TINLEY PARK, Ill.—Gaza is the world’s largest “open-air prison,” with tentacles that reinforce an unjust and torturous prison system distinguished by two sets of laws in the settler colonial state of Israel—one for Israeli Jews, the other for Palestinians.
That was the description given by panelists Nov. 30 at a workshop about political prisoners in the Zionist state during the “Gaza: Outlasting Genocide” convention in Tinley Park, Ill., a Chicago suburb.
Panelists said Palestinians frequently are held under “administrative detention,” meaning held, sometimes indefinitely, without legal proceedings, charges, or trial.
The convention was held over the Thanksgiving weekend and sponsored by American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), a Palestinian justice not-for-profit organization.
Residents of Gaza are tried in military courts rather than civilian courts. In addition, immediate legal counsel after an arrest is revoked for Palestinians deemed to be a “security risk,” and most prisoners are denied family visits, panelists said.
All but one prison is located in Israel, in violation of international law, panelists added.
“Israeli detention, the military court system, all these horrors have most likely touched every Palestinian family,” said Zarefah Baroud, a digital media associate at AMP and a Ph.D. candidate at Exeter’s European Center for Palestinian Studies. Israeli law is entrenched in colonial programs reproduced by other settler colonial entities such as the U.S., France, and the Dutch, she said.
Ms. Baroud described an incident she said is all too familiar for Palestinian families: The father in the home hears soldiers outside his house in the middle of the night. He awakens his wife and children and gets them prepared for what is about to happen. Fifteen Israeli soldiers break in, handcuff the father who spends three days in interrogation and two more weeks in prison without charge.
When the father is taken to jail, the guard tells him, “Welcome to hell,” she said.
According to the panelists, nearly 10,000 Palestinians have been arrested and detained in the past year, a more than 130 percent increase from a normal year.
Twenty percent of all Palestinian men have experienced administrative detention, and the military courts have a 99.7 percent conviction rate for Palestinians, 97 percent of whom plea bargain to possibly get a lesser sentence, they said.
Under Israeli criminal law, an Israeli child is anyone under age 18, while a Palestinian who lives a few miles away is considered an adult at age 13, they explained.
Alicia Koutsoulieris, representing the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Amnesty International, told of a father who was arrested for protesting to get access to water and his land.
After only seven months in detention, he looked like he had aged 30 years, she said, and the family did not want activist groups to do anything on his behalf for fear of him being re-arrested.
“This is a man who had been arrested several times … and they broke him,” said Ms. Koutsoulieris, who visited Palestine in 2016.
Another story of torture in Israeli prisons was about Ahmad Manasra, who, at 13, was arrested in 2015 at a stabbing incident involving illegal settlers in occupied East Jerusalem. His cousin was shot dead by Israeli soldiers at the incident.
While Ahmad was found not to have participated in the stabbings, he was convicted of attempted murder in 2016, according to Amnesty International.
Now 22 years old, Ahmed has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, suffering from psychotic delusions and severe depression, after having served nearly two years in solitary confinement, Amnesty has reported.
“Self-defense and security,” which allows officials to skirt the law, is used in everything done against Palestinians, said workshop moderator Tarek Khalil, AMP Education coordinator.
During a question-and-answer period, audience members suggested labeling jailed Palestinians as “prisoners of war,” in light of Israel’s declaration of war, to bring further scrutiny on what they have called Israel’s violations of international law.