Hadash Chairman, MK Muhammad Barakeh visited today (Sunday) morning Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan, a member of the Islamic Jihad at the hospital in Safed. Adnan was hospitalized in critical condition as a result of hunger striking for over two months.
After the meeting he told journalists: “The doctor told me that if the prisoner doesn’t put an end to the strike he will cause himself irreparable physical damage. That is why we put the responsibility for any damages he suffers on Israeli government.”
The IDF’s court of appeals rejected last week the motion of Adnan, 33, a resident of the village Araba, against the four months of administrative arrest to which he was sentenced. It was the 59th day of Adnan’s hunger strike. In an unusual manner, the court’s hearing was held in Ziv Medical Center in Safed, where Adnan is held. During most of the hunger strike, Adnan was chained to his bed; according to reports, the chains were recently removed.
Israeli soldiers throw tear gas grenade as activists hand a big photo of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan, hunger striking for 62 days, during a protest to mark 7 years for the struggle against the wall in the West Bank village of Bil’in, last Friday, February 17, 2012 (Photo: Activestills)
Administrative arrest, the legal process to which Adnan is subject, is an extreme and very rare measure in most countries, and very common in Israel. It allows a person to be held without trial, without charges and without evidence for up to six months, which can be extended again and again. At any given moment, there are hundreds of Palestinians in administrative detention.
According to the Ma’an Palestinian news agency, the Israeli Supreme Court will hear a petition on Thursday against the continued administrative detention of hunger-striking prisoner Adnan. The military secretariat informed lawyer Jawad Bulus that his appeal against Adnan’s administrative detention order will go before the court in four days.
Bulus said he had requested an emergency hearing due to Adnan’s critical health condition, after he refused food for 64 days to protest his treatment by Israeli authorities and the practice of detention without charge.
The lawyer said the court had failed to take this into account by scheduling the hearing for his 68th day on hunger strike. A doctor from Physicians from Human Rights who examined Adnan said he would not survive beyond 70 days without food. On Feb. 13, Israel’s Ofer military court ruled against the appeal of Adnan’s four-month administrative detention order.
Palestinian Authority Minister of Prisoners Affairs Issa Qaraqe told Ma’an at the time that the ruling showed “utter disregard for Adnan’s life, effectively condemning him to die.” Adnan has refused food since his Dec. 17 detention in northern West Bank city of Jenin. It is the longest hunger strike any Palestinian prisoner has undertaken.
Officials say they are pressing international diplomats to save Adnan’s life. His condition has sparked widespread solidarity protests and hunger strikes in Israeli jails, Gaza and the West Bank. There are an estimated 307 Palestinians in Israeli administrative detention — held without charge — in Israeli jails.
Related:
A Palestinian hunger striker on administrative detention is in danger of dying
