Amnesty International reports that thousands of people have been detained -- sometimes for years -- under administrative detention orders in Israel and the Occupied Territories, without trial and without being given details of the charges against them. Detention orders of up to six months are frequently renewed without a judicial hearing, a process which can continue indefinitely.

"I have spent two and a half of my twenty-one years in prison. Was I created to spend the flower of my youth behind bars? Will my family continue to be forced to receive the same reply every six months: 'Your son's detention has been renewed'?" (extract from a letter written by Mahmud Dhib al-'Adariya, a Palestinian administrative detainee in Israel).

In a 20-page report issued on 30 April 1997, Administrative Detention: Despair, Uncertainty and Lack of Due Process, Amnesty International documents the pattern of misuse of administrative detention in Israel and the Occupied Territories, the broad formulation of the grounds of detention, the allegations of torture or ill-treatment during interrogation, and the fact that some of these detainees are prisoners of conscience, held solely for the non-violent exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association.

"All political prisoners, including those held in administrative detention, should be charged with a recognizable criminal offence and given a fair and prompt trial in accordance with international standards, or be released," Amnesty International said. "Those held solely for the non-violent exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association should be released immediately."

At the beginning of 1997 at least 270 detainees were being held under administrative detention orders, mostly lodged in tents, exposed to extreme heat and cold, in Megiddo Prison in Israel. The vast majority of them are Palestinians. However, five Jewish men were also detained in 1996; they have all since been released.

The Israeli authorities justify using administrative detention, which is permitted under Israeli law, by saying that the detainees are "terrorists". Amnesty International in no way disputes a government's right and duty to bring perpetrators of crime to justice, but the organization believes that administrative detention cannot be considered justice.