An Israeli military judge confirmed on Thursday, June 16, the continued administrative detention of Palestinian circus trainer and performer Mohammad Abu Sakha for an additional six months until December 12, 2016. This followed the decision, subject to judicial review, by Israeli authorities three days earlier to extend the administrative detention of the 23-year-old Palestinian circus performer for another half year, despite protests demanding his release in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Israel and around the world. The decision by Israeli authorities to extend Abu Sakha’s remand was made with the conclusion of his first six months of administrative detention – Israel’s colonial policy of internment without trial or the revealing of charges against the prisoner. Administrative detention orders may be renewed indefinitely.
Protesters in London demonstrate in solidarity with Palestinian circus performer Mohammed Abu Sakha whose administrative detention has been extended for another six months by Israel. (Photo: Amnesty International)
In a statement released by the Palestinian Circus School, where Abu Sakha worked, his colleagues said that neither they, nor his family or lawyer had received any reason or information regarding his detention. Outrageously, this is the norm for administrative detainees who are held by Israel based on undisclosed evidence for indefinitely renewable periods of three to six months.
The statement issued by Abu Sakha’s school referred to the Israeli occupation as a system that knows no humanity, whose only goal is “to break the spirit of an entire nation.” “You (the Israeli occupation) only make our resistance stronger. And the resistance of the Palestinian Circus School has always been and will continue to be injecting hope, love, and happiness in the hearts and minds of all Palestinians and all people that cross our path worldwide.” The school called for solidarity and support to raise awareness for Abu Sahka’s interment, and demanded an end to the “illegal abuse of administrative detention and freedom for our prisoners.” “We will continue to add our drop in the ocean of people that fight for justice. We will continue to make art that opens the eyes and hearts of people,” they said.
Abu Sakha was working as a circus performer and teacher at the Palestinian Circus School in Birzeit in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah – where he specialized in working with children with learning difficulties. He was apprehended at an Israeli checkpoint while traveling from his parents’ home to the school on December 14, 2015, and was initially held in Megiddo prison in northern Israel before later being transferred to Ktziot prison in the Negev. At the end of December, the circus performer was sentenced by an Israeli military court to what would become his first six months in administrative detention. Israel dismissed a subsequent appeal by his lawyers against the sentence.
Amnesty International has condemned Israel’s military courts for suggesting Abu Sakha posed a “security threat,” while at the same time withholding all alleged evidence against him. “Muhammad Faisal Abu Sakha and his lawyers were in the impossible position of trying to challenge his detention without having access to the necessary information for his defense,” the group said in a statement at in April. Addameer (a Palestinian NGO offering support for Palestinian prisoners) has also condemned Israel for what it said “amounts to arbitrary detention” of Abu Sakha. The Palestinian Circus School also rejected Israel’s claims that the performer constituted a “security threat”, saying his life was dedicated to the circus and “making children happy.”
Abu Sakha has asked his family to thank all those campaigning on his behalf, but according to Amnesty International, he has also reiterated his greater concern for Palestinian children in Israeli custody, particularly those with mental and physical disabilities. According to Addameer, as of May Israel was holding seven thousand Palestinian political detainees, including 414 children and 715 administrative detainees.
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