Administrative detention in Palestine or the Israeli “gulag”



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“It seems that one of them was spreading lies about Joseph K. He knew for sure that he had not committed any crime, but one morning he found himself in custody” (Franz Kafka, Tribunal)

“The Israeli army is the most ethical army in the world” (former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman)
If we want to describe the general environment of “administrative detention in Palestine as part of the colonial system; The judicial system at the service of public security” (Institute for Palestinian Studies – 2020), this book is small in size and of great importance, therefore that it may be useful to remember these two martyrs and their text equivalents that belong to the literature of alienation and the absurd, which is the prevailing climate in the occupied Palestinian concentration camps. It is a world of black rooms whose torturers cannot find need to justify or explain their actions Their discussions and accusations are confidential and there is no public opinion to be held accountable The judiciary has almost completely surrendered to security when it comes to Palestinians, women, men and children.

The author of the book, Abd al-Raziq Farraj, is a prominent symbol of administrative detainees. He is the father of two children and the managing director of the “Union of Agricultural Labor Committees”, a non-governmental organization based in Ramallah, and has worked there for thirty years. He spent a total of ten years of his life in administrative detention, which amounts to 3,743 days to date without being charged and without trial. And his book is born out of a long suffering with its theme that continues to this day, since it does not come out of detention until it falls into another, as it is today. What is striking about his style is that it is completely devoid of “internal” emotion, rather more like the “external” objective researcher method, or a method that provides a quiet and unobtrusive argument before an international tribunal. Something that makes the nightmare even darker and weirder, as if we were already in Franz Kafka’s world.
The book consists of five chapters with an introduction and a short summary. Its first chapters are historical and legal and contain an extensive explanation of the concept of administrative detention and its history in Palestine. Initially, the author recounts what is stated in the Fourth Geneva Convention and what Israel is doing by circumventing it to justify the policy of administrative detention, while “Kafkawi” adheres to what he calls “humanitarian provisions” (p. . 9). And it moves to link the administrative detention system with the laws of the British Mandate of 1945, which Israel had not “completely repealed at any time” (p. 13). These systems allow detention based on confidential information that neither the detainee nor his lawyer can see, and allow the renewal of the detention indefinitely. The scene reaches its absurd maximum when the author quotes one of the Zionist extremists, namely Menachem Begin, who described the British laws of 1945 as “Nazi” laws (p. 20), of course, when they applied only to terrorists. Jews.
The writer goes on to describe the effect of these secretly shrouded arrests on detainees and their families, and we arrive in a mythological world where Public Security agents act “as if they were gods” (p. 24). The wrath of the gods can be resolved at any time, as it is a punishment for a political opinion or point of view that they do not like, and the psychological goal is to create a permanent state of fear of the unknown, of the invisible guillotine that it descends on the occupied Palestinians and prevents them from even thinking about resistance. “Sabotage” in the eyes of the judges of Israel. On the other hand, there are temptations for those who submit and cooperate, such as shortening the period of detention or releasing the detainee, all of them methods that Israel perfected using through an in-depth study of global tyranny, especially the Nazi occupation of countries. Europeans.
The author highlights the word “possible” and its derivatives, as “potential” information or “potential” suspicion that the detainee is a “potential” danger, which means that “every Palestinian is subject to this form of arbitrary detention” ( p. 30).
There are also other methods of psychological torture, such as revoking the last minute release order or re-arresting after a few days of freedom, a type of sadism that we find in the literature of those who lived under tyrannical regimes in Tsarist Russia, in Ireland under British occupation or in France under Nazism. It is noteworthy in this regard that Farraj gives us examples of questions from the interrogator to the detainee before the arrest, drawn from his personal experience (pp. 34 and 35), all of them aimed at denying everything the detainee says in defense of himself . There is no innocent Palestinian, as we are here in the world of Karl Schmidt, the Nazi political thinker who describes politics as centered on friends and enemies only.

Methods Israel Has Mastered Through In-Depth Study Of Global Tyrannies

Holding on to the secrecy of the detainee’s file by the security system also applies to lawyers whom the security forces confront in the same wall of secrecy that surrounds the detainees, and these security agents are the investigating judge, the appeals judge, prosecutor, and military governor at the same time (p. 51). The author tells several stories that revolve around detention procedures that have legal and humanitarian significance and that should become an unforgettable chapter in the history and literature of the struggle of the Palestinian people. If only the writer added some of his diaries and experiences of detention, such as everyday life, such as eating, drinking, sleeping and interacting with the jailers and his fellow prisoners.
The last pages of the book revolve around patterns of resistance to this miraculous racist and sadistic mythological detention of Kafkawi, and administrative detention is in fact a mixture of all these elements. What is the most effective way to approach it? There are two opinions, one of which sees some benefit in appealing the sentences and taking them to the Supreme Court if possible, as in rare cases those courts can shorten the period of detention, so maybe hopefully , one gains a little human consciousness here and there in the occupation system. Our friend strongly rejects this view and believes that these courts should be boycotted entirely and deprived of any form of recognition of their legitimacy. What is striking here is the writer’s commitment to total objectivity in clarifying the opinion of his opponents, in reviewing both points of view, theirs and their obligations with fairness, impartiality, and a political sense refined by experiences. Relying here and throughout the pages of his book on the most reliable references that represent the basis for all future research on the subject as a whole.
This book tears down the structure of hypocrisy and boasting about democracy and the rule of law, and from within this very structure. It is a book that should be read in particular by all who now rush into the arms of this entity that today has witnessed the control of the extreme right in its history and is blessed by the worst president in the history of the United States. Congratulations to those looking to have a goat sanctuary at this temple.

* A Palestinian writer and historian

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