice to prisoners and tries to discover the reasons for detention, what the charge is, where the prisoner is located and what their prison conditions are. 

Why the huge conviction rate? During interrogation threats against the prisoners and their family are common, added to this long periods without sleep, food or access to a toilet (all considered torture in international law) are common. 

But physical torture is also used and actually legal in Israeli law under “ticking bomb” situations, we were told. One might assume “ticking bomb” meant where there was an imminent threat of attack but Addameer knows of an occasion when a judge has determined that physical torture was legal on no more evidence than a weapon being found buried under a house. 

Under these conditions many prisoners plead guilty. Even when an investigative hearing takes place it is in Hebrew and even with translations most prisoners and their families struggle to understand the proceedings. 

You can find out more here: http://www.addameer.org

Martin

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