NOVANEWS
Dear Friends,
All 5 items below relate to Khader Adnan, who, if my calculation is correct, today is entering his 63rd day of hunger strike. I probably won’t forward more items today, unless something urgent comes up, or if there is a change in Khader’s case.
Item 1 is a letter from Khader Adnan himself.
Item 2 is a commentary about him by Chris Knestrick, “Dying to Live.”
Item 3 is a brief note from Tamar (a lawyer who has been doing everything that she can think of to save Khader) regarding remarks that I made yesterday. Most important is her stress that Administrative Detention is legal only for cases where there is a threat to security. But in Adnan’s case, she states, “Considering medical reports Khader is not, cannot be, or rather has not been for quite a time, a security risk, he has not endangered anything or anybody except his own life. Therefore his detention is arbitrary and illegal.
Item 4 relates to Khader Adnan and more. Younes Arar, who compiled it, both tells Khader’s story and lists all other Palestinians who have engaged in hunger strike and the length of time that each continued it. Arar’s list and commentary is an important document.
The final item is Gideon Levy’s ‘Twilight Zone’ for this week. Levy devotes it to Khader Adnan.
May Khader survive, and may his desperate undertaking induce Israel’s authorities to dispense with Administrative Detention, a horrid practice that denies prisoners a most basic right: that of defending oneself against one’s accusers.
And please keep on doing all that you can to convince officials in your country, to convince members of the UN to take up the issue of Administrative Detention in general, and of Khader Adnan in particular.
Thanks,
Dorothy
1Hunger-striking prisoner not backing down
Maan News Agency | Febr 2012
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/6PRrCV/occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/a-must-read-khader-adnans-letter-from-his-prison/
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – Islamic Jihad prisoner Khader Adnan, who has been on hunger strike for 56 days, asserted Saturday that he would continue with his strike because he is defending his dignity and not fasting in vain.
In a letter from Zeiv Hospital where he is receiving treatment, Adnan said he only drinks water and that he lost 42 kilograms.
“I started my battle offering my soul to God almighty and adamant to go ahead until righteousness triumphs over falsehood. I am defending my dignity and my people’s dignity and not doing this in vain.
“The Israeli occupation has gone to extremes against our people, especially prisoners. I have been humiliated, beaten, and harassed by interrogators for no reason, and thus I swore to God I would fight the policy of administrative detention to which I and hundreds of my fellow prisoners fell prey,” Adnan wrote.
His letter, delivered by Jalal Abu Wasil, a lawyer from the Palestinian ministry of prisoners affairs who visited him in hospital, also highlighted that Adnan refused to be examined by doctors.
“Here I am in a hospital bed surrounded with prison wardens, handcuffed, and my foot tied to the bed. The only thing I can do is offer my soul to God as I believe righteousness and justice will eventually triumph over tyranny and oppression.”
“I hereby assert that I am confronting the occupiers not for my own sake as an individual, but for the sake of thousands of prisoners who are being deprived of their simplest human rights while the world and international community look on,” he wrote.
“It is time the international community and the UN support prisoners and force the State of Israel to respect international human rights and stop treating prisoners as if they were not humans.”
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2 February 18, 2012
Dying to Live
By Chris Knestrick
On December 13, Israeli soldiers entered Khader Adnan’s home and arrested him. Israel ordered him detained for four months but never charged him with a crime. The next day, he declared a hunger-strike to protest Israel’s policy of administrative detention calling for his release. He last ate 63 days ago. Still shackled, he is dying to live.
Under Israeli law, authorities are allowed to hold Palestinians and Israelis under “administrative detention” for up to six months without charging them with a crime. This six month term can be renewed indefinitely. While under detention, Palestinians can be deported to Israel and are typically held in Israeli military prisons, despite the fact that the Geneva Convention makes it illegal to transport a prisoner across international borders. These detainees have no legal access to lawyers, and their cases do not come before a judge because they have not been accused of any crime. In order to visit, their families must obtain special permits allowing them to enter Israel through checkpoints. Often these permits are denied, and some detainees have never received a visit from family.
