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17 April 2023 | View in browser

PALESTINIAN PRISONERS' DAY:
ISRAEL DEPLOYS SEPARATE, RACIST TRACKS FOR PALESTINIAN PRISONERS AS COLLECTIVE RETALIATORY MEASURES

Today Adalah marks Palestinian Prisoners’ Day by highlighting the plight of Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails, currently estimated at 4,900. Israel has been persistently targeting Palestinian prisoners through the implementation of arbitrary laws and policies and the use of cruel, inhumane measures explicitly against these prisoners.

THE FIGHT TO FREE AHMAD MANASRA

Ahmad Manasra at a hearing at the Be’er Sheva District Court, 13 March 2023.
21-year-old Palestinian prisoner Ahmad Manasra was arrested for attempted murder at the age of 13. An amendment to the 2016 Counter-Terrorism Law allowed the parole committee to determine retroactively that Ahmad’s actions, even as a minor, constituted a “terror act”,  therefore making him ineligible for early release, despite his deteriorating medical condition, which requires immediate medical attention outside of prison. Adalah's appeal to the Supreme court against a lower court's decision to deny him early release was rejected.
 
Manasra's case exemplifies the inhumane conditions imposed on Palestinian prisoners, including minors, held in Israeli jails, whose very lives are at stake, and demonstrates how Israel creates separate legal mechanisms that are applied only to Palestinians.
 
Manasra has been held in solitary confinement for almost a year and a half, despite  being diagnosed with schizophrenia, and in March 2023, the Court extended his solitary confinement for an additional six months. Relying on an article in the counter terrorism law, Israel also seized deposits Manasra's family made into his canteen account (which enables him to purchase essential food items in prison), raided his family's home and confiscated their possessions. The article stipulates that Israel can confiscate property from Palestinian prisoners as a punishment for being paid allowances by the Palestinian Authority.

An online campaign to free Manasra has gathered momentum and an online petition to release him gained around half a million signatories, while UN experts have also urged Israel to immediately release him, stating that the "ill-defined and overly broad Counter-Terrorism Law has led to far too many instances of arbitrariness and abuse", and that Manasra's case "is yet another morally and legally unjustifiable consequence of the Law".

DEATH PENALTY TARGETING PALESTINIANS

Shatta prison. Photo by Ori~

For decades, Israel has used repressive measures against Palestinian prisoners as a tool for collective punishment, and the Israeli extreme-right-wing government has taken steps to implement an even more hostile, radical agenda to harm Palestinian prisoners, their families, and Palestinian society as a whole. 

In March 2023, this government advanced a bill that would apply the death penalty solely to crimes committed by Palestinians. Although several provisions of Israeli law allow for the imposition of capital punishment, Israel has become a de facto abolitionist country, and the new bill would entail the effective reinstatement of the death penalty in Israel. It is designed to target and execute Palestinians living in all areas controlled by Israel and seeks to impose the death penalty as a mandatory sentence for “racially motivated crimes” that aim to “harm the State of Israel” and the “revival of the Jewish people in its homeland”. Further, the proposed legislation would allow the enforcement of the death penalty in countless cases, and judges would have no discretion to consider mitigating circumstances with respect to the crime or the offender.
 
If enacted into law, the provisions of this bill would violate central tenets of international law, including the right to life, the right to be free from torture, and the right to a fair trial.

Adalah and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel published a position paper analyzing the ways in which the new bill  violates the rights of Palestinians.

REVOCATION OF CITIZENSHIP OR RESIDENCY AND DEPORTATION OF PALESTINIANS WHO COMMITTED “TERRORIST ACTS"

Erez crossing on the Israel- Gaza border. Photo by amillionwaystobe 

In February 2023, the Knesset passed a bill to revoke the citizenship or permanent residency of Palestinians who committed a “terrorist act” and received money from the Palestinian Authority in relation to a “breach of loyalty”, and deport them to the territories of the Palestinian Authority. The new law is set to directly impact Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli prisons, and who now, in the case of their eventual release, face expulsion to the West Bank or Gaza Strip. Adalah issued two letters objecting to the advancement of the law.

The law violates the most fundamental rights and facilitates the expulsion of Palestinians, in violation of international law. It entrenches the existence of two separate legal systems within Israel based on Jewish supremacy. 

The arbitrary and punitive measures imposed by Israeli authorities against Palestinian prisoners indicate that further grave rights violations are likely to follow if immediate action is not taken by the international community.
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Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel · 94 Yaffa Street · PO Box 8921 · Haifa 31090 · Israel