Israeli Lettres de Cachet

Lettres de cachet were letters signed by the king of France with which a subject could be condemned to imprisonment without trial or the possibility of defense or appeal. Lettres de cachet were abolished immediately after the French Revolution, but naturally such a useful practice was not completely abandoned. All the colonial powers used similar regulations. Administrative detention, still used today by the Israeli occupation forces in Palestine, is one of these regulations.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.. Article 9 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Administrative detention is a form of detention without charge or trial, authorised by an administrative order rather than a judicial decree. An administrative detention order can be for a maximum period of six months, but there is no limit to the number of times it can be renewed. It was introduced in Palestine by the British authorities during the Mandate, and was used against both the indigenous population and the Jewish immigrants.

The Zionist jurist Dov Joseph, protesting against its use by the British authorities said:

Are we to be subjected to official terror? ... no citizen can be safe from life imprisonment without trial... it is not necessary to have committed any crime, a decision taken in some office is enough..

After the establishment of the state of Israel, the British Emergency Regulations, which included administrative detention, were incorporated into Israeli law and Dov Joseph, by then minister of justice, used them against the Palestinian population. Since then, administrative detention orders have struck children, women, young people, old people, intellectuals, students, political and trade union leaders, and in the last three years it has been the turn of elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Since 2000, more than 19,000 administrative detention orders have been handed down.

Currently, more than 500 Palestinians are subject to administrative detention orders. The most recent detainee is Mohammed Othman. Mohammad was arrested by the Israeli authorities on 22nd September. He was returning to the West Bank from Norway where he had spoken at public meetings and met with government officials. Despite two months of detention, isolation, and lengthy interrogations, no charges were brought against him and finally the military authorities requested an administrative detention order.

Click here to send a mail to President Obama asking him to press for Mohammed's immediate release.

Click here for more information about the campaign against administrative detention.



Report on the arbitrary detention of Palestinians prepared by the Israeli human rights organisations B'tselem and Hamoked.

200910 Without Trial Eng