Israel's 'arbitrary' detention of Palestinians condemned

Assem Shaqain was walking home one evening after closing his father's carpentry shop when he was stopped by Israeli soldiers. He was told to get into a military jeep and taken to an interrogation center near his home.

For the next 24 hours the boy, 15, says he was systematically beaten and questioned by a team of eight interrogators who wanted to know what he was doing on the street after dark. During interrogation, Assem says he was blindfolded and his hands were tied. He was struck with what he says felt like a metal pole and dragged by his bound hands up and down stairs. He was left standing for hours at a time then told to lie face down on the floor while a dog circled his body, sniffing his face and genitals.

After many hours Shaqain was forced to sign a confession, written in Hebrew, admitting he had "attempted to throw stones." He was brought before a military court and sentenced to three months prison, periods of it served in solitary confinement.

"This experience has changed me a lot," Assem says. "I feel nervous all the time, and I dream I am still in the prison. I have started to hate the occupation more and more. I did nothing to deserve this treatment."

Israel says the policy of detaining Palestinians – some 600,000 since Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 – is a crucial part of gaining intelligence and disabling militant networks.

But human rights advocates, including Amnesty International, have condemned the policy as a gross abuse of human rights that violates the Geneva Convention.

Their concerns are twofold. The arbitrary nature of the detentions – which target all males of a certain age regardless of whether Israel has any reason to suspect them – violates Article 33 of the fourth Geneva Convention which states that "no protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed."

Secondly, human rights advocates say, once in detention, Palestinian prisoners are not informed of the reasons for arrest, are denied access to lawyers and are prevented from informing family of the arrest and place of detention – also a violation of the Geneva Convention. But because the current conflict is not considered a war, human rights conventions covering the treatment of prisoners of war do not apply.

In recent months, the policy – justified by Israel according to a series of Military Orders – has been significantly stepped up. Figures from Amnesty International, released in May, state that since Feb. 27 more than 8,500 Palestinians have been arbitrarily detained.

Most have since been released, but as many as 2,000 remain in Israeli custody, many under administrative detention, which allows Israel to hold Palestinians without charge for blocks of six months. Those who are charged with specific crimes are tried in military courts where evidence is kept secret from both the prisoner and his or her lawyer.

Israel's Ministry for Justice referred all questions to the Israel Defense Force (IDF). The IDF avoided answering questions about human rights violations. An IDF spokesman did say: "It's true the people are inconvenienced, but this is the best way to do it. We are in a situation of a certain type of war; we try our best under difficult circumstances."

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