Name: Diala Nader Ibrahim Eideh
Date of Birth: 12/12/1995
Residence: Ramallah – Al-Bireh
Marital Status: Single
Date of Arrest: 17/1/2024
Profession: Lawyer
Prison: Damon
Arrest:
Lawyer Diala Eideh was arrested on 17/1/2024 while passing through the Container Checkpoint on her way to Ramallah. The army at the checkpoint requested the driver of the public transportation car to pull over for the passengers' identity check. After the inspection, Diala was asked to step out of the car and was directed to a room near the checkpoint, accompanied by a male and a female soldier. At the room, the female soldier hit Diala on her legs under the pretext of inspection. Similar to the experience of many prisoners during the initial moments of arrest, the journey from the arrest location to the detention or interrogation center is terrible, involving severe mistreatment by soldiers, both male and female, and physical and verbal assaults.
Diala was transferred to a military camp near Bethlehem, with her hands cuffed using plastic cuffs and her eyes blindfolded. There, she was kept for hours in a very cold iron container without a door. During the waiting period, soldiers passing by the container would insult her. Additionally, she was deprived of using the bathroom for a period, and the restraints on her hands were tightened further, forcing her to kneel until she felt pain.
After a waiting period, she was transferred to the Hasharon prison, where the detention conditions were extremely difficult, characterized by mistreatment and harsh confinement conditions. She spent two days there before being transferred to Damon prison, where she is currently held.
Administrative Detention:
On 24/1/2024, the military commander of the region issued an administrative detention order against the lawyer Diala Eideh for a period of 4 months, starting from 25/1/2024 and ending on 16/5/2024. The confirmation session took place on 14/2/2024 at the Ofer Military Court. During the confirmation session, which consisted of two parts - the public part and the secret part - the judge in the public part claimed that the military commander issued the administrative detention order because Diala is an activist in the banned organization "The Popular Front" and has connections with activists in the same organization, without providing any details about the nature of her activities or relationships. In addition, the judge repeated the standard statement found in thousands of administrative detention orders, stating that she poses a threat to the security of the region.
In the second part, based on a secret file presented by the occupation military prosecution to the court, the military judge stated, as usual, that he is convinced not to disclose the diverse intelligence materials provided by the prosecution to avoid harm to the security of the region. Therefore, he kept the information between the judge and the prosecution without informing the defense lawyer or the detainee about it. In the end, after reviewing the secret file, the judge decided to uphold the administrative detention order issued against her "to preserve the security of the region" and gave a decision to confirm the administrative detention for the entire duration of four months.
Administrative Detention of Human Rights Defenders... Escalating and Continuous Punishment
Lawyer Diala Eideh is currently held under administrative detention without any charges or trial, solely because she is a human rights lawyer and an advocate for human rights. Her activities include conducting visits to prisoners and detainees at Ofer Military Prison, in addition to her legal work defending political detainees in front of Palestinian Authority courts.
An analysis of hundreds of cases reveals that the court, in cases of administrative detention, does not conduct a genuine judicial review of the administrative detention orders issued by the military commander. Instead, it relies on reviewing secret materials and confirming the order without investigating these materials or their nature. The judge in the court shows a clear bias towards the prosecution's position in affirming the order without verifying the sources of information and their details. As a result, the detainee and her lawyer are not given the right to defend against these secret pieces of information.
This is the essence of administrative detention as an arbitrary detention policy that has affected thousands of Palestinian detainees throughout the occupation's history. Secret allegations by the military prosecution are sufficient to keep the detainee for months and years under administrative detention.
The arrest of Diala and her placement under administrative detention is a clear indication of the Israeli forces' targeting of activists and human rights defenders. The frequency of administrative detentions has escalated recently, particularly during the ongoing aggression against Palestinians in Gaza. The targets have encompassed all Palestinians, from community and human rights activists to journalists, lawyers, and teachers. Anyone attempting to be active and impactful against the ongoing crimes against Palestinians in Gaza has been targeted, criminalizing the principle of solidarity among the people.
This has led to the current number of administrative detainees reaching 3,558, the highest since the beginning of the occupation. This figure serves as clear evidence of the occupation's use of the policy of administrative detention as a tool for suppressing and controlling the Palestinians in all their orientations and social categories.