Amnesty urges Israeli authorities to release 'mentally ill' 20-year-old Palestinian Ahmad Manasra

Amnesty International has urged Israel to ‘immediately’ release Ahmad Manasra, a 20-year-old Palestinian man who was arrested seven years ago as a child. 

He has reportedly developed serious mental problems since his arrest as a 13-year-old. 

Manasra was first arrested in 2015 and was ‘harshly interrogated’ and threatened by Israeli authorities, according to Amnesty. He was placed in solitary confinement in early November 2021, and has been there ever since. 

Ahmad Manasra, a 20-year-old Palestinian man now, has developed mental health problems since his arrest as a child 7 years ago.

He is one of many Palestinians whose rights have been swept up in #Israel’s deeply flawed justice system. He must be released!https://t.co/J0OTCpzx1Q

— Amnesty MENA (@AmnestyMENA) June 17, 2022

He has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and suffers from psychotic delusions, depression, and suicidal thoughts. 

“Ahmad Manasra has been subjected to a catalogue of injustices by the Israeli authorities, including deleterious effects of incarceration on his development and prolonged solitary confinement,” said Heba Morayef, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa in the press release.

“He endured ill-treatment during interrogations, which were conducted without his parents or lawyers’ presence, and was denied the right to a fair trial. He should have been released a long time ago, yet he remains in unnecessary suffering in Israeli prisons.” 

🇮🇱 imprisoned Ahmad Manasra when he was 13. Put him in isolation, beat him, tormented him for almost 7 years. He’s in Ramleh hospital, doctors say his mental health state is horrifying.
Quick to convict and torture a boy, but a soldier that assassinated Shireen, that’s hearsay. pic.twitter.com/leEgYbfnPq

— #UncensorPalestine (@MariamBarghouti) June 16, 2022

Israel has a long record of human rights abuses against Palestinians, including children.

The widespread use of administrative detention without trial goes back decades. Israel's continued occupation of Palestinian land and its persecution and violence against Palestinians have been defined as apartheid by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

“Israel’s widespread and systematic use of arbitrary arrest, administrative detention and torture on a large scale against Palestinians is a flagrant violation of international law, and is a key component of the apartheid system,” said Heba Morayef.

“Ahmad Manasra is one of countless Palestinians, whose rights as a child, have been swept up in Israel’s deeply flawed justice system, and he must be released,” she added.