Hundreds of Palestinian Prisoners Boycott Israeli Trials

Ramallah, MINA – Palestinians held in administrative detention in Israeli prisons announced that they will start a boycott of Israeli court hearings from January 1, 2022.

The announcement was confirmed by the association Palestinian Prisoners Club on Sunday, The New Arab reported on Monday.

The move came in protest against Israel’s policy of administrative detention, which gives Israeli military authorities the power to detain Palestinians without charge or trial, for a period that can be extended to six months.

All of the 500 Palestinian prisoners held under these rules joined the boycott, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club. They included four minors and one woman.

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“This is a unanimous decision that comes after internal debates between prisoner organizations,” Amani Sarahnah, spokeswoman for the Palestinian Prisoners Club told The New Arab.

“Through the boycott of trial courts, Palestinian prisoners seek to demonstrate that the Israeli military court system is just a formality in which there is no hope for defence. Especially for administrative detainees, who without charge were then arrested based on classified information,” he said.

The announcement comes at the same time that 40-year-old Palestinian Hisham Abu Hawash has been on a hunger strike for 140 days, protesting his administrative detention.

Abu Hawash was transferred to an Israeli civilian hospital last week after his health deteriorated, while Israeli authorities froze his detention order to allow family visits.

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His brother, Imad Abu Hawash, told The New Arab that Hisham was “dying”.

“Hisham loses consciousness every two or three hours and can’t even drink water properly,” he added. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)