A/HRC/37/42 48. Hasan Safadi, a Palestinian journalist and media coordinator with the NGO Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association, remained in administrative detention during the reporting period. His arrest by the Israeli Security Forces, on 1 May 2016, at the Al-Karameh/Allenby/King Hussein Bridge border crossing on his way back from an Arab youth conference in Tunisia, was related to his visit to Lebanon 15 months earlier. As he was set to be released on bail on 10 June 2016, a six-month administrative detention order was issued against him, which was renewed twice during the reporting period even though he had been sentenced to three months’ imprisonment on 27 October 2016. Mr. Safadi was finally released on 7 December, having spent more than a year and a half in administrative detention.78 49. Another Palestinian human rights defender who remained in Israeli administrative detention during the reporting period is Hassan Karajah, youth coordinator for the Stop the Wall movement. Released in 2014 after serving a 22-month sentence for having visited Lebanon, he was rearrested on 12 July 2016 for alleged affiliation to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and to Al-Hirak al-Shababi, a Palestinian youth movement outlawed by Israel on 11 July 2016 for alleged involvement in terrorist activities against Israel. Mr. Karajah was released on 9 November 2017. Under the cover of legality, it appears that administrative detention is used by Israel to detain Palestinians in order to sanction the exercise of guaranteed freedoms, on the ground that it might prejudice the security of Israel. 50. As stated by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders on 7 July 2017,79 the situation of Issa Amro, a Palestinian human rights defender who runs the Youth Against Settlements organization in Hebron, remains of concern. A well-known advocate for non-violence, Mr. Amro has been subjected to regular harassment and arrests by the Israeli Security Forces, most recently on 29 February 2016. 80 His first hearing at Ofer Military Court took place on 23 November 2016. His indictment includes 18 charges, some of them going back to 2010. Mainly repetitive, the charges include alleged obstruction, insult and assault of soldiers, incitement and participation in assemblies without a permit. The reported facts behind the charges appear ludicrous within the context of peaceful demonstrations and the heavy military presence in Hebron. On 19 February 2017, the court dismissed the defence’s claim that prosecuting Mr. Amro on such old charges constituted an abuse of justice designed to halt his activity as a human rights defender. Trial monitoring by OHCHR reveals that the Israeli Security Forces and the military prosecutors do not distinguish between violent and non-violent protest, incitement and the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression and that free speech and peaceful demonstrations are considered as acts disturbing the peace or harming public order. 81 51. On 4 September 2017, while on trial before the Israeli military court — a process which was ongoing at the time of writing — Mr. Amro was arrested under the newly promulgated cybercrime law by the Preventive Security Service. His arrest resulted from his calling into question, on social media, the arrest of the director of Al-Hurriya radio station, Ayman Al-Qawmeh, by the Palestinian Authority. Mr. Amro believes that his arrest might be linked to his exposure of a number of Palestinian officials concerning corruption issues, as well as to his candidacy for the latest Palestinian municipal elections. He was released on bail on 10 September 2017 and — at the time of writing — was awaiting a final court decision. Mr. Amro’s case is emblematic insofar as it illustrates the risks that human rights defenders face regarding arrest and prosecution by both the Israeli and the Palestinian authorities. 52. On 9 August 2017, six journalists were arrested by the General Intelligence Service under the cybercrime law in Hebron, Bethlehem and Nablus. They were released six days 78 79 80 81 12 Hassan Safadi was released on 7 December 2017. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21855&LangID=E. See A/71/355, para. 33; and A/HRC/34/36, para. 47. Military orders limit freedoms of expression and assembly (Military Order 1651, sect. 251 (b), and Order No. 101 Regarding the Prohibition of Acts of Incitement and Hostile Propaganda.