On September 6, 2015, four human-rights organizations, including Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and HaMoked, petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court to revoke the amendment to the Prisons Ordinance, “Preventing Hunger-Strike Damages”, which was recently approved by the Knesset. In the petition, the organizations claim that the amendment purports to be legislation concerned with saving the lives of hunger strikers, whereas in fact its very essence is to break hunger strikes by prisoners and silence their protest.
The organizations further claim that the amendment contradicts the Patient Rights Act, medical ethics and international law – the legal and ethical frameworks that have previously guided physicians. Moreover, the amendment establishes a separate medical norm for Palestinian prisoners, allows the subjection of medical decisions to security-political considerations, and grants immunity to medical professionals who act against their ethical-medical commitments towards their patients. The petition also elaborates on why the procedure of force feeding hunger strikers constitutes cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment that might amount to torture, all of which are prohibited under both Israeli and international law.
The petition was filed as part of a long struggle waged by these organizations, headed by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, from the very first stages of the bill, one seeking to misuse physicians in order to avoid negotiations with hunger strikers protesting against arbitrary and harmful policies and practices employed by the Israeli government (foremost, administrative detention). The struggle reached its peak during Mohammed Allan’s hunger strike, but the medical community in Israel withstood the test and proved that it would follow medical ethics and that there is no place for this kind of iniquitous legislation. However, there are now already several other hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners and this law cannot be allowed to continue posing a threat over the hunger strikers and the medical community in Israel.
