Israel renews detention of former minister

JENIN (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities have renewed the detention of a former Minister of Detainee Affairs until June 2012, a Hamas statement said Friday.

Wasfi Izzat Qabha, 52, was due to be released on Dec. 10 but Israeli authorities extended his sentence until June 10. He has not been tried or informed of any charges against him.

Qabha has been detained nine times and spent 13 years in Israeli jails.

He is one of hundreds of Palestinians held in administrative detention, whose imprisonment is authorized by an administrative order rather than a judicial decree.

On Thursday, an Israeli military court renewed the administrative detention of Fatah lawmaker Hussam Khader for a further six months.

The Israeli rights organization B'Tselem says the practice of detention without charge "is carried out under the thick cover of privilege, which denies detainees the possibility of mounting a proper defense."

At times, Israel has held thousands of prisoners in administrative detention, without informing them of charges against them or prosecuting them.

The practice makes "a mockery of the protections specified in Israeli and international law to protect the right to liberty and due process, the right of defendants to state their case, and the presumption of innocence," B'Tselem says.

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PA: Israel closes 4 Palestinian NGOs in Jerusalem

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities have extended the closure of four Palestinian NGOs in Jerusalem for another year, the Palestinian Authority said Friday.
Police sealed the entrance of the four NGOs on Wednesday, said a statement calling the action reflective of a policy to control and undermine the role of Palestinian civil society in Jerusalem.
The NGOs provide services for Palestinian community in Jerusalem, the PA says.
The statement listed the closed institutions as the Shua’a Women Association, the Al-Quds Development Foundation, Work Without Borders, and the Saeed Educational Center.
"The closure of the four NGOs is not an isolated incident of socio-cultural repression in East Jerusalem," the statement added. Since 2001, Israel has closed some 28 organizations serving the Palestinian community.
The closure of these and other institutions is part of a "broader policy through which the Israeli authorities seek to stifle Palestinian development in Jerusalem" and increase their control of the city, the statement said.
East Jerusalem is recognized under international law as a part of the occupied Palestinian territory over which the Palestinian people are entitled to exercise their right to self-determination, it added.

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Israeli forces detain 9 in West Bank

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces detained nine people in raids across the West Bank overnight Thursday, the Israeli army said.

Locals told Ma'an that troops seized Yasser Ibrahim Badersawi, 47, from his home in Nablus's Balata refugee camp. Badersawi, a Hamas member, has been detained by Israel on a number of occasions, they said.

An Israeli military spokesman said two others were detained in Balata overnight, and two more in Nablus city.

Forces also detained three people in Hebron and one in Bethlehem's al-Khader early Friday, he said.

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