Detention figures – According to the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), as of 30 September 2019 there were 4,792 Palestinians (West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza) held as “security prisoners” in detention facilities including 188 children (12-17 years). In the case of children there was a 2% increase in the number compared with the previous month and an annual decrease of 25% compared with 2018. Three children are currently held in administrative detention. According to the IPS, 59% of child detainees were forcibly transferred and/or unlawfully detained in Israel in September in violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. More statistics
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Summons in lieu of night arrests: update – So far
in 2019, 9% of children arrested in the West Bank reported being served with a written summons. A pilot scheme to issue summonses in lieu of night arrests was
introduced in 2014. The scheme’s introduction followed
widespread criticism of night arrests. In cases where summonses were used in 2019, 100% were delivered at night in military raids – largely defeating the purpose of the scheme and at least 50% were written in Hebrew. The military authorities have stated that
no statistics were kept on the use of summonses calling into question the
bona fides of the scheme.
Comparative Graph
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Military regulations for temporary detention – Israeli military law in the West Bank allows for temporary holding of a person for up to six hours without arrest. The regulations for holding a person are set out in an “Information Sheet for Soldiers”. A person may be held for up to three hours if,
inter alia, that persons is, on reasonable grounds, suspected of committing an offence, or about to commit an offence, or has information about a past or future offence. A person may also be held for searching. This period may be extended by three hours by order of a Lt. Colonel or above.
Information Sheet
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“Justice Should be Blind”: A Comment on Israel’s Military Courts (by Peter Strauss)
– “I wrote this piece just after visiting a military court in the West Bank. Today I saw a very different side of Israel. I wasn’t lying on a beach in Tel Aviv sipping Iced Aroma but, for the first time ever, I was made to question my love for Israel. Throughout Hebron and other tough places there were two different sides of Israel which I saw but could just about reconcile the two, but today that all changed. At Ofer I saw 'Justice’ being served by the IDF. However, today I saw the difference between Palestinians in the West Bank who are forced into military courts.”
Read more
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92 percent of UK Parliament remained silent following annexation threat – In response to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s pre-election promise to annex the
Jordan Valley and
settlements built in
violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, 117 UK parliamentarians
wrote to Prime Minister Johnson expressing concern that this would violate the long-standing principle of the inadmissibility of acquisition of territory by force. While Russia’s
annexation of Crimea produced bipartisan condemnation and EU
targeted sanctions, the response to Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, threatened annexation of the Jordan Valley and continued settlement construction has been
symbolic, undermining the credibility and viability of a “
rules based order”.
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A child’s testimony – On 15 June 2019, a 16-year-old minor from Sa’ir was arrested by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint at noon. He reports being interrogated after speaking to a lawyer but not being informed of his right to silence. He was released without charge the same day. “I was in a taxi on my way to Bethlehem when we were stopped by a flying checkpoint set up by the Israeli military. It was around noon. An Israeli policeman checked the identity cards of all the passengers. He went away and then came back and told me I was under arrest. He did not tell me why. He made me get out of the taxi and then painfully handcuffed my hands.”
Read more
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A soldier’s video testimony: “Training on Civilians” – In this video a former Israeli soldier provides a testimony to Breaking the Silence describing how his unit would conduct arrest training exercises on civilians. “You have to arrest someone, and everyone prepares for it. But the arrest actually takes place in an ordinary Palestinian’s house. Other units call it mapping. You come to a house, we surround the house, call for the guy to come out at 4 a.m. and throw stones at the house for him to come out. We treated it like an arrest of an actual suspect. Actually this man was just a simple civilian. People who were sleeping woken up, children crying.”
Video
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730 Testimonies Annual Report (2019) Videos