Hussam Khader, a Fatah activist who was arrested in a 2am Israeli military raid on his home in Balata Refugee Camp on the outskirts of Nablus, in early June, faces an Israeli military court Sunday morning in Ofer Prison, located on Road 443 outside Jerusalem.
An Israeli military judge is expected to decide whether or not to confirm a 6-month Administrative Detention order handed down about ten days ago. The judge reportedly asked Israeli military prosecutors for a reason for 6-month sentence.
Administrative Detention orders are renewable almost endlessly.
Israeli-Arab lawyer Jawad Bulous has been hired to lead a team defending Khader. “As in all Administrative Detention cases, the situation is so bad”, Bulous said in a telephone interview. “We don’t know exactly what charges Hussam is suspected on. Nothing will be clear, even afterwards”.
Bulous said that “from my experience, I see this as a purely political arrest. At the same time, two other men — from Hamas — were also detained in Nablus, and this is a new wave of political arrests for political reasons”.
Hussam Khader’s family said that they thought it might be linked to his support for reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. Or, it might have been linked to the June5 demonstrations that were held a few days after the arrests. All three of the men arrested that day, including Hussam, are well-known and active political activists.
But, Hussam’s family also insisted that Hussam was doing nothing wrong, and that all his contacts and activities were public.
Bulous said that the proceedings will be “not exactly open — they are held in a sealed inside hall”.
But, he said, “I will present my arguments in open. They will probably mention that Hussam is suspected of endangering public order and public security. Then they will submit a secret file to the judge, who will then make a decision”.
Hussam and his defense team will not know what evidence the secret file contains, Bulous added.
Our earlier account of his arrest is posted here.
Bulous said that Hussam does have a right to appeal the decision in the military court of appeals. “And the final stage is to appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court”, he added.
Hussam Khader was held for several days at Huwwara military prison, near Nablus. He has since been moved to Megiddo prison, just inside Israel on the edge of the northern West Bank.
B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, says on its website that “Administrative detention is detention without charge or trial that is authorized by administrative order rather than by judicial decree. Under international law, it is allowed under certain circumstances. However, because of the serious injury to due-process rights inherent in this measure and the obvious danger of its abuse, international law has placed rigid restrictions on its application. According to international law, administrative detention can be used only in the most exceptional cases, as the last means available for preventing danger that cannot be thwarted by less harmful means. Israel’s use of administrative detention blatantly violates these restrictions. It is carried out under the thick cover of privilege, which denies detainees the possibility of mounting a proper defense”. This is published here.
The Administrative Detention Order is “part of the military legislation in the West Bank”, B’Tselem says.
B’Tselem says it believes that “the government of Israel must release all administrative detainees or prosecute them, in accordance with due process, for the offenses they allegedly committed”.
According to ADDAMEER, the (Palestinian) Prisoners Support and Human Rights Organization,
ADDAMEER says on its website here, that “The tyrannical nature of administrative detention and its complete violation of human rights are based on confidential materials kept from the detainee and the lawyer. The confidential materials determine the period of detention and its extension thereafter. The administrative detainee is allowed an appeal before a court martial but the confidentiality of the materials on which the detention is based makes the trial nominal or false. Experience has shown that the real decision-maker in the appeal is the intelligence services”.
ADDAMEER adds that “Similar to previous years, whenever the conflict enters a new stage, the Israeli authorities use administrative detention to arrest a large number of Palestinians”.
ADDAMEER also says that “Administrative detention orders have been issued based on British Mandate Defense (Emergency) Regulations of 1945. In 1970, Israeli occupying powers issued Military Order (MO) 378, authorizing the military commander of the region to issue administrative detention orders. Additionally, in 1988, as an amendment to MO 378, MO 1229 was issued in the West Bank … The first paragraph of MO 1229 states that: ‘If a Military Commander deems the detention of a person necessary for security reasons he may do so for a period not in excess of 6 months, after which he has the right to extend the detention period for a further six months according to the original order. The detention order can be passed without the presence of the detainee’…”
And, ADDAMEER notes, “In practice, the Israeli General Security Services (GSS) often take the law into their own hands, and the military judges ruling on administrative detention orders are used to offer a semblance of legal legitimacy to the policy and actions of the GSS. The military judicial system, as such, is not independent, and is affected by security policies and interference by the GSS in its rulings under the justification that it is in the greater interest of the security of Israel. Administrative detention is practiced widely by Israel”