The decision to place a Palestinian under administrative detention is made by the regional military commander without charge or trial, B’Tselem, or Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, questioned in a statement.

“Under the military law that applies in the West Bank, a person may be administratively detained for six months, but the order may be extended, therefore the detention in practice is indefinite and the detainees never know when they will be released,” it stated.

The NGO highlighted that since last January 1st, the 579 Palestinians imprisoned as a result of this policy maintain a boycott of the Israeli military courts to denounce their cases. No Israeli official has addressed their concerns, as courts continue to hear arrest warrants as usual.

B’Tselem stressed that the boycott is intended to unmask the facade of judicial review of administrative detention orders because “in these hearings, detainees are limited to playing the role of extras in a process aimed at sanctioning their imprisonment.”

Regarding this, the NGO explained that the evidence of the complaint is never revealed to the prisoner or his lawyer, making it impossible to know charges for the arrest and therefore challenge the accusations.

Israel has imprisoned thousands of Palestinians without charging them for years, without presenting evidence to them or their lawyers, and without informing them when they will be released, the entity denounced.

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