From the Liveblog of
Monday, July 15, 2024
High Court gives state 10 days to answer petitions to close Sde Teiman detention site
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter
The High Court of Justice issues a provisional order against the state over the controversial Sde Teiman detention facility, where allegations have been made that camp guards severely abused captured unlawful Palestinian combatants held at the site, giving the state just 10 days to respond to petitions demanding it be closed.
In response to a petition by several human rights groups demanding Sde Teiman be shut down, the court orders the state to explain why the operation of the facility should not be conditioned on “compliance with the conditions set forth in the law on the imprisonment of illegal combatants.”
Provisional orders switch the burden of proof from the petitioners to the respondent, in this case, the defense minister and the Military Advocate General, and generally indicate that the court sees merit in the petition.
In the decision by Acting Supreme Court President Uzi Vogelman and Justices Daphne Barak-Erez and Ofer Grosskopf, the court notes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a directive in a Security Cabinet meeting last Thursday that the Israel Prison Service and the IDF find “an immediate solution” for the transfer of all Sde Teiman prisoners who have been at the facility for more than 14 days to permanent detention facilities.
The court gives the state until July 18 to update it as to whether the prime minister’s instructions have been implemented, and until July 25 to file its full response to the petition.
The petitioning organizations, including the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, have alleged that the physical abuse of terrorist detainees at Sde Teiman, officially labeled by Israel as unlawful combatants, and the poor conditions of their incarceration could constitute war crimes.
In response to the petition, the IDF pledged to the court at the beginning of June to transfer all unlawful combatants held at Sde Teiman out of the facility. But since it has yet to be fully emptied, the High Court ordered the state at the end of June to update it as to the current conditions under which the remaining detainees were being held, including their food, health care, and hygiene.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, 166 detainees remain in Sde Teiman out of some 1,400 unlawful combatants originally held there, as of last week.
