Israel's Military Court System in the Occupied West Bank
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Israel’s military court system in the occupied West Bank War on Want fights against the root causes of poverty and human rights violation, as part of the worldwide movement for global justice. We do this by: • working in partnership with grassroots social movements, trade unions and workers’ organisations to empower people to fight for their rights • running hard-hitting popular campaigns against the root causes of poverty and human rights violation • mobilising support and building alliances for political action in support of human rights, especially workers’ rights • raising public awareness of the root causes of poverty, inequality and injustice, and empowering people to take action for change. Join us! The success of our work relies on inspiring people to join the fight against poverty and human rights abuse. Get involved with our work: Visit waronwant.org/donate Email [email protected] Call 0207 324 5040 Write to War on Want 44-48 Shepherdess Walk London N1 7JP facebook.org/waronwant @waronwant @waronwant 01 Preface Israel’s military occupation of pandemic as a pretext to further repress Palestinian land is now in its 54th year. Palestinian political prisoners. Instead of Throughout this time Palestinians have releasing them, they have stopped family never stopped fighting for their visits and restricted access to lawyers. inalienable rights; rights denied to them by the systemic and daily violence of This report follows years of research and occupation. This violence is manifested campaigning by War on Want on Israel’s in settlements, checkpoints, the system of arrest and detention. This includes Apartheid Wall – and in Israel’s far- our leadership in a campaign targeting British reaching system of military rule in the security company G4S for providing services West Bank, enforced by military courts to Israeli prisons – which, in 2016, saw G4S and prisons: the topic of this report. succumb to public pressure and sell its Israeli subsidiary. Building on this victory, this As of January 2021, Israel holds 4,500 report focuses on Israel’s overarching system Palestinians as political prisoners, 450 of of arrest, detention, and military courts, of whom are held in administrative detention, which prisons are just one part. and 140 of whom are children. Like hundreds of thousands of Palestinians before them, Palestinian human rights defenders including they have either been sentenced in Israel’s War on Want’s long-term partner military courts run entirely by Israeli military Addameer, a West Bank-based NGO, work personnel; or in the case of administrative tirelessly in defence of Palestinian prisoners’ detainees, imprisoned without charge or rights. Addameer’s staff suffer the daily trial. Their imprisonment ‘offences’ include violence of Israeli occupation, and are possession of political pamphlets, holding specifically targeted because of their human political meetings, and participating in rights work. Attacks are becoming even peaceful demonstrations. Children are often more extreme due to a disturbing increase in imprisoned on charges of throwing stones cynical disinformation campaigns aimed at at the heavily armed soldiers invading Palestinian human rights organisations. their villages. In this environment, it is even more The Covid-19 pandemic has intensified the important for overseas allies to defend the plight of Palestinian political prisoners. defenders. The fight against colonialism, Despite calls from UN experts for their occupation, and apartheid must be part of release, and despite the release of hundreds any commitment to upholding human rights. of Israeli prisoners, Israel has used the This is core to War on Want’s mission: from 02 our historic opposition to apartheid in South Africa to our ongoing support for the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. The publication of this report is a part of War on Want’s commitment to exposing the human rights violations faced by the Palestinian people. Solidarity is our duty: it is our collective responsibility to make their story heard, and to foster an unrelenting groundswell of support for the Palestinian struggle for justice, until Palestine is free. Israel’s military court system in the occupied West Bank Israel’s military court system in the occupied West Judge, Jury, and Occupier: Judge, Jury, Asad Rehman Executive Director War on Want Note on sources: War on Want conducted independent research for this report, sourcing factual evidence from a wide range of human rights organisations, as well as peer-reviewed academic studies. The report draws heavily on research from international bodies such as the United Nations, as well as international human rights organisations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, both of which have extensive experience with the issues discussed. The report also uses research and publications by Israeli human rights organisations which specialise in these issues, including B’tselem and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel in particular. This report draws significantly on research from Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian human rights NGO that provides legal aid to political prisoners, advocates for their rights at the national and international level, and works to end torture and other violations of prisoners’ rights through monitoring, legal procedures, and solidarity campaigns. All of the case studies featured here are provided by Addameer, with permission from those featured. We are especially grateful to the Addameer staff members who provided us the relevant materials, and helped us to understand the complex workings of Israel’s military courts. 03 Contents 1. Introduction 04 2. Historical background 06 3. Israel’s apartheid system 08 4. Military rule in the West Bank 11 5. Arrest, interrogation, and trials 17 6. Political prisoners 26 7. Resisting oppression 31 8. Conclusion: UK complicity and responsibility 36 9. References 41 04 1. Introduction Since 1967, Israel has maintained a tear gas or live ammunition to suppress military occupation of Palestinian land unarmed protests in Palestinian villages and in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and refugee camps; conducting arrest raids in the Gaza Strip, and has ruled over the Palestinian streets and homes; and protecting Palestinian people living there. and aiding the proliferation of illegal According to the United Nations (UN), settlements on land stolen from Palestinians. Israel’s military court system in the occupied West Bank Israel’s military court system in the occupied West it is the “longest belligerent occupation in the modern world.”1 It is only the In the Gaza Strip, occupation now takes the most recent chapter in a longer history form of a blockade enforced by military of colonial dispossession of the presence in the sea, air, and on land; and Palestinian people that began over a regular military bombing campaigns, armed century ago when Britain was expanding drone attacks, and the shooting of unarmed Judge, Jury, and Occupier: Judge, Jury, its imperial domination in the region.2 protestors – often with lethal results. Despite differences in the mode of occupation, since At present, Israel’s occupation varies in how it 1967 one thing has remained the same: is administered across Palestinian territory. In throughout the occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem and the West Bank, occupation territory (oPt), Palestinians’ lives – and means that Israeli armed forces are a constant often their deaths – are determined by threat: blocking Palestinians’ freedom of the occupying force’s military rule. movement at checkpoints; shooting hazardous © Yotam © Yotam Ronen/Activestills An Israeli soldier stops a Palestinian man at an army roadblock in East Jerusalem 05 International law specifies that military rule is on Palestinian land, the military courts impose an emergency framework that should only the legal jurisdiction of colonial rule on apply in a “temporary and exceptional” Palestinian civilians. By trying Palestinians in situation, and that in such a case, the military courts, Israel denies them recognition occupying power is obligated to act in the as civilians with a right to civil life. Through best interests of the occupied people.3 this system, the entire Palestinian population Despite this injunction, Israel has imposed a living in the West Bank is treated as a complex military judicial framework on potential security threat to Israel, subject to Palestinian civilians which has for decades arrest and detention at any time. systematically violated their civil and political rights as individuals, and their collective right Treating the entire population as a security to self-determination as a people. threat dehumanises and condemns all Palestinians from birth. It delegitimises any Human rights experts have expressed alarm Palestinian opposition to illegal occupation at the duration of the occupation and at the and serves as a justification for criminalising all clear indications that it is becoming further types of expression. The complex web of entrenched. Given these facts, the UN Special military laws imposed upon the occupied Rapporteur for the situation of human rights Palestinian population is designed to shrink in the oPt, Michael Lynk, has argued that not the space for Palestinians to live physically, to only are many individual elements of Israel’s create psychological trauma, and undermine occupation illegal, but fundamentally its entire their ability to act collectively as a people. role as