Communiqué from AURDIP and BRICUP – We are very pleased to learn that our colleague, Imad al-Barghouthi, Professor of Astrophysics at Al-Quds University, has been released from the Israeli prison….
Communiqué from AURDIP and BRICUP – We are very pleased to learn that our colleague, Imad al-Barghouthi, Professor of Astrophysics at Al-Quds University, has been released from the Israeli prison where he was held in administrative detention. Professor al-Barghouthi was arbitrarily arrested on 6 December 2014 while attempting to cross the Karama checkpoint separating the Occupied Palestinian Territories from Jordan, in order to attend a congress of the Arab Association of Astronomy and Space Sciences, of which he is a founding member.
The international campaign for the release of Professor al-Barghouthi, who was arrested and held for nearly seven weeks without being charged for any offence, in violation of Israel’s obligations under international law, has finally borne fruit. AURDIP and BRICUP are pleased to have played a prominent part in, and perhaps even instigated, it.
This small victory encourages us to pursue and intensify our efforts to promote respect for international law in Palestine. Israel’s widespread use of administrative detention, which involved 461 Palestinians in 2014 according to B’Tselem, is only one example of the disregard for international law which we shall continue to challenge so long as it persists.