2023-11-30 15:04:00
Release of Palestinian prisoners sheds light on Israel’s controversial justice system in occupied West Bank
A bus carrying a group of 30 released Palestinian prisoners arrives in Ramallah, West Bank, on November 30. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Fatima Shahin spent seven months in an Israeli prison. Authorities initially charged her with the attempted murder of an Israeli in the occupied West Bank, but she was never charged with any crime.
This Friday a 33-year-old man from the city of Bethlehem, one of the 39 Palestinians freed that day in exchange for Israeli hostages as part of the truce between Israel and Hamas.
Like Shahin, most of those released so far were detained and had not been charged, tried or given the opportunity to defend themselves. Some say they were not even told why they were detained.
Some of the Palestinians were held under a murky military justice system that, in theory, allows Israel to hold people for indefinite periods without trial or charge.
Israel has been operating two distinct justice systems in the West Bank since it captured the area in 1967. Palestinians living there are under the jurisdiction of Israel’s military court system, where judges and prosecutors are uniformed Israeli soldiers. Meanwhile, Jewish settlers are subject to civil courts.
A legal adviser to the Israel Defense Forces’ Department of International Law told CNN on Wednesday that the different systems existed because, under international law, Israel is not allowed to “export” its own legal system to the West Bank.
B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, a non-governmental organization, says the courts “serve as one of the central systems that maintain Israel’s control over the Palestinian people”
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