Israel places six Palestinians in Jerusalem under house arrest
JERUSALEM (QNN) – Israeli occuaption authorities today placed six Palestinian residents of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya under nighttime house arrest for several months.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said that Israel invoked a British Palestine Mandate-era emergency act to impose nighttime curfew on six youths from Issawiya for periods ranging from two months to four months.
The youths were identified as Anwar Sami Obeid, Muhammad Elayyan Elayyan, Fayez Muhammad Mheisen, Muhammad Musa Mustafa, Adam Kayed Mahmoud and Mahmoud Ramadan Obeid.
The six were released on 24 December after being arrested on the basis of “disrupting public order”, and were given 72 hours to reply to the police notification issued by the general prosecutor of the Israeli army.
Over the last several months, Issawiyeh, a Palestinian village of some 20,000 population, has faced a dramatic uptick in police raids that have completely disrupting their lives and thrown the neighborhood into chaos. The homes of Palestinians there are regularly demolished by Israeli authorities.
In 1945, the British Mandate government enacted the Defense (Emergency) Regulations. They included, in part, provisions against illegal immigration, establishing military tribunals to try civilians without granting the right of appeal, allowing sweeping searches and seizures, prohibiting publication of books and newspapers, demolishing houses, detaining individuals administratively for an indefinite period, sealing off particular territories, and imposing curfew.
In 1948, Israel incorporated the Defense Regulations into its law, pursuant to section 11 of the Government and Law Arrangements Ordinance, except for “changes resulting from establishment of the State or its authorities”, said Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories – B’Tselem.
In 1951, following debate on administrative detention, the Knesset plenum decided that the Defense Regulations oppose the basic principles of democracy and directed the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee to draft a bill for their repeal. Nevertheless, the Regulations were not abolished, apparently because they served as the legal basis for the military rule then imposed on Israel’s Arab citizens.
Over the years, Israel used these regulations extensively in the Occupied Territories to punish and deter. The Regulations served as the authority for Israel to demolish and seal hundreds of houses, deport residents, administratively detain thousands of persons, and impose closures and curfews on towns and villages.
