On 23 May 2010, Addameer Attorney Anas Al Barghouti placed third out of nine finalists in the Second International Human Rights Competition for Lawyers held at Al Quds University in Abu Dis. Advocate Barghouti’s speech, entitled “Political Arrests and Unlawful Detention: Misery of the Act and the Actors”, discussed international law and arbitrary, politically-motivated arrests in the West Bank.

Read the full text of his speech (PDF): AR | FR

Ramallah, 22 June 2010

On Thursday 27 May, Israeli State Prosecutors submitted an indictment against Ameer Makhoul, the General Director of Arab NGO network Ittijah, before the Haifa District Court charging him with assistance to the enemy in a time of war, conspiracy to assist an enemy, aggravated espionage, and contact with a foreign agent. Read the rest of this entry »

United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture 2010

Ramallah, 24 June 2010

As the United Nations and the world commemorates the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on 26 June 2010, Addameer stands in solidarity with Palestinians prisoners who have suffered the devastating effects of torture and ill treatment, and unequivocally condemns all forms of such treatment in Israeli and Palestinian prisons, interrogation facilities and detention centers.
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Addameer Condemns Ongoing Political Persecution, Fears Ill-Treatment

Ramallah, 21 May 2010

In a hearing at Petah Tikva Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, 20 May 2010, a judge extended Ameer Makhoul’s detention for a third time until Tuesday, 25 May 2010. Mr. Makhoul, a human rights defender and the director of Arab NGO network Ittijah, has been in Israeli detention since he was arrested from his family home in Haifa in the early morning hours of 6 May. Read the rest of this entry »

Gag Order Lifted in Makhoul Case, but Ban on Contact with Lawyers is Renewed

Ittijah General Director Ameer Makhoul

Ramallah, 10 May 2010

On 6 May 2010, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association submitted an urgent appeal to the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders on behalf of Ittijah General Director Ameer Makhoul, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, who was arrested by Israeli authorities from his home in Haifa early that morning and detained at Petah Tikva interrogation center. The urgent appeal seeks immediate intervention by the UN body in Mr. Makhoul’s case on the grounds that his arrest, detention and a recent order banning him from exiting the country are arbitrary, politically motivated measures and constitute persecution of a human rights defender in violation of international law. Read the rest of this entry »

Ramallah, 6 May 2010

This morning at 3:10 a.m., Israeli Security Agency (ISA) agents accompanied by Israeli police raided Ameer Makhoul’s family home in Haifa and arrested him. Mr. Makhoul is a human rights defender and serves as the general director of Ittijah – The Union of Arab Community-Based Associations and as the Chairman of the Public Committee for the Defense of Political Freedom in the framework of the High Follow-up Committee for the Arab Citizens of Israel. Read the rest of this entry »

Ramallah, 25 April 2010

On 25 April 2010, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association submitted a complaint to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of Moatasem Muzher, 16, who is currently held under Israeli administrative detention at Ofer Prison. The complaint seeks intervention by the UN body in Moatasem’s case on the grounds that his administrative detention constitutes arbitrary detention in violation of international law. Read the rest of this entry »

Addameer Statement to the Fifth Bil’in International Conference For Palestinian Popular Resistance
21-23 April 2010

For Palestinian human rights defenders active against the Wall, Israeli intimidation efforts are pervasive: Israeli military orders ban all political activity and demonstrations in the OPT, whether peaceful or not. Palestinians who exercise their fundamental human rights to expression and peaceful assembly and take part in the demonstrations anyway are harassed, threatened, arrested, detained, and prevented from travelling abroad to speak about their resistance efforts, or are harassed even more upon their return. Those who are charged with offenses in the Israeli military courts face almost certain conviction and imprisonment by a military justice system that is heavily biased against them; those who are not charged nonetheless may be levied with administrative detention – indefinite detention without charge or trial – large fines and bans from participating in demonstrations of any kind, and are frequently subjected to increased threats and harassment by Israeli forces, both individually and with their community. Read the rest of this entry »

On Palestinian Prisoners Day 2010, Addameer Reflects On Israel’s Systematic Human Rights Violations against Palestinian Political Prisoners since April 2009

On 16 April 2010, the eve of Palestinian Prisoners Day 2010, a Palestinian prisoner suffering from a long-term serious medical condition died in an isolation cell inside an Israeli prison. His passing brings the number of Palestinians killed inside Israeli prisons – either through negligence, systematic ill-treatment or deliberate murder at the hands of prison personnel – since the colonial occupation of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza began in 1967 to approximately 200, not to mention the many Palestinians killed during or immediately following arrest or during transport to detention facilities. Read the rest of this entry »

Ramallah
22 March 2010

On 21 March 2010, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with the parents of an Israeli soldier held captive by armed groups in Gaza since June 2006. Following the meeting, the soldier’s father said that Mr. Ban had “expressed sympathy, support and maximal understanding of our situation and the nightmare that we are enduring”. [Haaretz, 21 March 2010] Read the rest of this entry »