Israel v. A Pediatrician - The Case of Dr. Husam Abu Safiya

Um, Najah, I wanted to ask you, we- we're talking today about, uh, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, and I wanted to ask you, how is it that Israel is continuing to imprison him for more than a year and a half now? Under, under what basis are they holding him?

Okay.

Be- Do- Dr. Hussam, Dr. Hussam is being held, uh, very clearly without any charges.

Dr. Hussam is being held unlawfully.

Uh, uh, uh, the Israeli law, uh, allow the Israeli authorities to hold Palestinians for months, in some cases for years, without charging them, without providing any actual evidence that they committed an offense or a crime or anything.

So that's why we, uh, we, we say it very clearly.

That's the fact.

Dr. Hussam is he- being held illegally, uh, without charges.

Uh, and Dr. Hussam is a symbol or is an example that the imprison, uh, of Dr. Hussam and the dete- the continuous detention for a, a large scale of, of, an Israeli policy where dozens of healthcare workers, uh, from Gaza are being held in the same situation.

And so this is not, uh, what, uh, people know about, which is the administrative detention.

This is something else.

Can you tell us what that something else is?

By, by the Israeli law, there are two laws, as you mentioned, the Administrative Detention law.

That's exactly how I mentioned.

The Israeli authorities are holding now more than 3,000 Palestinians under administrative detention without charging them with anything.

Uh, there is another Israeli law, uh, called the Unlawful Combatant, uh, Detention.

It's an Israeli law.

There is no such thing, uh, in, in, in, in the international humanitarian law.

Just in the, uh, US and in Israel there is a, a, a definition, unlawful combatant.

Uh, maybe the, the, the title of the law may seem something, a big, a unlawful combatant, but if you look on the ground, on- inside the, uh, co- the Israeli core protocols, uh, uh, who are the people who are, uh, held under this, uh, definition, you can understand that it's another form of administrative detention.

In some point, the Israeli army held an 82 years old woman with Alzheimer on a wheelchair as unlawful combatant.

Minors, a woman, a, a old people, sick people, healthcare workers like Dr. Hussam, uh, and others are being held under this definition, but on, in front of the Israeli judge.

That mean nothing.

That mean that the Israeli, uh, state, the Israeli army have nothing against this individual.

But it's actually even worse, isn't it? So y- you know, you're right.