Over 190 lawyers and activists urge UN to take action for Palestinian prisoners and detainees

The following letter was endorsed by Charlotte Kates, international coordinator of Samidoun; Joe Catron, U.S. coordinator of Samidoun; and many other activists, lawyers and people of conscience. We republish the press release and full letter below:

190 Arab and International personalities submit a public petition United Nations Human Rights Council calling on Israel to release Palestinian prisoners due to the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

At the initiative of Dr Anis Fawzi Kassim and others, a public petition was submitted today to United Nations Human Rights Council concerning the situation of Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli prisons and detention certers and calling on Israeli authorities to release those incarcerated in Israeli prisons and detention centers for fear for their lives due to the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The petition was signed by 190 international personalities of lawyers, academics, parliamentarians and human rights activists worldwide who expressed their deep concern for the well-being of some five thousand (5,000) Palestinian prisoners and detainees incarcerated in Israeli prisons and detention centers.

The signatories said: We are fully aware of the legal duty of Israel towards these detainees where Israel has been the belligerent occupant. They added: “Israel has been consistently negligent in shoring up its legal responsibilities under international law. In fact, it has utilized its formal organs, such as the courts, to justify its evasive practices of non-compliance with the law. Such failure has been manifestly evident during this pandemic. It has not taken any real step to protect the Palestinian prisoners against infection.”

The petition stated: “Israel remains negligent in and it could be called to account internationally for the “crimes against humanity” based on article (7-1-1-h) of Rome Statute.”

The signatories called on the United Nations and the international community to force Israel to release all Palestinian prisoners and detainees especially children, women and sick and elderly prisoners and provide those prisoners with all necessary equipment and hygienic material to protect them from the infection and to observe their internationally recognized right to health.

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Public Statement on the State of  Palestinian Prisoners  and Detainees in  Israeli  Detention Camps

07 May 2020

In these pandemic days of coronavirus (COVID-19) where the world community has not as yet developed any medication except preventive measures, we, a group of concerned lawyers, human rights activists, and academics, are very much distressed with the fate and well-being of approximately five thousand (5,000) Palestinian prisoners and detainees that are being incarcerated in Israeli detention centers.

We are fully aware of the legal duty of Israel towards these detainees where Israel has been the belligerent occupant for the last fifty-two (52) years. Israel has been consistently negligent in shoring up its legal responsibilities under international law. In fact, it has utilized its formal organs, such as the courts, to justify its evasive practices of non-compliance with the law. Such failure has been manifestly evident during this pandemic. It has not taken any meaningful step to protect the Palestinian detainees against infection. They are still incarcerated in overcrowded cells and compounds, where the only preventative measures prescribed for dealing with the pandemic are social distancing and provision of hygiene products and materials.

The detainees include 194 children, 43 women (17 of whom are mothers), 430 administrative detainees (held indefinitely on suspicion without charge or trial), 750 convicted indefinitely, 50 who have been in jail for more than 20 years, 700 are very ill and in need of special medical care and treatment, and six (6)  members of  the Palestinian Legislative Council who were freely elected in the 2006 elections. They are all being held in three centers in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and in 20 detention centers inside Israel in contravention of the Geneva Conventions.

The State of Israel is a state party to the main instruments dealing with human rights, which all provide for the human right to health and protection against contagious diseases. In December 2015, the UN General Assembly voted unanimously to adopt the Nelson Mandela Rules which set out the Standard Minimum Rules for the treatment of prisoners. Those rules provide, inter alia, that “In cases where prisoners are suspected of having contagious diseases, the physician in charge shall call for ’clinical isolation and elaborate treatment’ of the infected prisoners. In addition to the legal obligations imposed on Israel by virtue of the Geneva Convention, the Rome Treaty (to which Israel is not a party) provides that any persecution against any group “on political, racial, national, ethnic … or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law…” is a crime against humanity. In the current situation of global pandemic crisis, Israel’s behavior towards the Palestinian detainees leaves them exposed to the risk of being infected by the disease, which could be categorized as a crime against humanity.

Furthermore, Israel’s continued incarceration of those detainees and prisoners deprives them of access to means of protection against the pandemic infection and creates imminent danger to their lives. Lack of testing kits,instruments and appropriate treatment of the sick, including denial of the entry of personal protective equipment, medication and sanitation equipment among others, are measures that are not allowed under international law.Reliable reports from inside prisons confirm that Israeli authorities have withdrawn 140 items from the Palestinian prisoners’ canteen or prison store, including ordinary disinfectants and cleaning products. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Israel has banned lawyers and family visits to the prisoners. Yet, Israel has released hundreds of Israeli criminal prisoners to reduce the threat of the virus to them but,at the same time, refuses to release any Palestinian prisoner. Israel must realise that the infection does not discriminate between human beings. Their continued systemic and discriminatory policy towards Palestinian prisoners amount to “medical apartheid”.

We, the undersigned, call on Israel, the belligerent occupant, to:

1. release all Palestinian prisoners and detainees especially in these pandemic times; or in the alternative
2. release the children, women and sick and elderly prisoners; and, in any event
3. provide those prisoners with all necessary equipment and hygienic material and to observe their internationally recognized right to health.