Israeli military tribunals in the West Bank are being boycotted by Palestinian detainees imprisoned without indictment or trial because one hunger striker is at “imminent risk of death,” according to prisoner organizations.
The 500 so-called administrative prisoners started the new year by refusing to appear in court, in an escalation agreed upon by Palestinian political groups. Hearings to sustain the administrative detention order, appeal hearings, and any further sessions of the Supreme Court are all excluded from the boycott.
A statement issued by administrative prisoners, under the slogan “Our choice is freedom… no to administrative imprisonment,” explains the action as a continuation of Palestinian efforts “to put a stop to the unjust administrative detention perpetrated against our people by the occupying forces.
Israel’s usage of the policy has extended to encompass women, children, and the elderly during the last several years, according to the authors.
The detainees described the Israeli military courts as a “barbaric, racist tool that has consumed hundreds of years from the lives of our people under the banner of administrative detention, through nominal and fictitious courts – the results of which are predetermined by the military commander of the region” in a statement released by Human Rights Watch.
