Ihsan Dababseh among 30 more Palestinians ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial

Israeli occupation military courts issued 30 additional orders for administrative detention – the imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial – between 16 August and 30 August. This brings the total number of orders issued in the month to 134.

Administrative detention orders are indefinitely renewable and based on a “secret file” that is unavailable to and unchallengeable by detainees and their lawyers. There are over 450 Palestinians currently held in administrative detention, among 6,200 Palestinian political prisoners.

Among the Palestinians whose administrative detention was renewed is Ihsan Dababseh, a former political prisoner who has been repeatedly seized by Israeli occupation forces.  She was last arrested on 27 February and ordered to six months in administrative detention – her detention has now been renewed for an additional three months.

Her story is featured in “For the Love of Palestine: Stories of Women, Imprisonment and Resistance,” created by members of the Prison, Labor and Academic Delegation to Palestine. Dababseh had been released on 10 July 2016 after 21 months in Israeli prison before being re-arrested in February 2017. She had been imprisoned since 13 October 2014 on charges of membership in a prohibited organization, in her case the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement.

Dababseh is one of five Palestinian women held in administrative detention, alongside parliamentarian and national leader Khalida Jarrar, Khitam Saafin, Sabah Faraoun and Afnan Abu Haniyeh.

Also ordered to renewed administrative detention was Palestinian professor Essam al-Ashqar, 57. A lecturer in physics at An-Najah University, al-Ashqar suffers from a difficult medical situation, including high blood pressure and heart disease.  He has been held in the Ramle prison clinic repeatedly and is at serious risk of a stroke.

The list of Palestinians ordered to administrative detention, reported by the Palestinian Prisoners Society, is as follows:

1. Yousef Mustafa Kaabneh, Jericho, 4 months, new order
2. Rabie Bassam Maaleh, Ramallah, 2 months, new order
3. Thaer Said Abu Roumos, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
4. Tareq Mahmoud Bilalu, Jenin, 6 months, extension
5. Hashem Abdelkader Hijaz, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
6. Khalil Hassan Hamed, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
7. Jihad Khaled Hamed, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
8. Ayman Naim Hamed, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
9. Majed Fakhri Hamed, Ramallah, 4 months, new order
10. Raed Mohammed Halabiyeh, Jerusalem, 6 months, new order
11. Ibrahim Mohammed Fakh, Ramallah, 4 months, extension
12. Hani Yousef Odetallah, Qalandiya, 4 months, extension
13. Ibrahim Yassin Abu Srour, Bethlehem, 4 months, extension
14. Mohammed Taleb Shawara, Bethlehem, 4 months, extension
15. Ihsan Hassan Dababseh, al-Khalil, 3 months, extension
16. Noureddine Mohammed Qazi, Ramallah, 6 months, new order
17. Mohammed Hassan Aidi, al-Khalil, 6 months, new order
18. Hakam Saud al-Araj, al-Khalil, 4 months, extension
19. Nour al-Din Talahmeh, al-Khalil, 6 months, new order
20. Mohammed Suleiman Srouji, Tulkarem, 4 months, extension
21. Mohammed Assad Salehi, Bethlehem, 4 months, new order
22. Mohammed Salah Abdel-Mohsen, Abu Dis, 4 months, extension
23. Essam Rashed Ashqar, Nablus, 2 months, extension
24. Wadah Khaled Dweikat, Nablus, 4 months, extension
25. Abbas Abdel-Hadi Abu Alia, Ramallah, 6 months, new order
26. Musab Taha Manasra, al-Khalil, 6 months, extension
27. Ibrahim Sami Mutair, Qalandiya, 6 months, extension
28. Mohammed Abdallah Atwan, Bethlehem, 4 months, extension
29. Louay Jamil Qashmar, Qalqilya, 6 months, new order
30. Saed Mohammed Abu al-Baha, Ramallah, 4 months, extension