Last week I wrote here about the arrest of two young Palestinians, sons of my friend M. from the West Bank city of Ramallah. M. told me that Israeli special forces burst twice into the family home within the space of two days. The first night they dragged his son Ahmed out of his bed. Two nights later, they returned and took his brother Yasser. The two boys were each arrested by the troops, and each time the family was herded into one room and told to wait there for the soldiers to leave. Almost three weeks have passed since these arrests, and the family still has no news about the brothers' situation.

Their father and I go way back. He and his family fled the Gaza Strip and took refuge in Ramallah when Hamas took control in 2007 because, as a journalist, he was considered an enemy. I don’t know why the two sons were detained. I knew them as children when I covered the Gaza Strip for Israeli media outlets. I find it hard to believe they are suspected of membership in a terror organization. On the other hand, I also find it hard to believe they were arrested for no reason. However, all attempts to find out what has happened to them and what exactly they are suspected of have been so far unsuccessful.

These incidents and the fact that my friends’ children cannot defend themselves legally, or at least have the opportunity to try and clear their names, reveal a difficult reality. It made clear to the family, and also to me, that Palestinians detained by Israel are often denied access to legal counsel and banned from meeting with a lawyer for at least 30 days from the day of their arrest. The only possibility to meet a lawyer earlier is if the detainee confesses to the suspicions against him. But by that time a legal defense is almost useless. All that is left is to wait for the sentence to be pronounced.

Amnesty International referred to this issue in its annual human rights report published this week. According to the report, “The authorities continued to substitute administrative detention for criminal prosecution, holding hundreds of Palestinians, including children, civil society leaders and NGO workers, without charge or trial under renewable orders, based on information withheld from detainees and their lawyers.”