Khader is not the only one in detention. According to Amnesty International, “he is one of 309 Palestinians currently held in administrative detention by the Israeli authorities, including one man held for over five years…”
Ahmed Owawi has another story. He is 23 years-old and was arrested on September 17th, 2011 and is currently being held in administrative detention. Ahmed is a father of three sons, Abdul Karim age four, Sewar, who is about to turn two, and Omar, who is eight months old. Ahmed’s experience with administrative detention started when he was eight years old, during the First Intifada. Since then, he has been in and out of Israeli prisons. For example, in 2008, Ahmed Owawi was arrested in his house and transferred to administrative detention. Israel extended his detention five times, totaling two years. Most of the two years has been spent in isolation cells.
Thousands of Palestinians and internationals, including Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), have joined in solidarity calling for Khader Adnan’s release and the release of all individuals held in administrative detention. In Al Khalil/Hebron, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS), an organization formed by former prisoners, is holding a 24-hour vigil calling for the end of administrative detention and freedom for all those unjustly detained. The PPS was formed inside Israeli prisons to support the 5,000 political prisoners currently held within Israel, including those under administrative detention – each one, dying to live.
Take action by signing Amnesty International’s Petition, Click here
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3 Dear Dorothy,
Yes, Israeli electronic media and only Gideon Levy in Hebrew wrote about Khader. This is not a pure chance.
And even in English, even the foreign press is not friendly ot supportive. The Khader allegedly belongs to group wants destruction of Israel – they say, so why save him? – is the implied message. Only the Independent is different.
I tried to convince journalists , HR groups , lawyers that for some time his administrative detention has been illegal by the occupation, Israeli and international law albeit they allow for administrative detention (internment in the language of Geneva Convention) however only for compelling reasons of security, as a preventive measure against a person who is a security risk. Considering medical reports Khader is not , cannot be, or rather has not been for quite a time, a security risk, he has not endangered anything or anybody except his own life. Therefore his detention is arbitrary and illegal. My efforts to convince failed with one exception: a letter demanding to cancel the illegal detention order was sent on Thursday to the authorities by a lawyer, co-signed by me. Nothing happened. As far as I know nothing really happened after a petition was filed with the HCJ also last week by another lawyer.
Have you read “The man died” – prison notes by Wole Soinka who miraculously escaped death in Nigeria?
Tamar
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4 The history of the Palestinian Captive Movement Hunger Strike and the Story of Khader Adnan
Open hunger strike or what is known as “The Battle of empty Intestines”, is the detainee’s refrain from eating all varieties and forms of food in the reach of the prisoners with the exception of water and a pinch of salt, a step that is rarely used by the prisoners; since this move is considered the most dangerous and hardest step used by detainees because of its serious- physical and psychological risks – for prisoners and in some cases, it led to the martyrdom of a number of them starting with the martyr Abdel Qader Abu Elfahm, who died in 11/7/1970, during the hunger strike of Ashkelon prison, the martyr Rasem Abu Elhalawah and Rasem Ali Jaafari, who were martyred on 24/7/1980 during the hunger strike of Nafha prison, the martyr Mahmoud Fritkh who was martyred during the hunger strike of Junaid prison in 1984, and the martyr Hussein Nemr Obaidat who was martyred in 14/10/1992 during the hunger strike of Ashkelon prison.
Usually Palestinian prisoners resort to such a move only after depleting all other struggle steps, and after the Israeli occupation authorities fail to respond to their demands through open dialogue between the struggle committee that represent detainees and the Israeli authorities. The prisoners consider the open hunger strike, a means to achieve the goal, not a goal by itself, It is also more methods of struggle, and is considered the most important, in terms of effectiveness and impact on the administration of the prison, the Israeli authorities and public opinion to achieve their humanitarian demands, as it remains first and foremost a battle of will and determination.
The first Palestinian hunger strike experience in the Israeli jails was in Nablus prison in early 1968, where the detainees went on hunger strike that lasted for three days; to protest against the Israeli occupation policy of beatings and humiliation the prisoners suffered from at the hands of Israeli soldiers, and to demand better human living conditions. And then hunger strikes rolled after that.
How does the hunger strike affect the human body?
• In the first three days the body begins to consume the “glucose” found in the blood completely, since glucose is the main source of energy for most creatures, including humans.
• After the liver starts to burn the fat in the body to produce energy for the various organs of the body, and in this phase signs of weakness, leanness and weight loss will appear on the hunger striker body clearly day by day.
