Number of administrative detainees 75% more than last year, group says

By Jeremy Sharon

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2 July 2023, 7:02 pm

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Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

Fully 23 percent of security prisoners held in Israeli jails are administrative detainees, meaning they are being held without trial under emergency orders based on secret evidence regarding an alleged security threat, an Israeli human rights group says.

Of the 4,885 prisoners currently held on terror convictions or allegations, 1,132 are administrative detainees, according to Israel Prison Service data published by the HaMoked human rights organization. Of those, four are Jewish according to the Honenu organization, which which provides legal aid to right-wing activists.

The figure represents a 75 percent increase over a year earlier, when there were 648 administrative detainees. HaMoked said the 1,132 was highest number of administrative detainees since it began tracking figures in 2008.

The period has seen increased security tensions, with nearly nightly IDF raids in cities and towns in the northern West Bank. Twenty-four people have been killed in terror attacks in Israel or on Israeli security forces so far this year, compared to 31 all last year.

Administrative detainees can be held without charge for six months at a time, on order of the defense minister and under the recommendation of the Shin Bet.

Of those in administrative detention as of March 31 this year, over 550 had been in for six months or less. HaMoked said 15 inmates had been held under the controversial order two years or longer.

“Administrative detention is detention without charge or trial, solely on the basis of secret evidence, preventing any effective judicial review,” HaMoked’s Jessica Montell says. “So this is in fact mass, arbitrary detention of Palestinians.”

Israeli circus artists protest for the release of Palestinian detainee Abu Sakha, a circus performer on a 6-month administrative detention, outside the Megiddo prison northern Israel, Wednesday, March 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

She also notes the recent use of the order against Jewish Israelis accused of taking part in violent rioting in Palestinian villages last month.

“This just shows how the tactics of occupation are corrosive for Israeli democracy. All administrative detainees must be given a fair trial or released.”

The IDF does not immediately respond to a request for comment on the sharp increase in the use of administrative detention in the last 12 months.