AURDIP Association of Academics for the Respect of International Law in Palestine Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel 3 Kaplan St. Hakirya Jerusalem 91950, Israel
[email protected] Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu: We are writing to urge you to order the immediate release of Dr. Imad Ahmad Barghouthi from Israeli military custody. Dr. Barghouthi, a Palestinian resident of the West Bank, is an astrophysicist and professor of physics at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. He was reportedly arrested by Israeli soldiers at the military checkpoint at Nabi Saleh in the West Bank, northwest of Ramallah on 24 April 2016. The Times of Israel reported that "neither the IDF nor Israel Police would comment on the matter, and it remains unclear which branch of the Israeli security forces was responsible for his arrest." The Palestine Information Center reported that on 2 May 2016, "An Israeli court ... issued an administrative detention order against Professor Barghouthi”i. Professor Barghouthi is being held without chargeii, a serious violation of human rights. As described in the journal Nature, Professor Barghouthi was previously arrested without charge by Israeli Border Police on 6 December 2014 when he attempted to cross the border from the West Bank to Jordan to board a flight to the United Arab Emirates so that he could attend a meeting of the Arab Union of Astronomy and Space Sciences, an organization he helped to found.iii Professor Barghouthi's attorney at that time, Jawad Boulos, alleged that Dr. Barghouthi was arrested because of his statements in support of Palestinian activities during Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip the previous summer, and that during interrogations Dr.