Khalida Jarrar

Khalida Kan'an Muhammad Jarrar, born 1963,^[1] is a Palestinian feminist, human rights activist and senior lawyer for the PLO.^[2] She is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine(PFLP)^[3] and the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). She was elected to PLC in January 2006 as one of the PFLP's three deputies^[4]^[5] and has continued to serve as an elected representative ever since. She is also the Palestinian representative on the Council of Europe and is currently head of the Prisoners Committee of the PLC.^[6] She played a major role in Palestine's application to join the International Criminal Court.^[7] She was, as of April 2, 2015, held in administrative detention without trial in an Israeli prison. Her trial began on 15 April 2015.^[4]

Jarrar is married to Ghassan Jarrar, a manufacturer of children's furniture,^[8]and they have two daughters, Yifaa and Suha, both in Canada as doctoral students, respectively in law and environmental sciences.^[8]When not under arrest,-Ghassan Jarrar has been detained 14 times and imprisoned for 11 years,^[8]- the couple live in al-Bireh, Ramallah.^[9]^[10]^[11] She has received her Bachelors and Master's degrees in human rights and democracy from Bir Zeit University.^[12]

Career

Jarrar has been a human rights activist for many years. She has been active for a number of years in support of Palestinian prisoners, and she served as the director of Addameer, a Prisoners' Support and Human Rights NGO in Ramallah^[13] from 1993 to 2005 and remains a board member. She has also previously worked with UNRWA and has been prominently active in working with Palestinian women and advocating for women's rights.^[3]

Since 1998 Jarrar has been banned from travelling outside of the occupied Palestinian territories, after she attended the Human Rights Defenders' Summit in Paris that year.^[13] In 2005 the Israeli authorities refused to allow her to leave the country, the 6th such refusal since 2000, to attend a human rights conference in Ireland organized by Frontline, namely the "Third Dublin Platform for Human Rights Defenders", programmed to take place in Dublin, 13–15 October 2005. She had at the time never been charged with any criminal offence by the Israeli authorities.^[14] Since March 2006, she has been the PFLP's senior political leader, after the group's Secretary General Ahmad Sa'adat was arrested and place in solitary confinement.^[11]

She was interviewed for the Goldstone Report by telephone in 2009 on the Gaza War (2008–09), after she was denied permission to leave the West Bank.^[13] In 2010, she was refused permission to travel to Amman to undergo neurological tests for a health problem.^[1]^[9] In April 2015 she was arrested by Israeli soldiers for have refusing an order in August 2014 to leave the city and reside in Jericho for a term of 6 months, being deemed 'a threat to the security of Israel',^[2] and then charged with being the leader of a "terrorist organization," and encouraging "terror activities" recently.^[4]

Health problem

Jarrar has suffered from bouts of Deep Vein Thrombosis, and her lawyer has expressed concern that appropriate medical care for her condition might not be available in an Israeli prison.^[15] In July 2010, Jarrar was informed by a doctor that tests indicated she needed an urgent brain scan to establish an exact neurological diagnosis. Since the medical equipment to make the diagnosis was not available on the West Bank, where she is detained, she was informed that the PNA's Health Ministry would cover the costs of her hospitalization in Amman, but not in Israel. As a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, expatriation for medical tests should, she was assured, could be arranged. An Israeli official for the Civil Administration of the West Bank, said there was no security threat were she to be treated in Jordan. On August 29, she was denied transit to Jordan via the Allenby Bridge, and Shin Bet stated that she was a security threat to the region.^[1] Former European Parliament vice president Luisa Morgantini called on the European Parliament to intervene by requesting that Israel allow Jarrar to go to Amman for the necessary medical treatment.^[16] Subsequently she was allowed, later that year, to travel to Amman for treatment.^[12]^[17]

Expulsion Order

On 20 August 2014, approximately 50 Israeli soldiers surrounded Jarrar's home in Ramallah, and an Israel officer gave her an expulsion order stating she was a threat to the security of the region and was to leave her home of residence, Ramallah, and transfer to the district of Jericho where she was to live under a restricted movement protocol for six months. The order was to be considered immediately effective. She rejected the order, stating: "it is the occupation who must leave our homeland."^[9] Ramallah, according to the Oslo Accords, is located in Area A, and under complete Palestinian jurisdiction.^[12] Jarrar refused to sign the order.^[12]

