[Ppnews] Addameer strongly condemns the arrests of 10 Palestinian political leaders

[Political Prisoner News]

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10415.shtml

Israeli forces arrest West Bank political leaders
Press release, Addameer, 22 March 2009

The following press release was issued on 19 March 2009:

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association strongly 
condemns the arrests of 10 Palestinian political leaders which were 
carried out by the Israeli Occupying Forces in a West Bank raid in 
the early hours of Thursday, 19 March 2009. Addameer views these 
arrests as a form of collective punishment in direct response to the 
failure of prisoner exchange talks between the Israeli government and 
Hamas which collapsed in Cairo on 18 March 2009. The kidnapped 
leaders include four Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) members, a 
former education minister and deputy prime minister, in addition to 
other political leaders, all identified with the Change and Reform 
bloc, believed to be associated with Hamas.

The Israeli Occupying Forces officially justified the raid by stating 
that the captured men were involved in "restoring the Hamas 
administrative branch" in the West Bank. Addameer however, considers 
that these men were kidnapped to be held as hostages in Israeli 
detention as a form of exerting further pressure on Hamas to achieve 
political gains at a time when the outgoing Israeli administration is 
in desperate need of political success. "The purpose of these arrests 
is purely political" said Sahar Francis, Addameer's director. "It is 
unthinkable that the Israeli government first engages in a political 
process and negotiations with Hamas, and then kidnaps 10 political 
leaders, associated with the movement and uses them as bargaining 
chips. This is not only a form of collective punishment, which in 
itself is a violation of international humanitarian law, but also a 
politically counterproductive move."

The list of arrested leaders includes PLC members Ayman Daraghmeh 
from Jenin, Azzam Salhab and Nizar Ramadan from Hebron and Khaled 
Tafish from Bethlehem -- all of whom are part of the Change and 
Reform electoral bloc, in addition to Nasser Shaer, former Deputy 
Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Mazen al-Rimawi, Head of 
Change and Reform Deputies' office in Ramallah. The other arrested 
include Adnan Asfour and Rafat Nasif, both political leaders, 
affiliated with Hamas. Most of them have experienced Israel's 
detention since 2006 and have recently been released.

Addameer views these latest arrests as a continuation of Israel's 
policies of collective punishment of the Palestinian people, in 
particular the Hamas movement, following the capture of Corporal 
Gilad Shalit on 25 June 2006. Indeed, merely four days after Gilad 
Shalit was captured at the Kerem Shalom Crossing on the Gaza Strip 
border, the Israeli Occupying Forces seized dozens of leaders and 
activists associated with Change and Reform in coordinated raids 
across the West Bank. Since 29 June 2006, as many as 45 PLC members 
have been arrested, 25 of which are still being held to date.

Addameer is alarmed by a gradually more apparent Israeli policy of 
using Palestinian prisoners as pawns to achieve political and 
military gains. On 29 November 2008, Knesset Member Gilad Erdan was 
publicly suggesting building and transferring Palestinian prisoners 
-- in particular Islamic Jihad and Hamas members -- to an 
unprotected, open air prison located in proximity of Gaza's border 
which constitutes a landing ground for most Qassam rockets launched 
from the Strip. MK Erdan argued that these prisoners should serve as 
human shields and thus prevent future attacks on southern Israel. 
Addameer expresses its outrage at such statements and stresses that 
the use of human shields is prohibited by Article 28 of the Fourth 
Geneva Convention. In addition, Addameer reminds that it is not the 
first time that Israel reacts with the abduction of people to achieve 
its political purposes. Indeed, Israel responded by capturing a 
Hizballah member, Sheikh Abdul Karim Obeid in 1989 and Mustafa 
Dirani, Head of Security of the Amal Movement in 1994, with the 
objective to obtain information regarding Israeli Air Force pilot Ron 
Arad, whose plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. Both Lebanese 
men were held under administrative detention, reportedly tortured and 
ill-treated while in interrogation. They were denied International 
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visits until 2001. Finally, they 
were released in 2004 in a German-brokered prisoners' swap.

The latest wave of arrests comes at a time when the Israeli 
government is considering implementing sanctions against Hamas and 
Islamic Jihad prisoners held in Israel as a way to ensure the release 
of Gilad Shalit. Addameer is deeply concerned by the Israeli 
government's decision on 17 March 2009 to create a special 
Ministerial Committee which was tasked with exploring legal ways to 
impose such sanctions and effectively lower the detention conditions 
of prisoners identified with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The committee 
is presided over by Daniel Friedmann, the Israeli Minister of Justice 
and includes Attorney General Menachem Mazuz. The committee will 
present its initial recommendations to the Israeli government on 
Sunday 22 March 2009.

Some of the debated measures include preventing and reducing the 
number of family visits -- which Palestinian detainees from Gaza have 
been denied since 2007, banning Hamas and Islamic Jihad detainees 
from visits by the ICRC, denying the right to watching television and 
listening to the radio, lowering the allowed monthly stipend 
transferred to Palestinian prisoners by their families and finally 
preventing them from completing their education -- all of which are 
viewed by the Israeli authorities as privileges, rather than rights. 
Proposals also include the placement of Hamas and Islamic Jihad 
prisoners in solitary confinement and isolation. Addameer views the 
implementation of such measures as a form of collective punishment 
and reiterates that its use is in contravention to international law. 
Additionally, Addameer reminds that under international human rights 
law, all prisoners enjoy certain protections and rights and are 
entitled to regular contact with the outside world, including family 
visits, the right to fair trial, humane and adequate detention 
conditions, as well as the right to education. Most importantly, they 
enjoy protection from torture, cruel, degrading and inhumane 
treatment under the Geneva Conventions, the implementation of which 
is monitored by the ICRC. Banning these prisoners from the right to 
ICRC visits could present an encouragement to further ill-treatment, 
to which Palestinian prisoners are already currently exposed.

In light of the risk of the implementation of such illegal measures 
against Palestinian prisoners, Addameer calls on the international 
community to pressure Israel to dissolve the special Ministerial 
Committee and renounce its intention to impose any sanctions which 
might affect their detention conditions. Addameer reminds the 
international community that Israeli detention facilities fall short 
from meeting international minimum standards. "Any attempt to worsen 
these conditions is likely to have a hugely detrimental impact on 
both the physical and mental health of Palestinian prisoners who 
already suffer from isolation, medical neglect and inadequate 
detention conditions" said Sahar Francis.

Addameer demands that the international community puts pressure on 
Israel to stop its continuous policy of collective punishment against 
the Palestinian people. In view of arrests of Palestinian elected 
political leaders which occurred on 19 March 2009 Addameer calls on 
Israel to immediately release the 10 kidnapped leaders as well as all 
PLC members arrested since June 2006 as a punitive measure and 
detained as bargaining chips.



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