Qaraqe: PA not involved in Shalabi deportation

The Palestinian Authority's prisoners affairs minister Issa Qaraqe said Monday that the PA was not involved in the decision to deport Hana Shalabi to the Gaza Strip. "We have been always against deporting any detainee away from his home and we refuse to legalize it and it is indeed a war crime but Hana Shalabi's deportation to Gaza was a personal choice," the PA minister said during a UN sponsored conference in Geneva to discuss Palestinian detainees. Qaraqe called on the international community to stand against the Israeli policy of administrative detention, which contradicts all standards of international justice, he said. The minister also urged humanitarian institutions and the UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon to intervene to protect prisoners currently on hunger strike. Last Friday, Hasan al-Safadi, 33, was was taken to hospital after he fainted in prison, where he is being held without charge. He had been on hunger strike for 33 days. On Wednesday, Prisoner Society lawyer Jawwad Boulous said Omar Abu Shalal, 55, had been taken to Ramla prison hospital after 28 days without food to protest his administrative detention. Abu Shalal is being held in the same hospital room as detainees Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla, who had been on hunger strike for 36 days, Boulous said. Around 300 Palestinians are currently held in administrative detention in Israel, including around 20 MPs. They are not told why they are held or tried in court, and their lawyers are not informed of any evidence against them.