FOR PALESTINIAN, UNLIMITED DETENTION
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
Column Written 7/19/01
All Rights Reserved
Talk about irony.
Abed al-Ahmar works for the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG) as an investigator. This is his area of expertise.
Today, in Israeli prisons, he is learning about human rights firsthand. He is also learning about torture, both physical and psychological.
When one of his lawyers recently visited him, she noticed that his wrists were swollen and bruised. Attorney Allegra Pacheco learned that al-Ahmar had been subjected to a form of torture known as "shabeh", where one is tightly shackled in a slanting chair for an entire day. This form of torture was recently outlawed by the Israeli Supreme Court, as recently as September 6, 1999, as a matter of fact.
But, as Mr. al-Ahmar has learned, what the courts say, and what really happens, is two different things.
Mr. al-Ahmar is but the latest Palestinian to also experience what is called Administrative Detention. He is being held without any formal charge or trial, for a period of six months, that is renewable time and time again.
This measure, which closely resembles the procedures of the apartheid regime in South Africa, has been condemned by human rights observers for years. Some Palestinian activists, like al-Haq, contend that it is also violative of the terms of the Geneva Convention, specifically Article 6, which precludes its use longer than a year. Al-Haq reports that there are at least 13 people who have been in such detention since the outbreak of the most recent intifadah, including a Mr. Naser Abu-Khdeir, a former fieldworker for al-Haq.
The human rights group, Amnesty International, has named al-Ahmar as a Prisoner of Conscience.
When Mr. al-Ahmar inquired as to why he was being detained, without charges, without bail, an Israeli Shin Bet (security) man replied, "We do what we want." [Haaretz (Israeli newspaper), 6/7/01]
Mr. al-Ahmar was a long-time activist in Palestinian nationalism and human rights activities. He spent six years in Israeli prisons for his activities on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He spent another two and a half years in administrative detention, at which time he was tortured so badly that the affects still remain. He has worked in the past as an investigator for the group, B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, before concentrating his work on human rights violations in the lands administered by the Palestinian Authority.
He continues to suffer from a hiatal hernia and severe back problems.
The case of Mr. al-Ahmar is quickly gaining attention in the international community, as shown by the actions of Amnesty International.
If readers wish to appeal for Mr. al-Ahmar's release, they should write to, or contact:
PHRMG: Bassem Eid - Tel. 02-5823372, 050-258594
PCATI: Hannah Friedman - Tel. 02-5630073, 056-556442Letters should be sent to:
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon Office of the Prime Minister
3 Kaplan Street,
P.O. Box 187
Kiryat Ben-Gurion Jerusalem 91919
Fax: +972 2 651 2631Please Send Copies to the PHRMG*.
Text © copyright 2001 by Mumia Abu-Jamal.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of the author.--------------------------------------------------------
*PHRMG Ragheb Nashashibi Street 5, 2nd Floor, Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem, via Israel
*PHRMG P.O. Box 19918 East Jerusalem, 91198 via Israel
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