Israel holds Palestinian professor despite successful appeal
Military court approves release from detention of Imad Barghouthi, but authorities reverse decision
RAMALLAH — Israel is keeping a prominent Palestinian academic behind bars despite his successful appeal against detention, a Palestinian NGO told AFP on Sunday.
Astrophysics professor Imad Barghouthi, 52, was arrested in April and imprisoned without trial for an initial three months, under a procedure known as administrative detention.
He is accused of inciting violence against Israel, and is suspected of ties to the Islamist terror group Hamas.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Prisoners Club appealed to an Israeli military court to order his release and at a session last Thursday the court ruled that he should be freed on Sunday.
But the military authorities have now asked for him to be kept in Ofer prison, between Jerusalem and Ramallah.
“The (Israeli) occupation prosecutor today accused prisoner Barghouthi of incitement to violence and called for his continued detention after a meeting of the intelligence services,” a spokesperson for the club said.
Club lawyer Jawad Boulos said it was a “totally absurd” turnaround.
“The prosecutor said on Thursday that after examining the dossier that it would not be possible to file charges because of lack of evidence,” Boulos said.
When contacted by AFP, the IDF had no immediate comment.
Earlier this month an IDF spokesperson said, “Intelligence showed that [Barghouthi] poses a significant security threat, and an order was issued that he be held in administrative detention.”
YouTube videos of Barghouthi speaking at Hamas rallies show he was not just a critic of Israeli policy in the West Bank, but was also a vocal supporter of Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and their terror activities, including the firing of rockets at Israeli cities.
In a video published August 11, 2014, in the midst of Israel’s 50-day war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Barghouthi can be seen speaking at a Hamas rally in downtown Ramallah calling on West Bank Palestinians to “take up arms to defend their homes.”
During a speech two months later at his university, Barghouthi praised the actions of the Qassam Brigades and called on listeners to devote themselves to the “resistance” and to “liberating Al-Aqsa and the holy places” — a reference to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Barghouthi earned his doctorate at Utah State University, and worked in Jordan and Saudi Arabia before moving to al-Quds University in 2000. He was previously detained by the Israeli Border Police while trying to cross into Jordan in December 2014 on unknown charges and set free the following month.
His 2014 detention was protested by international academic groups, including the French Association of Academics for the Respect of International Law in Palestine, the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine, and the US-based Committee of Concerned Scientists, as a breach of freedom of speech and right to travel.
Administrative detention allows Israel to hold prisoners without trial for renewable periods of up to six months each.
About 7,000 Palestinians are in Israeli prisons, more than one in 10 in administrative detention.
