Do not forget our cause, Palestinian prisoners appeal
Palestine-Israel, Judicial, 2/12/1998

Palestinian prisoners held in the remote desert Nafha prison in southern Israel called on the Palestinian government to push their case to the top of its negotiations agenda with Israel.

In a letter sent to Palestinian Chief Negotiator Dr. Saeb Erekat, the prisoners said that more effort should be exerted by the Palestinian negotiators in order to secure their release without any preconditions. The prisoners expressed sadness because they felt their case was being ignored by the Palestinian government.

Under the Oslo Agreements, Israel should have by now released the overwhelming majority of its Palestinian prisoners but it has failed to do so. Palestinians argue that without the release of all prisoners, there is no point in continuing the peace talks with Israel. But the Palestinian government feels it is not in a position to call off the talks and wants to continue for as long as it can in order to avoid being blamed by the international community for the collapse of the peace process in the region.

Among the Palestinian and Israeli negotiating teams there is one committee which handles the question of prisoners. The committee has held a number of sessions but failed to reach a decision on the release of prisoners. "The government of Benjamin Netanyahu is making every effort possible to torpedo the talks and one of its efforts is to keep Palestinian inmates behind bars," said Hisham Abdul Razeq, head of the Palestinian committee on prisoners talks with Israel. Abdul Razeq, who himself served several years in an Israeli prison during the years of military occupation, said the Palestinian government is making every effort to safeguard the release of the prisoners, "but let us not forget that with the present government everything seems to be in limbo."

According to Palestinian estimates, there are some 3,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel, including at least 300 administrative detainees who have been held behind bars without trial. Last week, a number of legal experts and former High Court judges called on their government to release those administrative detainees at once or put them on trial. The judges, including a lecturer in law at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, said Israel should maintain its democratic status and release these prisoners.

Palestinian legal experts too argued that the arrest of Palestinian prisoners and holding them under administrative detention does not only violate their basic human rights but also contravenes the Geneva Conventions, which state that the occupying power can keep people under administrative detention without trial only for only one year after its take-over of a country but not beyond that. Besides, the Geneva Convention states that holding people in groups under administrative detention is illegal.

Palestinian figures of those who had served administrative detention over the past thirty years of Israeli military occupation reach some 25,000.

Previous Stories:
  Palestine negates reports of military preparations against Israel   (2/6/1998)
  Israel: we'll do what we want, international order for the weak   (2/6/1998)
  Fatah movement calls for an urgent Arab summit   (2/3/1998)

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