RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Israel has extended for four more months the detention without charge or trial of a chronically-ill Palestinian teenager already held for a year, his father told AFP on Thursday.
Amal Nakhleh, 17, is one of the few minors held under what is known as administrative detention. The controversial practice allows for suspects to be detained without charge for renewable six-month terms while investigations continue.
His father, Moammar Nakhleh, told AFP after the latest hearing: “The occupation tribunal renewed my son’s administrative detention for the fourth time despite his illness.”
Nakhleh, a journalist, added that his son will remain in detention until May 18, under the new order.
The Shin Bet domestic security agency declined to comment to AFP on the reasons for Amal Nakhleh’s detention. It has previously been quoted as saying he was “suspected of having taken part in terrorist activity.”
Israeli authorities in the occupied West Bank first arrested him in November 2020.
A football fan, he was out with friends after recovering from cancer surgery, his family said. The teen has myasthenia, a rare neuromuscular disease.
Accused of throwing stones at soldiers, Nakhleh was held for 40 days but then set free by an Israeli judge.
In January last year, he was re-arrested and placed in administrative detention, which has now been renewed again.
Administrative detention has been criticized by the Palestinians, human rights groups and foreign governments, who charge that Israel abuses it.
Israel’s foreign ministry has defended the practice, saying that “due to the complex and volatile security situation in the West Bank, detention orders are issued against those who plan terrorist attacks, or those who orchestrate, facilitate or otherwise actively assist in the commission of such acts.”
The foreign ministry says it is “an effective and lawful security measure.”
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA has taken up the teen’s case with Israeli authorities, demanding his immediate release for medical reasons and because he is a minor.
More than 450 Palestinians have been held in excess of 12 months under administrative detention, which prominent Israeli newspaper Haaretz has called an “undemocratic, corrupt practice.”
Israel extends detention of ill Palestinian teen: father
https://arab.news/w2agg
Israel extends detention of ill Palestinian teen: father
- Amal Nakhleh, 17, is one of the few minors held under what is known as administrative detention
- His father told AFP after the latest hearing: "The occupation tribunal renewed my son's administrative detention for the fourth time despite his illness"
Saad Hariri pledges to contest May election
- Beirut rally draws large crowds on anniversary of his father’s assassination
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced on Saturday that his movement, which represents the majority of Lebanon’s Sunni community, would take part in upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for May.
The Future Movement had suspended its political activities in 2022.
Hariri was addressing a large gathering of Future Movement supporters as Lebanon marked the 21st anniversary of the assassination of his father and former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, at Martyrs’ Square in front of his tomb.
He said his movement remained committed to the approach of “moderation.”
A minute’s silence was observed by the crowd in Martyrs’ Square at the exact time when, in 2005, a suicide truck carrying about 1,000 kg of explosives detonated along Beirut’s seaside road as Rafik Hariri’s motorcade passed, killing him along with 21 others, including members of his security guards and civilians, and injuring 200 people.
Four members of Hezbollah were accused of carrying out the assassination and were tried in absentia by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
The crowd waved Lebanese flags and banners of the Future Movement as they awaited Saad Hariri, who had returned to Beirut from the UAE, where he resides, specifically to commemorate the anniversary, as has been an annual tradition.
Hariri said that “after 21 years, the supporters of Hariri’s approach are still many,” denouncing the “rumors and intimidation” directed at him.
He added: “Moderation is not hesitation … and patience is not weakness. Rafik Hariri’s project is not a dream that will fade. He was the model of a statesman who believed, until martyrdom, that ‘no one is greater than their country.’ The proof is his enduring place in the minds, hearts and consciences of the Lebanese people.”
Hariri said he chose to withdraw from political life after “it became required that we cover up failure and compromise the state, so we said no and chose to step aside — because politics at the expense of the country’s dignity and the project of the state has no meaning.”
He said: “The Lebanese are weary, and after years of wars, divisions, alignments and armed bastions, they deserve a normal country with one constitution, one army, and one legitimate authority over weapons — because Lebanon is one and will remain one. Notions of division have collapsed in the face of reality, history and geography, and the illusions of annexation and hegemony have fallen with those who pursued them, who ultimately fled.”
Hariri said the Future Movement’s project is “One Lebanon, Lebanon first — a Lebanon that will neither slide back into sectarian strife or internal fighting, nor be allowed to do so.”
He added that the Taif Agreement is “the solution and must be implemented in full,” arguing that “political factions have treated it selectively by demanding only what suits them — leaving the agreement unfulfilled and the country’s crises unresolved.”
He said: “When we call for the full implementation of the Taif Agreement, we mean: weapons exclusively in the hands of the state, administrative decentralization, the abolition of political sectarianism, the establishment of a senate and full implementation of the truce agreement. All of this must be implemented — fully and immediately — so we can overcome our chronic problems and crises together.
“Harirism will continue to support any Arab rapprochement, and reject any Arab discord. Those who seek to sow discord between the Gulf and Arab countries will harm only themselves and their reputation.
“We want to maintain the best possible relations with all Arab countries, starting with our closest neighbor, Syria — the new Syria, the free Syria that has rid itself of the criminal and tyrannical regime that devastated it and Lebanon, and spread its poison in the Arab world.”
Hariri said he saluted “the efforts of unification, stabilization and reconstruction led by Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa.”
When asked about the Future Movement’s participation in parliamentary elections following his withdrawal from politics, he said: “Tell me when parliamentary elections will be held, and I will tell you what the Future Movement will do. I promise you that, when the elections take place, they will hear our voices, and they will count our votes.”
The US Embassy in Lebanon shared a post announcing that Ambassador Michel Issa laid a wreath at the grave of Rafik Hariri.
Hariri’s legacy “to forge peace and prosperity continues to resonate years later with renewed significance,” the embassy said.