• After three weeks, the hunger striker enters the stage of the so-called “starvation status” where the body begins, similar to “burn” the muscle cells and internal organs in the body for energy, causing real damage to these organs, especially that such a process produces toxic and harmful chemicals .. And then begins to lose bone marrow… And it is the most serious stage and the most threat to the life of hunger striker.
• In case the strike exceeds 50 days, the life of the hunger striker will be in real danger and risk increases by increasing the number of days that the strike continues, which depends first on the person’s health, and the nature of drinks they feed during the strike.
And according to the history of hunger strikes, there were already cases of death of the hunger strikers after 50 to 72 days, among them the case of the political prisoner ” Willmar Villar” less than a month in Cuba after only 50 days on hunger strike.
The following are the most prominent hunger strikes waged by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails:
1 – Ramle prison hunger strike in 18/2/1969, it lasted for (11) days.
2 – The Kfar Yona prison hunger strike in 18/2/1969. The strike lasted eight days, and coincided with the strike of Ramle.
3 – The Palestinian women prisoners’ hunger strike in Tirza prison in 28/4/1970, it lasted for nine days.
4 – The Ashkelon prison hunger strike in 5/7/1970. The strike lasted for seven days.
5 – The Ashkelon prison hunger strike in 13/9/1973 until 7/10/1973.
6 – An open hunger strike in 11/12/1976, which started from the Ashkelon prison; to improve the living conditions of the prisoners and lasted for (45) days.
7 – An open hunger strike in 24/2/1977, it lasted for (20) days in Ashkelon prison. It was an extension to the previous strike.
8 – Nafha prison hunger strike in 14/7/1980, and lasted for (32) days.
9 – Junaid prison hunger strike in September 1984, it lasted for (13) days.
10 – Junaid prison hunger strike in 25/3/1987, it was attended by more than (3000) Palestinian prisoners from various prisons, and lasted for (20) days. It was one of the initial contributions to the outbreak of the first intifada.
11 – Nafha prison hunger strike in 23/6/1991,and lasted for (17) days.
12 – The hunger strike of 27/9/1992, which included most of the prisons, and was attended by seven thousands prisoner, it lasted for (15) days. The prisons joined the strike as follows: (Junaid, Ashkelon, Nafha, Be’er Sheva and Nablus in 27/9, Jenin prison 29/9, Hebron prison 30/9, Ramallah prison and Telmond in 1/10, the isolation prison of Ramle in 5/10, Gaza Central Prison 10/10, while Shatta, Megiddo, Negev, and Fara participated just in solidarity with the striking prisons.
13 – The strike of 21/6/1994, which included most of the prisons, when prisoners went on hunger strike; following the signing of the Cairo Agreement (Gaza – Jericho); to protest against the mechanism carried out to release five thousand Palestinian prisoners as agreed, and it lasted for three days.
14 – The prisoners’ hunger strike in 18/6/1995 under the slogan (the release of all prisoners without exception). This strike came to move their political cause before the Taba negotiations, and lasted for (18) days.
15 – The prisoners fought indefinite hunger strike in 5/12/1998; after the release of (150) criminal prisoner instead of political prisoners, in a deal which included the release of (750) prisoners according to the Wye River Agreement and at the eve of the U.S. President Bill Clinton visit to the region.
16 – The prisoners entered the indefinite hunger strike in 1/5/2000; to protest against the policy of isolation, restrictions and the humiliating conditions to the prisoners’ families during visits imposed by the Israeli Jails Administration.
Khader Adnan’s open hunger strike
Name: KHADER ADNAN MOHAMMAD MUSA
Date of Birth: 24 March 1978
Place of residence: Arraba, Jenin
Marital status: Married with two daughters. His wife is five months pregnant with a third child.
Occupation: Baker and Master’s student in Economics at Birzeit University
Date of arrest: 17 December 2011
Place of detention: Ramleh prison hospital
Expected end of current detention order: 8 May 2012
Reason for this hunger strike: On 16 February 2012, Khader Adnan entered his 62nd day of hunger strike in protest of his administrative detention and the ill-treatment he suffered at the hands of the Israeli Prison Service. He is at grave risk of death and is refusing treatment until he is released.
History of Khader Adnan Arrests:
1. 1999, he was arrested for 4 months in administrative detention.
2. 200 – 2001, one year.
3. 2002, one year in administrative detention.
4. 2004, 6 months in the administrative detention, and he went on hunger strike for 25 days Kfar Youna prison.
5. 2008, 6 months in administrative detention.
