26 March

LAWE AND PALESTINIAN COUNCIL MEMBER ABDEL JAWAD SALEH PROTEST MASS ARRESTS BY THE PALESTINIAN SECURITY SERVICES

Land and Water Establishment

PO Box 20873

Jerusalem

Tel: (972) (2) 812364/824559

Fax: (972) (2) 811072

email: lawe@netvision.net.il

Land and Water Establishment, as a Palestinian human rights legal advocacy group, has followed with great concern the mass, irregular arrests carried out by the Palestinian Authority over the past three weeks, since the last suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on 4 March. Since that time, security forces have arrested over 1000 people from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, and many continue to be held without charge or trial.

An attorney for LAWE, along with Abdel Jawad Saleh, member of the Palestinian Council, visited prisons in Jericho and Ramallah on 23-24 March. They found that the Palestinian Authority regularly violated international and human rights law. They recorded many violations:

• Prisoners are kept for longer than the period for which they were sentenced;
• Prisoners are subjected to bad or violent treatment;
• Hundreds of detainees were arrested on suspicion of involvement with Hamas or Islamic Jihad, but with no evidence, proof or arrest warrant given;
• Most are detained with no trial or hearing;
• Some were arrested and taken hostage to pressure family members wanted by the PSS to turn themselves in. There is one recent case of a man from El Bireh who was recently detained with no charge because two of his brothers were wanted;
• In January, one student was arrested and detained for three days, and in March 13 Bir Zeit students were arrested by the Palestinian Authority in response to demands from Israel to crack down on Islamic opposition. Three students were held in prison in Jericho. All of them were denied the right to an attorney.
• There is a shortage of food in the prisons. Where there are food shortages in the general community, the situation in the prisons is much worse (particularly in Gaza).
• Some prisoners are in poor health and are in need of medication. Medicine has not been given out in the prisons unless the prisoner has the ability to pay for it.

LAWE and Abdel Jawad Saleh are increasingly concerned about the prisoners' situation, and calls on the Palestinian Authority to respect international conventions and basic human rights, to release all political prisoners and stop arresting political activists without charge, to improve conditions and access to medical care, to bring charges and arrange for trial for those already arrested, to release the relatives of wanted activists and to desist from taking hostages, to follow proper legal procedures during arrest, and to open the prisons for inspection.

LAWE is a Palestinian human rights legal advocacy NGO, and the West Bank affiliate of the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights.