Joint report: 483 Palestinians arrested in October 2017

According to a joint report issued by the Prisoners Club of Palestine, the Mayzan Center for Human Rights, and Addameer, there were 483 Palestinians arrested by occupation authorities during the month of October. Of these 483, 125 were children and 8 were women.

By area there were 137 arrested from Jerusalem, 80 from the Hebron area, 20 from the Nablus area, 52 from the Ramallah and al Bireh area, 28 from Qalqiliya, 82 from Jenin, 32 from Bethlehem, 15 from Tubas, 7 from Salfeet, 15 from Tulkurm, 8 from Jericho, and 7 from Gaza.

In regard to administrative detention, the process whereby an individual is imprisoned for a potentially infinite amount of time with no charge, the occupation issued a total of 86 orders. 35 of these orders were new, while the remaining were renewals for current detainees.

Out of the total number of prisoners in Israeli jails, 59 are women, and, of these 59, 11 are children.

While the number is considerably lower than its peak for the year, of 880 that came in July amid the popular uprising in Jerusalem, the figure still remains high considering the current climate.

Attacks against soldiers or settlers in the West Bank have severely decreased, even from this time last year. The occupation authorities would assert that it is because of the arrests that they are down, but such logic is simply a cover to justify the continued repression of the Palestinian people.

These arrests are less about security, and more about passivity. They seek to maintain a cooperative population in the West Bank and Gaza, while the occupation forces continue their appropriation of Palestinian land and violent repression of the Palestinian quest for self-determination and dignity.