MEMO, November 25, 2010

A report from the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees' Affairs has claimed that 200,000 Palestinians have been tried by Israeli military tribunals since 1990. What the report describes as "unfair and arbitrary" trials in Israel have led to thousands of Palestinians languishing in the Zionist state's prisons.

"Military court rooms surrounded by the fences of military bases have operated since the beginning of the Occupation shrouded in mystery," said the report. "Journalists are prevented from attending the trials and so the proceedings are not reported." The sentences passed in these courts don't provoke any discussion or controversy inside Israel; neither the judicial nor academic communities take any interest, it added.

The military tribunals are, claims the report, the backbone of Israel's occupation apparatus. The official and civic silence about the courts' affairs strengthens the Israeli security forces by allowing violations of international law to occur with impunity. Israel's military courts reject international law although the latter obliges occupying powers to implement its provisions.