The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union,

Referring to the case of the above-mentioned parliamentarians, all of whom were elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in January 2006, as outlined in the report of the Committee on the Human Rights of Parliamentarians (CL/186/12(b)-R.1), and to the resolution adopted at its 185th session (October 2009),

Referring also to the study produced by the Israeli non-governmental organization Yesh Din (Volunteers for Human Rights) on the implementation of due process rights in Israeli military courts in the West Bank, entitled "Backyard Proceedings", which reveals the absence of due process rights in those courts, and to the study published in September 2006 by B'Tselem - the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories - entitled “Barred from Contact: Violation of the Right to Visit Palestinians Held in Israeli Prisons”,

Recalling the following:

• The parliamentarians concerned, elected on the Change and Reform list in the January 2006 PLC elections, were arrested on or after 29 June 2006 in the occupied West Bank and subsequently charged with standing in the election on the Change and Reform list, which, in the view of the Israeli prosecution authorities, is Hamas, and hence being a member of a terrorist organization, holding a position on behalf of Hamas by assuming membership in parliament on behalf of Hamas and providing services to a terrorist organization by assuming membership in parliamentary committees and supporting an illegal organization; that not a single charge related to any violent activity was advanced in that respect; the arrests came in the context of Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip to obtain the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier kidnapped on 25 June 2006 in a cross-border attack on Israeli military installations, which the Israeli Government blames on Hamas and the Palestinian Authority;

• The cases of the parliamentarians concerned were heard by the Ofer and Salem Israeli military courts and, following a recommendation by the appeal court, most of them were sentenced to about 40 months' imprisonment; two parliamentarians were found not guilty but nevertheless taken into administrative detention; the most important substantive defence argument in these cases was that the Israeli authorities knew and had accepted that Hamas was standing in the election; in determining their judgment, the courts relied on what they termed an "expert report" by a Shin Beit member (called "Ivory" during the proceedings), who testified that Change and Reform was indeed Hamas; virtually none of the appeals succeeded; on the contrary, sentences were increased and often doubled;

• In late March 2009, after the failure of the negotiations for the release of the Israeli soldier, Israel arrested or rearrested a number of Palestinians, including four Change and Reform parliamentarians, namely Ayman Daraghme (PAL/51), Nizar Ramadan (PAL/52), Azzam Salhab (PAL/53) and Khaled Tafish (PAL/54), who had all been released earlier, and took them into administrative detention; in the West Bank, administrative detention is authorized under Military Order 1226, which allows indefinite arbitrary detention on security grounds; charges against prisoners, including the parliamentarians in question, are usually those of being a "security threat", but the area and nature of the threat are not specified and evidence is not disclosed, which thus prevents detainees from presenting a meaningful defence;

• Prisoners enjoy limited visiting rights; family members need permits, which can be restricted and cancelled for various, especially security-related reasons; under the normal visiting procedure, if a permit is issued by the Israeli authorities, the permit holder can visit the prisoner once every two weeks for a period of 45 minutes; prisoners are separated from their visitors by a glass partition and conversations are held by telephone; permits are usually issued for a period of three months and need to be renewed; following the failure of the negotiations for the release of Gilad Shalit in March 2009, the Israeli Prison Service decided to impose additional restrictions on Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli prisons, such as denying them family visits and not letting them watch television or read newspapers, reducing the time allowed in the open and restricting access to prison shops,

Bearing in mind the consistent concerns which United Nations treaty bodies and special procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism (A/HRC/6/17/Add. 4, 16 November 2007), and most recently the Committee against Torture (CAT/C/ISR/CO/4, June 2009), have expressed about compliance of military courts and administrative detention, inter alia, with the obligations that Israel, as a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), and other human rights treaties, is bound to respect,

1. Reaffirms its position that the arrest, detention and prosecution of the parliamentarians concerned were politically motivated and hence arbitrary, since Israel was undoubtedly aware of and accepted the participation of Hamas in the election, which was recognized by the international community as free and fair;

2. Takes note of the release of 12 more parliamentarians having served their sentences, and observes that 10 others continue to be held in jail, including three who had been freed earlier but were subsequently taken into administrative detention and can therefore be held indefinitely;
   

3. Calls on the Israeli authorities to release the 10 remaining PLC members forthwith;

4. Remains appalled at the practice of administrative detention in Israel since it opens the way to arbitrariness, and urges once again the Israeli authorities to heed the recommendations made by the international human rights bodies and procedures to refrain from such practices and to bring them into conformity with the State's international human rights obligations;

5. Reiterates its deep concerns about how justice is administered in Israeli jails with regard to the parliamentarians concerned and the compliance of such prison administrations with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, as their treatment appears to be governed by arbitrariness rather than rules; calls once again on the Israeli authorities to abide by the aforesaid Standard Minimum Rules;

6. Decides to close the case of the 12 parliamentarians who were released; deplores, however, their arrest and detention and the proceedings brought against them, which were arbitrary;

7. Requests the Secretary General to inform the Israeli and Palestinian authorities accordingly;

8. Requests the Committee to continue examining this case and report to it at its next session, to be held on the occasion of the 123rd IPU Assembly (October 2010).

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