This Quarterly Update covers the period from 15 January to 15 April 2011. It provides the most up-to-date statistics on prisoners and arrests and an overview of the important trends this quarter. In addition, it gives background on individual prisoner cases and summarizes the most relevant legal, UN and EU news, as well as Addameer‘s activities over the reporting period.

Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, delivered a report to the UN Human Rights Council on 21 March condemning Israel’s policies and practices in East Jerusalem, including its ongoing settlement expansion, forced evictions of Palestinian families and ill treatment of prisoners.

• On 31 January Mohammad al Natsha, a 53 year old lawmaker from the Hamas movement, was arrested by Israeli authorities in Hebron. He had served prison terms in both Israeli and PA prisons, and spent several years in isolation. During this time he was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council. After 9 years of imprisonment by Israel, he was released in September 2010. On 13 February Natsha was given an administrative detention order lasting 6 months. He is currently held in Megiddo prison.

• Change and Reform PLC member Azzam Salhab was rearrested on 2 March in Hebron and is now in administrative detention. He had previously been in administrative detention for 18 months and was released on 8 September 2010.

• On 31 March Change and Reform PLC member Mohammad Badr was arrested during a night raid in Hebron and is now in administrative detention.

• On 3 February Change and Reform PLC member Abdel Jabar al Fuqaha was released from administrative detention.

• On 26 February the lawyer of PFLP Secretary General and PLC member Ahmad Sa’dat and Hamas lawmaker Jamal Abu Hija reported that their cells had been raided by Israeli forces and some of their possessions destroyed. Both PLC members have been held in isolation at Nafha prison. They refused meals in protest at the raids.
• Saed Yassin, in isolation at Ramon prison since 2010, went on hunger strike on 8 March protesting the conditions of his imprisonment. Prisoners from Ashkelon, Nafha and Ketziot prisons also went on hunger strike in solidarity with Saed. On 31 March he stopped his hunger strike after the Israeli authorities accepted his demands that he be allowed to continue his University education, have access to television and radio and to have contact with his daughter. His isolation ended and he was taken to Ramleh hospital before being transferred to Damon prison.
• Abada Sa’id, who has been serving an 11 year sentence and was recently transferred from Gilboa to Eshel prison in Beersheba, was taken into isolation on 20 March despite requests that he be incarcerated in the same section as his brothers, who are also held at Eshel. His wife, Nelli Sa’id As-Safadi, is also serving a 20 month sentence in Salem. Read her profile here.
• Ahed Abu Ghulmeh, Hassan Salama and Ibrahim Hamed are in isolation cells in Ayalon. Based on testimony from Ahed and members of his family, the rooms are 2.5 meters long and 1.5 meters wide with some ventilation and TV and radio, but with many insects and poor hygiene. Ahed suffers from pain in both his legs after breaking them during the process of arrest by the PA, but has had no medical examination in the last year. Whilst being detained by the PA in Jericho prison, Israeli forces kidnapped him and other prisoners there, including PFLP leader Ahmad Sa’adat, on 15 March 2006. Ahed has been in isolation since 14 January 2010, and on 26 March this year his isolation was extended for another year.

• Emad Al-Ashhab who was arrested on 21 February 2010 whilst he was still a minor and held in administrative detention, was released on 3 February 2011 after serving his fourth administrative detention order. 
• Kifah Qatash’s administrative detention order was renewed on 5 April for another 4 months, due to expire in August, making it Kifah’s third consecutive order. Kifah, a 37-year-old mother of two, was arrested on 1 August 2010 and placed in administrative detention on 5 August. Addameer submitted a complaint to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on her behalf on 2 December 2010. Click here to read an urgent appeal on her behalf.
• Hana Shalabi’s administrative detention order was renewed for another 6 months on 11 March, to end 10 September. Hana, 29 years old, was arrested 14 September 2009. 
• Eight PLC members are currently in administrative detention, one of whom – Mohammad al Natsha – was arrested during the reporting period on 31 January. On 3 February Change and Reform PLC member Abdel Jabar al Fuqaha was released from administrative detention.
• Ayed Dudeen, currently the longest held administrative detainee – had his detention extended on 11 February for 2 months. His lawyers appealed to shorten the extension to 1 month, but this was rejected and the case went to the High Court, where the 2 months extension was confirmed on the 27 March. A request was submitted to the Head of the General Security Service to give his opinion on the case, given the long period of detention without charge or trial. Based on his opinion, the Military Court decided to extend the detention but stated that if no new material about his activities posing a security risk emerge by June he should be released. Ayed was given the option of being deported to Gaza, which he refused. His administrative order was renewed for two months on 11 April, making it his 30^th order since he was arrested October 2007.
• Mazen Natsheh, who has been held in administrative detention several times since he was first arrested in 1994, had his administrative detention order renewed on 4 April for another 6 months. This is his fourth consecutive administrative detention order since he was arrested for the seventh time on 7 October 2009, 4 months after being released from 4 years of administrative detention. Click here to read Mazen’s profile.

