Palestinian former hunger striker jailed without charge ordered into isolation by Israeli occupation

Ayman al-Tabeesh

Palestinian prisoner and former long-term hunger striker Ayman al-Tabeesh, 37, imprisoned without charge or trial by the Israeli occupation, has been ordered into isolation on the pretext of being a “security threat.” Al-Tabeesh, from the village of Dura near al-Khalil, has been imprisoned since 2 August 2016 with no charges and no trial on the basis of so-called “secret evidence.”

He has spent nearly 13 years in total in Israeli prisons through multiple re-arrests and has engaged in two long-term hunger strikes to demand his freedom. On Wednesday, 29 November, he was transferred from the Ofer prison to the Ohli Kedar isolation cells.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society emphasized that the Israeli occupation intelligence has a policy of isolation and unilaterally isolates many prisoners each year under the pretext of “secret evidence,” the same type of secret file that is used to jail al-Tabeesh. He is one of over 450 Palestinians jailed under administrative detention orders and 6,200 total Palestinian prisoners. In some cases, isolation orders are extended for years without any meaningful reason given to the detained person or their lawyer.