Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, stated on Wednesday that Israeli authorities continue to target human rights defenders in the West Bank, including Jerusalem.
According to a report by the “Wafa” news agency, these defenders are subjected to prolonged administrative detention without charges, as well as humiliation and mistreatment. Lawlor called for an end to these practices.
She highlighted the cases of several activists: Bassem Tamimi from the village of Nabi Saleh northwest of Ramallah, a coordinator of peaceful protests against the occupation of Palestinian lands; Omar Al-Khatib from Jerusalem, who campaigns against the forced eviction of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood; Bara’ Awda from Bethlehem, who advocates for youth rights; Sumood Mtair from Hebron, an activist in the Palestinian campaign against the apartheid wall; and Diala Ayesh, a human rights lawyer who documents the conditions of detainees in occupation prisons. Except for Al-Khatib and Ayesh, all have been released.
Lawlor noted that these five human rights defenders were arrested between October 2023 and March 2024, either from their homes or upon returning from abroad. They were ordered to be held under administrative detention for periods ranging from four to six months.
Four of the detainees were subjected to slapping, beating, humiliation, and were moved from one prison to another within a day or two. They were forced to sign documents in Hebrew, which they could not understand. The three female detainees were held under deplorable conditions in dirty cells, receiving inadequate and poor-quality meals.
Lawlor called on Israeli authorities to respect fair trial standards or to immediately release the remaining human rights defenders, as well as the dozens of other detained defenders involved in peaceful activities.
