AL-JALAZUN REFUGEE CAMP, Palestinian Territories —
Palestinian teenager Amal Nakhleh's first name means "hope" in
Arabic, but his parents are in despair because he is chronically ill and one of
the minors held without charge by Israel.
اضافة اعلان
"Since his arrest last year I have only seen him twice,
including last week when he told me he wanted to go on hunger strike,"
journalist Moammar Nakhleh said of his 17-year-old son.
"This scares me because he is already very weak,"
from myasthenia, a rare neuromuscular disease, and underwent surgery in 2020 to
have a tumor removed from his rib cage, Nakhleh said.
Israeli authorities accuse Amal of throwing stones at
soldiers and have held him for a year in administrative detention. The practice
allows for suspects to be detained without charge for renewable six-month terms
while investigations are ongoing.
Amal faces a new hearing Monday, and his father is worried
that his detention could be renewed.
Administrative detention has been criticized by the
Palestinians, human rights groups, and foreign governments, who charge that
Israel abuses it.
Israel defends the practice, saying that "due to the
complex and volatile security situation in the
West Bank, detention orders are
issued against those who plan terrorist attacks, or those who orchestrate,
facilitate, or otherwise actively assist in the commission of such acts."
"The use of administrative detentions, which allow for
the deprivation of a person's liberty for a limited time only, is an effective
and lawful security measure against such continuous terrorist attacks,"
Israel argues in a foreign ministry statement.
Leading Israeli newspaper Haaretz joined the fray days ago
with an editorial entitled "Enough with administrative detentions".
"It's time for Israel to learn to forgo this
undemocratic, corrupt practice of unlimited administrative detention, without
evidence or charges that can be refuted," Haaretz said.
'Where is the evidence'
The editorial highlighted the case of
Hisham Abu Hawash, one
of more than 450 Palestinians held for more than a year in administrative
detention by Israel.
Six teenagers are among these prisoners, according to the
Israeli human rights group Hamoked.
Tuesday's editorial came as Abu Hawash, a 40-year-old member
of the Islamic Jihad movement, ended a 141-day hunger strike after Israel
agreed to his eventual release.
The deal proposed to Abu Hawash, a father of five,
stipulates that his detention will not be extended beyond February 26, in
return for his ending his fast.
"If the state had evidence against Abu Hawash, it
should have charged him. If not, it had to release him immediately,"
Haaretz said.
According to the paper, military prosecutors "had no
unclassified evidence on which to draft an indictment to present to a military
court" in the Abu Hawash case.
But for the Shin Bet domestic security agency,
"'confidential material' is enough for a military commander to sign an
order for six months of administrative detention, and an additional one six
months later, repeat ad infinitum".
So why was Amal arrested?
The Shin Bet declined to comment when asked by AFP but the
agency has previously been quoted as saying that he was "suspected of
having taken part in terrorist activity".
'Bracing for the worst'
Amal's predicament dates back to November 2020 when he was
arrested by Israeli authorities in the occupied West Bank.
A football fan, he was out with friends after recovering
from his cancer surgery, his family said.
Accused of throwing stones at soldiers, Amal was held for 40
days but then set free by an Israeli judge.
"At the hearing, a representative of the security
forces said they had a 'file' against him and would seek administrative
detention," Amal's father recalled.
"The judge asked them to provide him with the
incriminating file," which they failed to, prompting the judge to free
Amal.
But in January last year, he was re-arrested and placed in
administrative detention, which has since been twice renewed.
The UN refugee agency
UNRWA has taken up Amal's case with
the Israeli authorities.
"We are demanding his immediate release from
administrative detention for two reasons: his medical condition which is
incredibly serious, ... and he is a minor," UNRWA's West Bank chief, Gwyn
Lewis, told AFP.
"We have written several times and followed up but
there has never been any information on why he was arrested."
Moammar Nakhleh fears that Amal's detention will be renewed
again on Monday.
"I am scared that if his detention is renewed, I will
not see him for a long time," he said at the family home in Al-Jalazun
refugee camp.
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