Israel extends detention of Palestinian politician Khalida Jarrar

Nisaa FM: - On Wednesday 27 December 2017 Israel extended the detention without trial of prominent Palestinian politician Khalida Jarrar by an additional six months. This was four days before her detention was to expire, meaning she will spend at least one year in prison.

Jarrar was arrested on July 2 last year on charges of being a member of an illegal organisation. She had been released from an Israeli jail only a year before. Details of the accusations against her are secret, as is common practice with administrative detention, which allows the detention without trial for renewable six-month periods. Israel says administrative detention is intended to allow authorities to hold suspects while continuing to gather evidence, with the aim of preventing attacks in the meantime. The policy has been criticised by Palestinians, human rights groups and members of the international community who say Israel abuses the measure.

“The decision to hold Jarrar under administrative detention was made as a last resort, after the military official who signed the arrest warrant was displayed confidential information that clearly substantiates the threat posed by Jarrar,” the Israeli army said in a statement.

Khalida Jarrar: a Palestinian feminist, human rights activist and politician

Khalida Jarrar is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). She is also the Palestinian representative on the Council of Europe and is currently head of the Prisoners Committee of the PLC. She played a major role in Palestine's application to join the International Criminal Court. She has received her bachelor's and master's degrees in human rights and democracy from Birzeit University.

The 54-year-old Jarrar has been a human rights activist for many years, and has been jailed multiple times. She has been active for a number of years in support of Palestinian prisoners, and she served as the director of Addameer, a Prisoners' Support and Human Rights NGO in Ramallah from 1993 to 2005. She has also worked with UNRWA and has been active in working with Palestinian women and advocating for women's rights.

Since 1998 Jarrar has been banned from travelling outside of the occupied Palestinian territories, after she attended the Human Rights Defenders' Summit in Paris that year. In 2005 the Israeli authorities refused to allow her to leave the country to attend a human rights conference in Ireland. She had at the time never been charged with any criminal offence by the Israeli authorities.

Source: www.alaraby.co.uk