Palestinian administrative detainee Shadi Jarrar was issued a “final” administrative detention order of an additional three months on Monday, 6 March at the military appeals court in Ofer. Jarrar, 40, is from Wadi Burkin west of Jenin; this is his fourth administrative detention order.
He has been imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces since 12 March 2016 after he was stopped at a military checkpoint between Ramallah and Nablus. On the pretext of a “secret file,” he was ordered to administrative detention four times consecutively; he will be released on 17 July 2017. Jarrar has spent 13 years in Israeli prison and was released in 2014 and has been one of the prominent leaders of the Palestinian leftist party, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in Jenin.
Occupation forces targeted more political leaders – two members of the Palestinian Legislative Council – amid 24 arrests in pre-dawn invasions and raids on Monday, 6 March. Khaled Tafesh and Anwar Zboun, both members of the Palestinian Legislative Council representing the Change and Reform bloc associated with Hamas, were seized by occupation forces in Bethlehem. Riyad al-Ashqar of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Center for Studies said that a large military forces surrounded their homes before invading them, ransacking them and destroying furniture and belongings and confiscating computers and mobile phones.
Zboun, 50, and Tafesh, 48 are two of now nine PLC members imprisoned by the Israeli occupation. Zboun has spent over 6 years in Israeli prison including several months in administrative detention in 2014; Tafesh is also a former prisoner held under administrative detention in 2014 and a former deportee to Marj al-Zouhour.
Fellow imprisoned PLC members include Hassan Yousef and Ahmad Mubarak of Ramallah and Azzam Salhab and Mohammed Jamal Natsheh of al-Khalil, all of whom are held in administrative detention, imprisonment without charge or trial. Imprisoned General Secretary of the PFLP Ahmad Sa’adat is serving a 30 year sentence; Fateh leader Marwan Barghouthi is serving several life sentences. Jerusalemite PLC member Mohammed Abu Teir, who was also expelled from Jerusalem, is serving a 17-month sentence in Israeli prisons. Ashqar urged action by international parliamentarians against the targeting of PLC members and to demand their immediate release.
