Administrative detention used to terrorize 1948 Palestinians
By Yoav Haifawi
Anti-Zionist activist
I have been reporting on how the little space that existed for Palestinian political expression in the areas held by Israel since 1948 has been crushed since October 7. One of the most chilling examples of this has been the use of administrative detention.
Administrative detention is an Israeli practice of holding Palestinian detainees without charge or trial. The longest period for a single administrative detention decree is six months, but there is no limit on the number of times that the same person may be detained, in continuity or with some breaks. For this reason, administrative detention is regarded as indefinite detention. Although more associated with the Israeli occupation’s regime in the West Bank, administrative detention is used in ‘48 Palestine as well, and since October 7, it has been an important way Israel has repressed and terrorized Palestinians.
A tool of occupation
Administrative detentions have always been part of Israel’s repressive measures against Palestinians. Beginning in 1948, Israel used an administrative detention policy inherited from the British occupation of Palestine (the so-called “Mandate”). In 1979, Israel’s Knesset approved its own “Emergency Powers (Detentions) Law” governing the draconian use of administrative detention. The law only applies during a “state of emergency,” which is meant to be temporary. But, since 1948, the Knesset has always renewed what became a permanent “state of emergency”.
According to this law, administrative detention of Israeli citizens should be presented for approval by the president of the District Court within 48 hours. In the West Bank, an administrative detention has to be reviewed within eight days by a military judge. In the West Bank, there have always been hundreds of Palestinians held under administrative detention, but last year the numbers surged. According to Wikipedia (in Hebrew), there were 967 Palestinian administrative detainees in March 2023, and as of September 2023, before the events of October 7, that number had already grown to 1,264, which would be more than during the tensest period of the Second Intifada. According to a report by Baker Zoabi (in Siha Mekomit), out of some 4,600 Palestinians who were detained in the West Bank since October 7, about 2,800 are administrative detainees — an unprecedented number.
In 48 Palestine, as Israel tried to keep some democratic façade, the usage of administrative detention has historically been more restrained. The biggest wave of administrative detentions in 48 Palestine that I remember happened during the First Intifada. The intifada started on December 9, 1987, and after hundreds of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators were shot dead by the occupation army, the leadership of the 48 Palestinians called for a general strike on December 21, in what they called “the day of peace”. They requested the public not to demonstrate on that day to avoid any provocation from the police. Abna al-Balad, a radical leftist Palestinian grassroots movement challenging the community’s traditional leadership, named it “Palestine Day” and called on people to demonstrate in every town and village. In many places, people chose to actively express their anger at the ongoing massacres, and clashes erupted in several areas. Following those events, some ten of the leaders of Abna al-Balad were imprisoned under administrative decrees in the first half of 1988.
Later, administrative detention was used mostly for individual cases. After the mass uprising of May 2021, what we call “Hebat al-Karameh,” Israel issued several administrative detention orders in 1948 Palestine. One of them, Zafer Jabarin, a devoted Muslim who prays too much (for the Shabak’s taste) in Al-Aqsa, was in administrative detention again this year for four months but was released before the war began.
The oppressive apparatus regards administrative detention as an important and potent tool in its arsenal. They like it because it is easy to use, as there is no need to collect evidence, and the technical procedures are simple and straightforward. But they mostly rely on it and are ready to take the public relations damage connected to using it because it breaks established legal standards to terrorize the public.
The threat of administrative detention works in several ways. First, it is used against activists who are under interrogation who know that if they don’t confess to what they are being told to confess to, they can be thrown into prison for an unlimited period anyway. On a wider scale, administrative detention is used to terrorize everyone. Even if you do nothing illegal, the Shabak can always claim that they know what you are dreaming about doing. The war minister would sign any decree put in front of him by the Shabak, and the courts would rubber-stamp it. As Judge Shapira made clear in a censored version of a decree once, administrative detention is intended to prevent “anticipated activity.” And ‘48 Palestinians, like Palestinians everywhere, are always considered anticipated dangers.
The full article first appeared
on Mondoweiss.