The measures it applies, combining elements of colonial administration and [[martial law]], cover not only incidents involving recourse to violence but many other activities, non-violent protests, political and cultural statements and the way Palestinians are allowed to move or associate with each other.{{sfn|Hajjar|2005|pp=3–4}} Some of the problematic facets of the system Palestinian prisoners are subject to are, according to sociology professor [[Lisa Hajjar]]; prolonged detention of suspects incommunicado, impeding a client's access to his lawyer, the routine use of coercion under interrogation to obtain confessions and the introduction of "secret evidence".{{sfn|Hajjar|2005|p=5}}
Writing in 1978 Michael Goldstein called the detention system "an aberration of criminal justice", but temporary in nature and dictated by an ongoing war situation. He credited Israel with refraining from making it part of their judicial, as opposed to military, system.{{sfn|Goldstein|1978|p=43}}
In a five-month period of the [[First Intifada]], Israel put 1,900 Palestinians under an [[administrative detention]] order.{{sfn|Playfair|1988|p=413}} For the decade from 2000 to 2009 it was estimated that at any one time anywhere between 600 and 1,000 Palestinians were subjected annually to administrative detention.{{sfn|Hoffnung|Weinshall–Margel|2010|p=159}}
Amnesty International stated that in 2017 Israeli authorities continue to adopt administrative detention rather than criminal prosecution to detain "hundreds of Palestinians, including children, civil society leaders and [[Non-governmental organization|NGO]] workers, without charge or trial under renewable orders, based on information withheld from detainees and their lawyers", and that administrative detainees numbered 441.{{sfn|AI|2018b|pp=208–209}}
