Nearly everyone has heard of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was captured by armed Palestinians in June 2006 and is currently being held hostage pending a prisoner exchange. The fate of Salwa Salah and Sara Siureh, two Palestinian girls kidnapped by Israeli forces in June, by contrast, remains virtually unknown:
“[O]n Thursday June 5th, 2008, between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m., Salwa Salah and Sara Siureh (both 16 years old) were arrested by the ISA [Israeli Security Agency] at their respective homes in Bethlehem. In both cases, Israeli forces used excessive force when they arrested the girls by handcuffing and blindfolding Salwa and by storming Sara’s house and shouting at her. Both girls are relatives (cousins) and one of the girls is still at school. The ISA claimed that the girls were involved in militant activities. However, no charge has ever been issued against them.”
The girls were issued administrative detention orders for four and five months respectively (Sara’s was subsequently reduced to four months on appeal). According to the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem, Israel’s use of administrative detention – that is, “detention without charge or trial, authorized by administrative order rather than by judicial decree” – “blatantly violates” international law, making “a charade out of the entire system of procedural safeguards in both domestic and international law regarding the right to liberty and due process.” Last week, one day after the girls were due to be released, their detention orders were extended for another three months. “The military judge claimed the girls are still ‘dangerous’ despite the fact that the military prosecutor has provided no information since the girls were arrested.” Addameer, a prisoners’ rights NGO, describes their treatment thus far:
“Since their arrest, Salwa and Sara have been subjected to several violations of their human rights. In addition to the excessive use of force during the arrests, the girls also reported that during a transfer from Addamoun to al-Ramle prison on 15 July, they suffered extremely abusive behavior from the female police officer escorting them. In particular, the officer pushed them forcefully with her hands and shouted at them. When they arrived at Ramle prison, according to the existing procedure, Salwa and Sara were searched: they were asked to strip totally naked while a female officer searched their hair, body and mouth with gloves. They felt the search was humiliating. Moreover, from the date of their arrest to 21 July, none of the girls had been allowed any contact with their families. In the meantime they at least had the opportunity to meet and speak with their lawyer provided by Addameer…
“Neither Salwa nor Sara have been informed of any charges against them, nor the reason for their arrest and detention, thereby violating fundamental due process and rendering their detention illegal and arbitrary under international law.
Israeli law permits detention orders to be issued for up to six months, at which point the case is reviewed by a Military Commander who can then extend the order for another six months, subject to the approval of a military court. This process can be repeated indefinitely. Addameer reports that,
“[c]urrently, there are approximately 750 Palestinians now in administrative detention. Of these there are approximately 13 Palestinians under the age of 18 years old.”
Recall that, using Cpl. Shalit’s capture as a pretext, the Israeli government has trapped, bombed and starved the residents of Gaza for over two years, killing hundreds of people, driving an already desperate population to “abject destitution” and creating an “unprecedented humanitarian crisis” (.pdf). Recall also that, purportedly in response to the capture by Hizbullah of two soldiers in July 2006, Israel invaded Lebanon, killing over 1,100 civilians, demolishing tens of thousands of homes, systematically destroying civilian infrastructure and saturating villages and fields with over a million cluster bombs.
If these are acceptable responses to the capture of a soldier or a couple of soldiers, and many mainstream American and British commentators are indeed sympathetic, what, one wonders, are Palestinians permitted to do in order to secure the release of Salwa Salah, Sara Siureh and the hundreds of other Palestinian civilians held hostage by Israel? More to the point, what are we to make of those for whom the capture of Shalit, Goldwasser and Regev were acts of unspeakable barbarity, but whose reaction to Israel’s kidnapping of Palestinian civilians is, at best, indifferent silence?
Cross-posted at The Heathlander
