Administrative Detention
Imprisonment without charge or trial, ordered by military commanders on the basis of secret evidence and renewable in six-month increments without limit; Israel uses it extensively against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
In administrative detention, a person is imprisoned not for a proven offense but on the claim that they intend to break the law in the future. In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military commander may order detention for up to six months at a time on “reasonable grounds” of regional or public security — and may renew the order repeatedly, with no ceiling on the total time. The evidence is classified: neither the detainee nor their lawyer is told the allegations or shown the material, making the detention effectively impossible to contest.
A veneer of judicial review exists: detainees must be brought before a military judge within eight days, with appeals to a military court of appeals and to Israel’s High Court of Justice. In practice, B’Tselem reports, judges almost always accept the prosecution’s position and the secrecy of the evidence, rendering the review largely a façade. Israel has held thousands of Palestinians this way over the years, some for years on end and some under 18; the figure crossed 1,000 several times during the Second Intifada, and human rights organizations say it is also used against non-violent political activity and as a shortcut when evidence is insufficient for trial.
International humanitarian law permits an occupying power to use administrative detention only in rare, exceptional circumstances for imperative security reasons. Human rights organizations — Israeli, Palestinian, and international, including Amnesty International — argue that Israel’s routine, large-scale use of the measure breaches that standard and amounts to arbitrary detention; Israel maintains it is a necessary preventive tool against planned attacks, used under judicial supervision.
Sources
Cited works
2- btselem.org — administrative detention(opens in a new tab)https://www.btselem.org/administrative_detention
- amnesty.org — en(opens in a new tab)https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/026/2012/en/
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- Intifada
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Israel has held thousands of Palestinians this way over the years, some for years on end and some under 18; the figure crossed 1,000 several times during the Second Intifada, and human rights organizations say it is also used against non-violent political activity and as a shortcut when evidence is insufficient for trial.
- The Second Intifada
Evidence — Inferred from the text — read the evidence: Israel has held thousands of Palestinians this way over the years, some for years on end and some under 18; the figure crossed 1,000 several times during the Second Intifada, and human rights organizations say it is also used against non-violent political activity and as a shortcut when evidence is insufficient for trial.
names this record — 1 record
One record names the other. A pointer for reading, not a claim that they belong to each other.
- Red Tuesday and the Songs of the Prison
Evidence — From a recorded field in this archive: What replaced the Mandate's emergency courts: imprisonment without charge, on secret evidence, renewable without limit.
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- Chicago
“Administrative Detention.” Glossary, FALASTEEN.AI. Accessed 22 August 2026. https://falasteen.ai/glossary/administrative-detention.- MLA
“Administrative Detention.” Glossary, FALASTEEN.AI, 2026, https://falasteen.ai/glossary/administrative-detention. Accessed 22 August 2026.- BibTeX
@misc{falasteen-administrative-detention, title = {Administrative Detention}, howpublished = {\url{https://falasteen.ai/glossary/administrative-detention}}, organization = {FALASTEEN.AI — A Living Archive for Palestine}, year = {2026}, note = {Accessed 2026-08-22} }