• Fourteen year old Islam Dar Ayoub Tamimi was arrested from his home in the village of Nabi Saleh on 24 January in the middle of the night. The following day his younger brother Kareem Saleh Ayoub Tamimi, 11 years old, was briefly arrested and released a few hours later, whilst two more minors were arrested on 26 January. Islam was subjected to five hours of interrogation without access to a lawyer or his family, before confessing to stone-throwing with which he has now been charged. Sources Addameer spoke to believe that the main purpose of his interrogation was to extract information from Islam about the popular committee leaders who organize the weekly demonstrations in Nabi Saleh against the Wall and settlements. Islam’s lawyer has challenged the admissibility of the charges against him arguing that they are based on a forced confession, and the next hearing will be on 16 May where defense witnesses will be called to testify. Islam had remained in detention during the course of his trial until 5 April when he was placed under house arrest.
• In Hebron, 8 minors were arrested in a series of night raids in Beit Ummar from 6-8 February. This was followed by the arrest of another 9 minors on 19 February after the weekly demonstration in Beit Ummar.
• A wave of arrests targeting under-18s also took place in Abwein village outside Ramallah in January and February. Four minors arrested on 26 January, all born in 1993, were charged with stone throwing and ordered into detention until the end of their trial. All were convicted of stone throwing. One minor aged 16 and reported to have cancer, Mustafa Shaheb Abdul Wahhad, was released on 4 April following an urgent appeal by his lawyers to have him released on medical grounds. Medical reports suggested that malignant tumors in his chest grew whilst he was being held at Ofer prison.
• The trial of Mohammad Halabiyeh, who was arrested in February 2010 and subjected to torture and ill treatment by Israeli forces during his arrest,is drawing to a close. During the reporting period, members of the Israeli Occupying Forces were summoned to give evidence, and photographs were produced of the night of Mohammad’s arrest, when his leg was broken and he was taken to hospital.  Both the Prosecution and Defense (Addameer Association) have now given their concluding statements and a final decision from the Military Court is expected in late April or May.
• Hadeel Abu Turki – a 15-year-old girl who was arrested in Hebron on 14 November 2010 – was released on 27 January and placed in a rehabilitation center for girls in Beit Jala for one year following a plea bargaining process.

PROTECTION OF FEMALE PRISONERS

• Linan Abu Ghulmeh, who was arrested on 15 July 2010 had her administrative detention order renewed on 26 January for another six months. Read her profile here. She is still being denied visits from her sister Taghreed, who was arrested on the same day but released on 2 January.
• Aliya Mohammad Yahia al Jabrei, 41 years old, who was arrested on 15 February, was placed in administrative detention.
• Muntaha Al Taweel, a 45-year-old mother of four who had served four consecutive administrative detention orders, was released on 1 February. She had spent 358 days in prison without charge or trial.
• Sabreen Abu Mashal and Nada Derbas were also released during the reporting period.

• The Special Rapporteur on the freedom of opinion and expression, Frank William La Rue, will visit Israel and the oPt in May. He was due to visit Israel and the oPt in January, but a strike at the Israeli Foreign Ministry which started on 27 December 2010 affected arrangements for official visits by foreign dignitaries. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur is to gather all relevant information of discrimination against, threats or use of violence and harassment directed at persons seeking to exercise or promote the exercise of the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
• The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories is planning to visit Gaza, along with Egypt and Jordan, in April to gather information for the report he will submit to the UN General Assembly during the second half of 2011.

