Israel contravenes international law
Sir, The Oban Times published a letter from Susan Wallace on August 3 concerning the murder of a family on July 21. It will have caught many people’s attention.
Any violence is to be deplored and condemned but this letter provided no context for these hideous attacks.
As a member of Oban Concern for Palestine, I would therefore like to share with your readers the following information received via Amnesty International. This may throw some light on the situation in Israel/ Palestine.
In violation of international humanitarian law, two Palestinian civil society leaders have been held in administrative detention in an Israeli prison without charge for many days. Khalida Jarrar is a member of the Palestinian parliament. Khitam Saafin is a women’s union leader.
Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin are being represented by lawyers from Addameer, a Palestinian non-governmental prisoner support and human rights association. According to the lawyers, the Israeli military commander issued a three-month administrative detention order against Khitam Saafin on July 9, 2017, which a military judge confirmed on July 12. Khalida Jarrar was given a six-month administrative detention order on July 12, which was confirmed by a military judge on July 18. Although six months is the maximum period of detention for each order, they can be renewed indefinitely. Both women deny accusations of being members of an illegal organisation.
In the early hours of July 2, the two women were arrested by Israeli soldiers during separate raids on their homes. Eyewitnesses reported that between 40 and 50 armed Israeli soldiers conducted a raid at 3.30am to arrest Khitam Saafin. At around 4am that same day, Khalida Jarrar was arrested, and her phone, tablet and the hard drive of her home computer were confiscated.
Both women were first held in Ofer military compound near Ramallah, where they live. That afternoon, they were transferred to HaSharon prison inside Israel. According to international humanitarian law, detainees from occupied territories may not be held in the occupying power’s territory.
As in all cases of administrative detention by the state of Israel, the ‘evidence’ against Khalida Jarrar and Khitam Saafin is secret. In violation of a central principle of fair trial standards, the ‘evidence’ may not be reviewed either by the detainees or by their lawyers.
The policies outlined above violate basic human rights and international humanitarian law. Israel has nevertheless pursued such policies for many decades.
If they are harmful to Palestinian men, women and children, they also harm the Israeli soldiers, many of whom are young, impressionable men and women, under orders to carry out dawn raids and often to take brutal action against innocent civilians. Most importantly, such policies have failed abysmally to make Israel safe and bring peace to the region. Margret Powell- Joss, Oban Concern for Palestine.