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Israel Doubles Period Arabs May Be Held

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From Associated Press

The Israeli army on Friday renewed efforts to quell the anti-Israeli uprising by doubling to one year the amount of time Arabs may be jailed without being tried or charged.

Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin ordered the extension and Justice Minister Dan Meridor approved it.

“We are in a war, and sometimes residents’ or citizens’ rights are harmed in the course of a war. We have to find the right balance so that the damage would not be too serious, but on the other hand we have to allow the army to fight and win that war,” Meridor told Israel Radio.

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According to an army statement, the order requires a military judge to review each detention at least every six months.

Criticized by Washington

The use of administrative detention, under which people can be jailed without being charged or tried, has been denounced by the United States and human rights organizations.

Israel uses the administrative detentions under British emergency laws of 1945, which allowed people to be jailed six months without charge or trial. The procedure has been used frequently during the Arab uprising in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Israel defends detention without trial as an effective means of arresting Arab ringleaders without revealing its sources.

A State Department report on human rights, released in February, criticized the procedure and said that in many cases Palestinians were detained for political reasons or nonviolent activities.

Army figures released Friday said 9,136 Palestinians are in Israeli jails for offenses related to the 20-month-old uprising and that 2,111 of them are being held under administrative detention.

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An army spokesman said he did not know if the new order could be applied to those already in custody.

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