Ofer - Holding and trading of combat materiel, Palestinians staying illegally in Israel

Translation: Marganit W.

As soon as we arrived we noticed the paucity of family members in the waiting area inside the compound.

Hearings were held in only two courts. In one, only traffic violations were handled, in the other there were 3 detainees and at least 4 attorneys. It was hard to follow the proceedings because they were disorderly.

Two of the detainees looked very young, perhaps 16 or 17. One had no attorney, so Atty. Nubani volunteered to represent him. As far as we were able to gather, the boy was arrested while staying illegally in Israel. The attorney immediately started to investigate the circumstances of the case.

In another case (where it was not clear what the charge was) the judge was counting packages of bullets found at the detainee’s home (apparently the charge is possession of combat materiel): 4 packages of 20 bullets each, plus another one with 36 bullets.

After repeated requests we obtained the docket: it contained only the names of the detainees – no mention of judge, prosecutor or charges. After a while we were told that today only remand extension hearings would take place, at which point we left the court.