The Carceral History of Occupied Palestine

Executive Summary

This white paper documents Israel’s carceral regime as the backbone of its occupation, not an institution meant to promote security. Since 1967, Israel has arrested about one million Palestinians, an average of 47 per day for 58 years. Yet, Israel has historically kept prison head-count near 6,000 at any one time, fluctuating during escalations, but reverting to the mean quickly. As of May 2025, Israel holds 10,068 Palestinians in confinement, but only 1,455 are sentenced, while 3,190 await trial and 3,577 languish under administrative detention without charge. Meanwhile, administrative detention has exploded after Israel’s 2023 genocide in Gaza, jumping from 350 to 2,373 detainees per month—a seven-fold surge that now accounts for nearly one-third of all prisoners.

Tel Aviv enforces its carceral system with movement barriers and draconian laws. The West Bank now suffers from almost 900 checkpoints, gates, and roadblocks, up from 645 in 2023, paralyzing daily life. In the first half of 2024, the IDF conducted 3,384 documented search-and-arrest operations across the West Bank. In April 2025 alone, Israeli forces conducted mass raids resulting in 530 arrests, including 60 children and 18 women, across cities, towns, and refugee camps in the West Bank. Meanwhile, in late 2024, the Israeli Knesset passed Amendments to their existing laws legalizing collective punishment and permitting life sentences for children at 12.

Washington has bankrolled this oppression. Since 1948, Congress has appropriated an inflation-adjusted $383.75 billion in aid, promising at least $3.8 billion in annual aid since 2016, while rushing to give Israel $14.1 billion in April 2025 to underwrite their genocide. Unlike other countries, money for Israel arrives as an immediate lump-sum, lets Israel earn interest, and flows through lightly-scrutinised Direct Commercial Sales that speed up U.S. weapon approvals to their military, prison guards, and settlers alike.

Israel’s carceral system, its military courts, administrative detention, torture, deportations, and child imprisonment constitute a comprehensive and deliberate apparatus of domination. The system is sustained by U.S. money, weapons, and diplomatic cover. To uphold international law and Palestinian rights, the system must be dismantled entirely, and U.S. support must end.