Sheikh Nayef Rajoub, one of Hamas' victorious Hebron-based candidates elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council last month, is asking CPT to document Israel's administrative detention of Palestinians without charge. "I could provide you with telephone numbers of people in Hebron who have been there whom you can speak to," the Sheikh told CPT’ers Tracey Hughes, Sis and Jerry Levin. The three met with him to discuss the implications of Hamas election triumph on CPT's work in the Hebron district.

"There are thousands of Palestinians who have been detained for over sixty months. They are being tormented daily in ways that are unthinkable and inconceivable," the Sheikh claimed. "There are more than 1200 political prisoners being held without charges, without trial, without nothing! In fact," he reported, "I got out of administrative detention four months ago. This time I was arrested and detained for eight months without charges or trial."

He said the treatment he experienced is similar to the abuses of Iraqi detainees by the U. S. military that CPT has been reporting for almost three years. "In some Israeli detention/interrogation centers our young men are chained, handcuffed with their hands behind their backs and with shackles on their feet for seven consecutive days uninterrupted. They are given just enough water to keep them alive. But as soon as a detainee begins to sip water from the glass that the guard holds to his mouth, the guard will suddenly snatch it away and pour it on his head."

"Without any charge at all, the Israelis bring you in front of a judge who tells you that you are being detained because of secret violations that only he (the judge) and Israeli intelligence know," the Sheikh said. Then the torture--both psychological and physical begins. "Normally a detainee is held in administrative detention without trial for six months. Then when he is actually released, he gets on a bus. But then they take him off the bus and put him back in prison for another six months. This happens after he has called his family that he is coming home."

The Sheikh also reported that several members of Hamas who were elected to the Legislative Council are still in administrative detention. "Five are from Hebron," he said. "Some have been there for fourteen months."
The Sheikh also listed Hamas' priorities, now that it has majority control f the Legislative Council:
1. Financial corruption. Much foreign aid comes to the Palestinian authority but nobody knows where it ends up.

2. The lack of security, the lawlessness, and the chaos especially in the Gaza strip.

3. Enhancing relations with surrounding Arab countries: Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia; and, he concluded, "We are also interested sincerely with good relations with the west especially the United States and the European Union."

Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) seeks to enlist the whole church in organized, nonviolent alternatives to war and places teams of trained, peacemakers in regions of lethal conflict. Originally a violence-reduction initiative of the historic peace churches (Mennonite, Church of the Brethren and Quaker), CPT now enjoys support and membership from a wide range of Christian denominations)