On 14 December, a 23 year-old Palestinian named Abu-Sakha was returning from his family home in Jenin to his work place near Ramallah. His taxi was stopped, he was asked to step out and he was taken to a detention centre, without charge. No-one knows what happened next because no-one has had contact with him since. Given Israel’s record of human rights abuses, his family fear the worst. On 22 December, he was sentenced to administrative detention, still without charge.
Administrative detention is a procedure which allows the Israeli military to hold prisoners indefinitely on secret information, without charging them or allowing them to stand trial. On 23 December, an Avaaz campaign was launched, calling for Abu-Sakha’s release.
On 25 December, having arrived at my uncle’s house for the Christmas festivities, I manage to wait a while before changing the mood. Tentatively introducing it as a project of mine, I show them a video I made about Abu Sakha. My young cousin, Sam, has a lot of questions: “but why is he in prison?” “How can they do that?” “That’s not nice”.
