WEST BANK (Dispatches) –
Palestinian prisoners in the occupying regime’s jails continue their boycott of the regime’s military courts for the 58th consecutive day in protest against the regime’s so-called policy of administrative detention.
Nearly 450 Palestinian inmates have so far refused to show up for their military court hearings, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported on Sunday.
The boycott includes hearings for the renewal of administrative detention orders as well as appeal hearings and sessions at the regime’s so-called supreme court.
Prisoners with chronic diseases have also been boycotting prison hospitals in a similar protest action for the second consecutive week.
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are held under ‘administrative detention’, in which the regime keeps the detainees without charge for up to six months, a period which can be extended an infinite number of times. The detention takes place on orders from a military commander and on the basis of what the regime describes as ‘secret’ evidence. Some prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to 11 years.
Rights groups describe the Zionist regime’s use of administrative detention as a “bankrupt tactic” and have long called on it to end it.
Systematic torture, harassment and repression are all examples of the fashion in which the prison authorities treat Palestinian prisoners.
The regime’s prison service keeps the prisoners under deplorable conditions lacking proper hygienic standards.
More than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in some 17 jails run by the occupying regime, with dozens of them serving multiple life sentences. Over 540 detainees, including women and minors, are under administrative detention.
According to figures by the Defense for Children International, between 500 and 700 Palestinian children at the age of 12-17 are arrested and tried in the regime’s military courts every year.