Y Care International delight as YMCA worker freed in East Jerusalem

10 June 2003

Y Care International has expressed its delight at the release from Israeli prison of a Palestinian colleague from one of its partner organisations, the East Jerusalem YMCA. But it will continue to campaign for those who remain behind bars.

Nabeel Hamed Hamadna, who was arrested by the Israeli authorities in November last year in Nablus in the West Bank, works for the YMCA helping to find jobs for young Palestinians. He spent six months and an extra four days in administrative detention – detention without charge or trial, which should have ended on 30 May.

Another colleague, Adnan Naeem Abdullah of the YMCA’s Vocational Training Centre in Aqabat refugee camp, near Jericho, is still imprisoned by the Israeli authorities under administrative detention. He was arrested on 3 January, when he was visiting his sick mother in Bethlehem. He was sentenced to six months’ detention without charge or trial.

Two students from the YMCA’s vocational training centre are also still being detained. Ali Mohammed Ali Al-Filali, a 19-year-old office equipment maintenance student, was sentenced on 3 June to 101 days in prison, without being charged, following his arrest on 17 May. He is currently being held in Ofra prison, near Ramallah.

Ibrahim Abdel-Rahman Mohammed Jindiyyeh is being held under administrative detention, following his arrest on January 16.

Y Care International’s Director, Dr Christopher Beer, who visited the West Bank and Gaza towards the end of last year, said: “We are strongly opposed to administrative detention, which impedes the work of humanitarian agencies, like the YMCA, that work to create peaceful alternatives for young Palestinians."