Palestinian resistance leader Khader Adnan died after an 87-day hunger strike in an Israeli prison protesting his detention without trial and the arbitrary nature of the allegations against him.
Adnan was being held under Israeli “administrative detention” whereby Palestinians are arrested and held without charge or trial for long periods in Israeli prisons.
This alleged “leader of this Islamic Jihad” has never been convicted, in fact he has never been indicted. Still, he was arbitrarily held in an Israeli prison for eight years cumulatively.
There are currently more than 1000 Palestinians in administrative detention.
“It’s not acceptable that New Zealand media reporting has either reported without the crucial administrative detention context or has ignored Khader Adnan’s death” says John Minto, National Chair of Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa.
“Our government and media are keen to condemn detention without trial and impossibly-high conviction rates under authoritarian regimes overseas but we keep giving Israel a free pass”.
The poor reporting simply means the apartheid state does not have to answer to:
- Why “the only democracy in the Middle East” keeps Palestinians in prison without charge or trial?
- Why has the number of Palestinians in prison without charge or trial increased to over 1000 – the highest level in two decades?
- Why are Palestinians living under occupation subject to Israeli military rule while Israelis are under a civilian judicial system?
- Why is the conviction rate for Palestinians in Israeli military courts is over 99% (99.74% in 2012 – the latest reported figure) – higher than any other repressive regime anywhere in the world?
All this is critical context for New Zealanders to understand what is helping drive violence in Palestine.
John Minto
National Chair
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
