The Israeli government has adopted a draft law entitled “The Imprisonment of Combatants not Entitled to Prisoner of War Status”. If passed, this would undermine basic principles of international humanitarian law and enable the continued detention of Shaykh ’Abd al-Karim ‘Ubayd and Mustafa al-Dirani as hostages. The bill passed its first reading in the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) on 21 June 2000.
