Prisoners' Fate Key to Mideast Talks

[Darranar]

HEBRON, West Bank -- Since Haifa Jawat Amasi married her husband in 1986, she figures he has been picked up and imprisoned by Israeli security officers at least 15 times, usually for four to six months. He has never been charged with a crime, she said, nor has he ever been accused of participating in any violence.

But her husband, Ismail Mohammed Amasi, 41, is a senior political officer in the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a militant group that during the 34-month Palestinian uprising has participated in 20 attacks in which 28 Israelis have been killed, according to Israeli, Palestinian and media accounts.

On June 24, 2002, Israeli soldiers went to the family's house and detained Amasi. He was not charged with a crime, nor was he allowed to see any of the evidence against him. In a secret proceeding, a military judge ruled that, under Israeli law, Amasi was a security risk to Israel and ordered him held in a process known as "administrative detention" for the maximum period of six months.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15620-2003Aug2.html

[mike_c]

1. of the tens of thousands of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel...

...only a tiny fraction have ever been found guilty of any actual crime. Israel institutionalizes extrajudicial imprisonment even more than extrajudicial execution, for which it has become something of an international poster-child. Most imprisonments under the amorphous "security threat" charge are little more than state sanctioned apartheid.

[Darranar]

2. "Tens of thousands"

is too high a statistic. Otherwise, I basically agree.

[mike_c]

3. Israel currently holds about 6000 Palestinians...

...so I don't think it's too much of a reach to believe that "tens of thousands" have been detained without credible charges, even during the last decade. But it's true, I am just guessing.

Still, the real point isn't HOW MANY have been detained on trumped up charges, without access to counsel, or without even a hint of legal fairness, but rather the overall Israeli pattern of contempt for justice and human rights. Basically, every Palestinian male between 14 and 45 is a "security threat" if they live in Gaza or the West Bank....

[Gimel]

4. PFLP

Avowed membership and active participation in a terrorist cell is a security risk. No trumped up charge there.

[mike_c]

5. yuh, right-- "I'm a member of a terrorist cell...."

How many of those "members of terrorist cells" do you really think the Israeli gov't has presented compelling evidence against? How many have had an opportunity to rebutt the charges in open and honest court? And since when does "membership and active participation" in and of itself constitute a crime? The vast majority of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons are confined for "suspicion of involvement in terrorism" or as "security threats," neither of which charges actually require any but the most cursory administrative substantiation. Only a small fraction have ever been charged, let alone convicted, of any actual violent crime. How can you defend this travesty of justice? Would you be so willing to do so if your family members were being held for no good reason other than their ethnicity?

Remember when the House Unamerican Activities Committee got a lot of mileage out of asking "Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?" What do you expect most Palestinians to say when asked if they have ever been a member of Islamic Jihad, or Hamas-- both of which are as much social institutions as militant organizations?

on edit: sorry, my dial-up connection went down in the middle of an edit. My point is that this gentleman was described simply as being a "senior political officer" in the PFLP, and he was imprisoned without even the courtesy of having been charged with any crime, let alone being tried. Just arbtrarily arrested (repeatedly), and imprisoned. It amazes me that you can dismiss this so cavilierly-- he's never done any crimes, as far as the Israeli gov't is concerned.

[Darranar]

6. I agree...

I wasn't disputing that.