Addameer ‘Terrorist’ Designation Affirms the Centrality of Prisoner Struggle

By Zarefah Baroud

Addameer was designated by the US as a ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’. (Logo: via Addameer)

What this focused targeting of prisoner groups should indicate and affirm to us is the centrality of the struggle of Palestinian prisoners, and the threat of the prisoners’ movement in Palestine to ongoing Israeli-American hegemony.

Addameer, or Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestine-based organization whose primary mission is to provide legal representation for Palestinians being prosecuted by Israel, was designated by the United States’ Treasury Department as a ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’ (SDGT). Addameer was previously designated by the Israeli government as a terrorist organization in 2021.

This time, the group’s designation comes seven months after Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network received the same designation. In a press release from the Treasury issued last week, the justification is made that Addameer, “like the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network…has long supported and is affiliated with the PFLP.”

Now, both Addameer and Samidoun have joined the likes of the Taliban, as far as the US government and its growing SDTG list is concerned.

However, it is no coincidence that the US government is targeting prisoner rights groups in particular.

What this focused targeting of prisoner groups should indicate and affirm to us is the centrality of the struggle of Palestinian prisoners, and the threat of the prisoners’ movement in Palestine to ongoing Israeli-American hegemony.

To preface these aggressive actions on the part of the US government, in October of 2021, the Israeli government, specifically Benny Gantz, Israel’s then Minister of Defense, designated six Palestinian human rights and civil society groups as terrorist organizations, including Addameer permitting the Israeli military to “arrest their staff, shutter their offices, confiscate their assets and prohibit their activities and human rights work.” The other organizations were Al-Haq, Defense for Children International – Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, the Bisan Center for Research and Development, and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees.

The designations were swiftly condemned by the international community, including the UN and human rights groups, with UN human rights experts having asserted in 2021 that “This designation is a frontal attack on the Palestinian human rights movement, and on human rights everywhere…Silencing their voices is not what a democracy adhering to well-accepted human rights and humanitarian standards would do.”

The UN experts dismissed the claims against these organizations, confirming that Israeli anti-terrorism legislation is “designed for a specific and restricted purpose, and must not be used to unjustifiably undermine civil liberties or to curtail the legitimate work of human rights organisations.”

Clearly, these expert assessments were not of concern to the Trump administration, who rather blindly adopted the same accusations made by the Israeli government.

Unprecedented Torture and Abuse in Detention

This designation conveniently comes amid growing reports of unprecedented brutality and abuse of Palestinian detainees in Israeli detention.

Last October, Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem reported “systemic” torture and abuses in Israeli detention since the declaration of a “prison state of emergency”, which included “frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation and degradation; deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions; sleep deprivation; prohibition on, and punitive measures for, religious worship; confiscation of all communal and personal belongings; and denial of adequate medical treatment.”

While torture has always been central to Israel’s prison system, a record number of Palestinian detainees have been killed in custody, most of whom as a direct result of torture, including denial of medical treatment. The most recent victim being Raed Ismail Asasa, 57, from Tulkarm, who was reportedly killed as a result of severe torture.

Since October 7, at least 72 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli custody.

In April 2023, however, the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees estimated that 236 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli custody since 1967, over the course of 56 years. This increase means the rate of killing in Israeli detention is 1000% higher than the pre-October 2023 average.

As of June, there have been an average of 10,000 Palestinians held in Israeli detention since October 7th, of whom Israel has held more than 3,000 in administrative detention. For the month of June, an estimated 3,498 are being held under administrative detention in Israeli captivity without charge or trial. Included in this figure is at least 400 Palestinian children, most of whom remain in pre-trial detention with no conviction.

While these are the current estimates of detainees, since October 7th, Israeli forces have detained about 30,000 Palestinians.

Amid rising violations of human rights, which are already largely concealed behind the impermeable walls of Israeli prisons and detention camps, the necessity for these organizations is more significant than ever before. What the movement for Palestine, and the prisoners who remain central to the movement, risk is a near-complete blackout of connection to the outside world.

– Dr. Zarefah Baroud has a PhD from the University of Exeter’s European Centre for Palestine Studies, where her research examined the application of carcerality under colonial and settler-colonial formations in Palestine. Baroud’s writing has appeared in Al Jazeera, Mondoweiss, Middle East Monitor, CounterPunch, The Palestine Chronicle, and other prominent outlets. She contributed this article to the Palestine Chronicle.

The views expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Palestine Chronicle.