Palestinian student and former prisoner, Bahaa al-Najjar, 21, was re-arrested by Israeli occupation forces on Wednesday, 9 November, only one week after his release from Israeli jails, where he had been held without charge or trial under administrative detention. Al-Najjar is a student at Palestine Polytechnic University. His family home in al-Khalil was stormed in a pre-dawn raid by armed Israeli occupation military forces. He had been imprisoned for a full year without charge or trial on the basis of secret evidence, arrested on 4 November 2015 and released on 2 November 2016. Addameer connected al-Najjar’s case to those of administrative detainees whose orders are renewed only moments after their release, like Shaher al-Rai and Sabah Faraoun. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society reported that Al-Najjar had been threatened upon his release with future re-arrest.
The re-arrest of al-Najjar came as the PPS reported that Israeli occupation officials issued 50 administrative detention orders between 1 and 9 November. Those orders included 16 new orders and 34 renewals of existing administrative detention orders for longer periods. Israel’s use of administrative detention, the indefinitely renewable imprisonment of Palestinians without charge or trial for periods of one to six months based on secret evidence, has been widely condemned and ending the use of administrative detention is a key demand of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.
Nevertheless, the Israeli use of administrative detention has escalated dramatically since the war on Gaza in 2014 and again with the emergence of the popular uprising in October 2015. Today, over 700 Palestinian prisoners – out of a total of 7,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel – are held without charge or trial under administrative detention.
Administrative detention has sparked widespread resistance inside the prisons. A series of hunger strikes organized by Palestinian prisoners have demanded the release of individual detainees and the end of the practice; prominent hunger strikers include Khader Adnan, Bilal Kayed and Mohammed al-Qeeq. Currently, two Palestinian prisoners, Ahmad Abu Fara and Anas Shadid, are on their 48th day of hunger strike against their administrative detention.
The 50 administrative detention orders included the imprisonment of former Palestinian Authority prisoners Haitham Siyaj and Seif al-Idrissi, both ordered to six months in administrative detention.
Thabet Nassar, 38, a Palestinian nurse from the village of Madama near Nablus, was ordered to six months administrative detention for the second time consecutively; he was arrested on 9 May 2016 in an Israeli military pre-dawn violent raid on his home, ransacking and destroying his belongings. Nassar has spent nearly 13 years in Israeli prisons, with eight of those years in administrative detention without charge or trial. He was first arrested in 1997 as a student when he was shot in the head with a rubber-coated metal bullet at a Land Day demonstration; he was jailed for 27 months. He has been arrested on multiple occasions since that time, in 2002, 2008, 2009, 2013 and now 2016. He has been repeatedly prohibited family visits and subject to repression due to his involvement in hunger strikes and the prisoners’ movement, including a boycott of the administrative detention court hearings and his participation in the 2014 mass hunger strike of administrative detainees. Nassar was on hunger strike for 60 days to demand an end to the practice. He was also part of the Battle of Breaking the Chains hunger strike in 2015, refusing food for 40 days to demand an end to administrative detention. He also participated in the collective hunger strikes for the release of Bilal Kayed, ordered to administrative detention after 14.5 years in Israeli prison.
Also ordered to administrative detention for the first time for this arrest was Ribhi Hizneh, 45, of Silwad north of Ramallah. Hizneh was ordered to six months’ administrative detention without charge or trial following his arrest on 31 October when occupation military forces stormed his home, ransacking his belongings and seizing him. He was taken to Ofer prison and promptly ordered to administrative detention. Hizneh spent over 12 years in Israeli prison, from 1996 to 2009, during which he was known as a leader among the prisoners, facing repression and attacks on many occasions because of his role in organizing the prisoners and confronting the attacks of the prison administration. Anas Qukor, 30, from Jenin, was ordered to four more months in administrative detention; this marked the third consecutive administrative detention order against him since his imprisonment on 29 October 2015.
The full list of 50 administrative detainees ordered to imprisonment between 1 and 9 November follows (via Maan News):
1. Omar Abu Rumi from the district of Jericho, three-month extension
2. Aysar Samhuri from the district of Jericho, three-month extension
3. Amr Abu Rumi from the district of Jericho, three-month extension
4. Khalid Badr from the district of Jerusalem, four-month extension
5. Jawdat Mashaal from the district of Ramallah, six-month extension
6. Hashem Hijazi from the district of Ramallah, six-month extension
7. Yahya al-Saadi from the district of Jenin, six months, new order
8. Hummam Abu Rahma from the district of Ramallah, five months, new order
9. Bakr Khreiwish from the district of Tulkarem, six-month extension
10. Imad Irheimi from the district of Ramallah, three months, new order
11. Saif al-Idrisi from the district of Tulkarem, six months, new order
12. Suleiman Abu Rumi from the district of Jericho, three-month extension
13. Rizq Shreim from the district of Qalqiliya, six months, new order
14. Rafat Abu Rabia from the district of Ramallah, four months, new order
15. Ashraf al-Gadaa from the district of Jenin, four months, new order
16. Ahmad Abu Nasser from the district of Ramallah, three-month extension
17. Adam Abu Sharar from the district of Hebron, six-month extension
18. Omar Dannun from the district of Ramallah, four-month extension
19. Tawfiq Rabayaa from the district of Jenin, three-month extension
20. Ahmad Khrush from the district of Nablus, four-month extension
21. Wissam Khashan from the district of Jenin, six-month extension
22. Omar Muhammad from the district of Bethlehem, three-month extension
23. Halabi Halabi from the district of Nablus, three-month extension
24. Najib al-Uweiwi from the district of Hebron, three-month extension
25. Muhammad Abu Teimeh from the district of Ramallah, three-month extension
26. Muhammad Hammad from the district of Ramallah, four-month extension
27. Muhammad Qawasmeh from the district of Hebron, four-month extension
28. Haitham Siyaj from the district of Hebron, six months, new order
29. Saadi Khdeirat from the district of Hebron, four months, new order
30. Fouad Bisharat from the district of Tubas, four months, new order
31. Saleh Hashashin from the district of Nablus, six months, new order
32. Rauf Jaradat from the district of Jenin, four-month extension
33. Muhammad Mkheimar from the district of Nablus, four months, new order
34. Usama Nijm from the district of Jenin, three-month extension
35. Riyad Jabbour from the district of Nablus, four-month extension
36. Tariq Abu Arqub from the district of Hebron, six months, new order
37. Ashraf Jibril from the district of Qalqiliya, four-month extension
38. Ihab Masalmeh from the district of Hebron, six-month extension
39. Luay Hamid from the district of Ramallah, six months, new order
40. Muhammad Tbeish from the district of Hebron, four-month extension
41. Jihad al-Aqimi from the district of Hebron, three-month extension
42. Muhammad Khluf from the district of Jenin, four-month extension
43. Taysir Hamid from the district of Ramallah, six months, new order
44. Amr Zaarura from the district of Nablus, four-month extension
45. Thabet Nassar from the district of Nablus, six-month extension
46. Muhammad Affaneh from the district of Qalqiliya, four-month extension
47. Anas Qaqur, Jenin from the district of four-month extension
48. Ribhi Hizneh from the district of Ramallah, six months, new order
49. Thabet Masalmeh from the district of Hebron, six-month extension
50. Lutfi Awawdeh from the district of Hebron, six-month extension.
