The Journalist Support Committee denounced the issuance of several administrative detention orders by the Israeli Occupation Court, and the renewal of the administrative detention of a number of journalists during the current month of July.
In a special report on the status of "press freedoms in the Palestinian territories," the committee indicated that the occupation did not stop issuing administrative detention orders against Palestinian journalist prisoners, despite international warnings of the occupation's misuse of the administrative detention law and its failure to comply with international standards in limiting the application of such a law. The type of unjust detention, which classified the detainees as prisoners of conscience.
The committee stated that the Israeli Ofer Military Court renewed, last Thursday, July 27, 2023, for the fifth time in a row, the detention of the prisoner “journalist Omar Abu Al-Rub,” a correspondent for the Palestine Times Network, from Al-Irsal neighborhood in Ramallah, for an additional 4 months, and he was arrested on the 1st. 4/2022, after storming his house in Al-Irsal neighborhood and destroying its contents under the pretext of inspection and transferring him to Ofer Military Detention Center.
The committee added that the prisoner, the journalist Abu Al-Rub, spent 16 months in administrative detention, after the occupation court issued an administrative detention order against him 10 days after his arrest for a period of 6 months without charge, and two days before his release date, the administrative day was renewed for him for a second time for an additional six months. His administrative detention was renewed twice in a row during the year 2022, and three times in a row during the year 2023.
In addition, the committee said that during the current month of July, the occupation court renewed the administrative detention of the prisoner, journalist Nidal Abu Aker (55 years), from the Dheisheh camp in Bethlehem, for the third time in a row, and for a period of six months, and the occupation re-arrested Abu Aker in the first From August 2022, nearly two and a half months after his release, after he spent 23 months under administrative detention.
The committee stated that the total years of detention of the journalist prisoner, Abu Aker, amounted to more than 18 years, of which more than 13 years were under administrative detention.
In another case, I mentioned that the Israeli Salem Military Court also issued a six-month administrative detention decision against the imprisoned journalist, Muhammad Anwar Muna (41 years), on 2/7/2023, a few days after his arrest in the city of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank.
It is noteworthy that this is the seventh arrest of journalist Mona in the occupation prisons, and he spent seven and a half years in prison, most of which were under administrative detention, and Mona participated in the open hunger strike that the administrative prisoners waged in 2014.
The report stated that the occupation continues to detain 6 administratively detained journalists, and the occupation renews the crime of administrative detention under the pretext of having a (secret file).
The report said: The administrative decisions issued since the beginning of the current year 2023 against imprisoned journalists amounted to (9) decisions, including the renewal of administrative detention for additional periods ranging from four months to 6 months, and reached several times for some of the imprisoned journalists.
He stated that the imprisoned journalists, whose administrative detention has been renewed and issued since the beginning of 2023, are:
Journalist Omar Abu Al-Rub, against whom an administrative detention order was issued on January 14 for a period of 4 months, then his detention was renewed on March 30 of the same year 2023 for the fourth time in a row for a period of six months, and his detention was renewed on July 27 2023, for the fifth time, for an additional four months.
On January 13, the Occupation Court renewed the administrative detention of the imprisoned journalist Yassin Abu Lafah for the second time in a row.
Renewing the administrative detention on January 18 for the imprisoned journalist Nidal Abu Akar for the second time in a row for a period of six months, and renewing the detention on July 25, 2023 for the third time for a period of six months, as well as renewing the administrative detention on January 13 for journalist Amer Abu Arafa for a period of 4 months (they were released about it later).
On May 21, the Occupation Court issued an administrative detention order for journalist Muhammad Badr for a period of 4 months.
The Occupation Court issued a 6-month administrative detention order against the imprisoned journalist, Muhammad Anwar Mona, a few days after his arrest in the city of Nablus, in the northern occupied West Bank.
Journalist Rajai Tariq Hamad is still in administrative detention for 6 months for the second time.
The Journalist Support Committee called on humanitarian and human rights institutions to intervene to stop the policy of renewing administrative detention against journalists detained in the occupation prisons, and to release all journalists and activists who are politically detained by the occupation without legal justification.
It also called on the UN Security Council to implement Resolution (2222) on providing protection for journalists, and to hold Israel accountable for its violations against Palestinian media professionals.
And she stressed the need for the International Federation of Journalists and other defenders of freedom of the press and expression to move to stand by the Palestinian media professionals, 20 of whom are languishing in the darkness of Israeli cells, and to work by all means to release them unconditionally