Jarrar made an appeal against the decision to an Israeli court, which reduced the restriction period from 6 to 1 month.^[18]

Administrative Detention and trial

On 2 April 2015, at around 1:15 a.m., Jarrar was arrested at her home by Israeli soldiers. Her husband says that a unit of 50-60 soldiers smashed the front gate and broke into the house,^[17] but otherwise did not act violently.^[8] No reason was given to the him for the arrest, though a commander, a Captain Yihye, said she had flouted an earlier army order to leave her home.^[17]^[8] Soldiers tried to prevent the husband and wife from embracing as she left, but Yihye intervened to allow them to do so.^[8] According to the arrest warrant, she was involved in 'incitement and involvement in terror.'^[10] She was incarcerated in HaSharon prison.^[8] Two computers and a mobile phone were confiscated.^[10] A six-month administrative detention, which can be renewed indefinitely,^[18] was issued against her by Central Command Chief Gen. Roni Numa and was reviewed by a military court on April 8,^[7] where it was confirmed, despite international protests. Her detention without trial^[19] was condemned by Israel's Haaretz newspaper, which claimed Israel at times adopts the procedxure excessively.^[20] Though International humanitarian law does accept administrative detention in exceptional cases and only as a last resort,^[21] human rights groups argue that Israel, which claims the detentions thwart militant attacks, exceeds the limits by its extensive recourse to the practice.^[22]

Israel's Palestinian Arab MPS, including Ahmad Tibi, called for her immediate release and Aida Touma-Suleiman called it 'a political detention of an elected official who is opposed to the occupation.'^[19] A Palestinian prisoner advocate who tracks the welfare of Palestinian prisoners, Kaddoura Fares, said the timing of the arrest aroused suspicions that Israel's measure against Jarrar was motivated by vindictiveness, given her role in monitoring International Criminal Court (ICC) procedures, and the fact that the order for her detention was implemented immediately after the Palestinian National Authority was accepted as a member of the ICC and was arrested just after the Palestinian Authority joined the ICC.^[19] Her husband also stated it may be a possible retaliation for Palestine's membership of the ICC.^[17] Amnesty International noted that Jarrar suffers from chronic health problems, with the prospect of facing indefinite detention without charge or trial.^[23] 58 Members of the European Parliament protested her arrest in an open letter to Federica Mogherini, stating that attempts to forcibly transfer a person under occupation, to which she was subject in August 2014, constituted a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.^[6] Haaretz stated at the time of her arrest:

'If Jarrar broke the law, Israel must put her on trial and prove she committed a crime. If, on the other hand, the reason for her detention is revenge, she must be released immediately.'^[20]

Her administrative detention led to formal imprisonment pending a trial, which began with a closed session on April 15, at a military criminal court at Ofer Prison where the prosecutor at the Israeli military court laid 12 charges against her, based on her association with the PFLP, including membership of an organization Israel classifies as illegal; participation in protests, and incitement to kidnap Israeli soldiers.^[4] According to Addameer, the presiding judge confirmed the administrative detention order, which means she cannot be released on bail.^[24] A date of 29 April was set for a judicial review of the charges,^[4] in a hearing that will determine if she is to be detained on remand until the end of her trial. If it is decided that she will be remanded, the administrative detention order will be cancelled. If she is not remanded, the order for her administrative detention will be reviewed on 6 May 2015.^[24] On April 26, a Haaretz editorial argued that the Military Advocate General had decided to press terrorist charges against her only after her arbitrary detention aroused international criticism and that a suspicion exists was that the trial was payback for her involvement in Palestine's successful entry into the ICC.^[25] The Editorial noted that the arrest of a democratically elected official in violation of her parliamentary immunity, by Israeli forces inside territory under full Palestinian jurisdiction had been generally ignored by the Israeli media, had stirred almost no protests by women's groups on behalf of a female activist, and no significant move by her counterparts in the Israeli Knesset.^[25] She was the only female detained under Israel's administrative detention policy,^[15] and joined a further 16 Palestinian law-makers already imprisoned without trial under the same administrative detention measure,^[22] along with 450 administrative detainees held in prison with no legal process,^[20] 319 of which have been served with administrative detention orders in the first 4 months of 2015, six times higher than the number for the preceding year, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Centre for Studies.^[21]

References