• On 22 February the EU-Israel Association Council held its 10^th meeting in Brussels. In its statement on the occasion of the meeting, the EU underlined inter alia the importance of concluding negotiations between the Israeli Government and Palestinian Authority by September 2011; reiterated it that it will not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including with regard to Jerusalem; emphasized the important role played by human rights defenders in upholding rights and freedoms and condemned Israel’s detention of prominent human rights activists.
• On 23 February the Polish Government, who will take up the EU Presidency in July, met with their Israeli counterparts in Jerusalem to discuss an upgrading in defense and economic co-operation. Addameer drafted an open letter on behalf of the PCHRO to the Polish Government, calling on Ministers visiting Jerusalem to emphasize that there could be no upgrade in relations until Israel ends violations of international law against the Palestinian people.
• On 15 March 2011, the European Parliament’s Sub-Committee on Human Rights held a hearing on the conditions of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli and Palestinian prisons. Addameer submitted a briefing on Israeli prison conditions ahead of the meeting. Among the key recommendations arising from the hearing was to request an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice on the situation of Palestinian political prisoners, and to send a fact-finding mission to investigate conditions in Israeli prisons.
• On 30 and 31 March the EU-PA Human Rights Subcommittee held a meeting in Bethlehem, attended by human rights NGOs as well as EU and PA officials. Among the human rights concerns addressed were unlawful arrests and conditions in Palestinian detention centers, and the PA also raised its concern over the lack of legal status of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, the impact of the border closure in Gaza, restricted movement in the West Bank the impact of settler violence.

• An EP Delegation for relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council will visit Palestine from 26-29 April.

• From 21 to 23 January 2011, Addameer lawyer Mahmoud Hassan attended the world conference in support of Palestinian prisoners in Rabbat, Morocco organized by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club and the Moroccan Association to Support the Struggle of the Palestinian People (Association marocaine de soutien au combat du peuple palestinien).
• Between 28 February and 11 March, Addameer undertook an advocacy mission to the United Nations in Geneva coinciding with the first two weeks of the Human Rights Council’s (HRC) 16^th session. Addameer held a number of lobbying meetings with the HRC’s special procedures to which it regularly submits individual complaints – the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), the Special Rapporteur on Torture and the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders – in order to follow up on these cases and emphasize the need for these experts to continue paying attention to the issue of the Palestinian political prisoners in their work. In addition to these meetings, Addameer’s advocacy officer also made a statement before the Council during the consideration of the WGAD’s annual report, requesting the WGAD to visit Israel and the oPt as soon as possible. Following the session, the chairman of the WGAD informed Addameer that the WGAD has decided to submit an official request to visit Israel and the oPt. Finally, Addameer organized an event on the female Palestinian political prisoners on the sidelines of the HRC on 8 March to mark international women’s day. The event included a screening of an interview with Majda Fidda, a former administrative detainee, and presentations by Addameer and Soha Bishara, a former Lebanese prisoner.
• In the week of 6 March Addameer lawyer Mahmoud Hassan conducted a speaker tour in Germany and held a panel discussion with activists and students concerning the situation of political prisoners. Interviews with Mahmoud conducted during the trip were published in the newspaper of the Democratic Rights Movement, which has circulation in Turkey, France, the Netherlands and Germany among other countries.
• On 7 and 8 March Addameer Director Sahar Francis attended the UN International Meeting on the Question of Palestine in Vienna, which focused on political prisoners. As well as submitting a paper on the legal aspects of administrative detention, Sahar Francis also made a presentation on the unfair arrest and detention procedures which Palestinians are subjected to compared with Israelis who are arrested for similar offences. See here for comments made by Sahar Francis and other delegates at the Meeting.
• On 8 March Addameer marked Women’s Day with a campaign to free Palestinian female prisoners. Vigils were held in France and Poland with photos and profiles of all the female prisoners and a petition calling on the Israeli Government to free them, and Addameer also had its own online petition.
• Addameer was interviewed by the international press on a number of occasions, including Associated Press and the Spanish newspaper El Pais, which published an article about the political situation in Palestine in the context of the uprisings in the Middle East. 
• To mark Palestinian Prisoners Day on 17 April, Addameer prepared to launch a new campaign called ‘Prisoners at Risk’, which focuses on prisoners receiving little public attention but who are subjected to serious human rights violations, including long-term administrative detention, isolation, medical neglect and torture. The first case the campaign will focus on is Ayed Dudeen, currently the longest held administrative detainee, who has been detained since October 2007. More information about the campaign can be found on our website or on Facebook.  Addameer also published its own press release to mark 17 April and the launch of the campaign, as well as one on behalf of the Palestinian Council of Human Rights Organizations.

• Addameer will publish two reports in the coming months: on violations in PA prisons, and in Israeli prisons
• Addameer’s Advocacy and Outreach Officer will conduct a speaker tour in the UK at the end of June, which aims to raise awareness of political prisoners and build solidarity with different groups, including trade unions, students and activists.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights reported that three death sentences have been issued so far this year by civil and military courts in the Gaza Strip, including two issued within a day of each other on 29and 30 March. Death sentences require the authorization of the President of the Palestinian National Authority, but this usually is not sought.