His latest arrest:
Khader was arrested on 17 December 2011, when Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) raided his home outside Jenin at 3:30 am. Before entering his house, soldiers used the driver that takes Khader’s father to the vegetable market, Mohammad Mustafa, as a human shield by forcing him to knock on the door of the house and call out Khader’s name while blindfolded. A huge force of soldiers then entered the house shouting. Recognizing Khader immediately, they grabbed him violently in front of his two young daughters and ailing mother.
The soldiers blindfolded him and tied his hands behind his back using plastic shackles before leading him out of his house and taking him to a military jeep. Khader was then thrown on his back and the soldiers began slapping him in the face and kicking his legs. They kept him lying on his back until they reached Dutan settlement, beating him on the head throughout the 10-minute drive. When they reached the settlement, Khader was pushed aggressively out of the jeep. Because of the blindfold, Khader did not see the wall right in front of him and smashed into it, causing injuries to his face.
How to support Khader Adnan and other prisoners in this Battle?
The battle being fought by resistor prisoner Khader Adnan, is a battle of a special type that requires a quality and creative support and solidarity, and so it is not the fate of the prisoner struggling Khader Adnan and others of our leaders and our prisoners in Israeli prisons, and in order to make Khader able to avoid the same fate as “Bobby Sands” and his comrades, we must prepare and provide for this battle all the factors of victory that would force the occupation government to respond to the fair demands of our prisoners, but if the Israeli prison administration do not respond and yield to these demands, then there is no other way rather than the need to pay the price “martyrs”, the Irish way, martyrs, to afford our prisoners the chance to live in the Israeli occupation prisons with self-esteem and dignity, and close the unilateral isolation sections in which our prisoners life has become at serious and real risk.
The occupation government ministers describes the life of humiliation and indignity which our prisoners are going through in the Israeli prisons, isolation sections and cells as a five-star hotels life, this means that this government is determined to crush, break and humiliate our prisoners, and it will not respond to the fair demands of the struggling prisoner Khader Adnan and other prisoners of our people, unless it feels that there is serious support and effective and true back up and solidarity to him in his battle, which is the battle of all the Palestinian prisoners a battle that exposes and the occupation government and the Israeli prisons administration, a battle that requires us to come together and in harmony, the efforts of both the official and popular, a battle that is managed locally, regionally and internationally. A battle of special type, requires a special effort, any defeat in this battle will leave its impact and implications at the Palestinian prisoners for many years to come, including increasing the predominance of the Israeli occupation Prisons Administration towards our prisoners, and will deepen the prisoners suffering inside these stone bags.
Struggling prisoner Khader Adnan and the other prisoners have no choice but to fight this battle, either life with dignity and pride and or martyrdom for the right, homeland and a decent life, and we believe that our prisoners have the will, readiness and high morale to fight this decisive battle in the history of the Palestinian captive movement, and perhaps dating to a new stage in the life Movement captive Palestinian.
In order to enable Adnan together with our captive movement achieve decisive victory in this battle, then we have to supply them with all legitimate struggle forms and support including demonstrations, sit-ins, marches, seminars, lectures and the recruitment of all media to serve this battle, and to put the local, Arab and international institutions in the picture of our captive movement situation, the nature of their demands and causes that called on them to engage in this battle. This battle in which Khader Adnan is its spearhead, must activate all Palestinian popular, official, Arab, and International institutions to support this battle, including the internationalization of this battle, and to consider what is being practiced against our prisoners a war crime requires a warrant to bring the leaders of the Israeil Government of and the officers of its prisons administration to the international courts to try them as war criminals.
Written by: Younes Arar
The coordinator of Beit Ommar Popular Committee
17/2/2012
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5 Haaretz
Friday, February 17, 2012
Twilight Zone / ‘One man against the state’
Khader Adnan, who is protesting his detention and humiliating treatment, is about to set a record for Israel’s longest hunger strike.
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/twilight-zone-one-man-against-the-state-1.413457
By Gideon Levy
A weak, starving Palestinian man lies in Internal Medicine Department B at Safed’s Rebecca Sieff Hospital. His condition is deteriorating, one of his hands and both his feet are shackled to the bed, and prison wardens guard him day and night. He has been on a hunger strike for months. His life is in danger, and he is at risk of doing irreversible damage to his body and mind.
Khader Adnan, 33, is protesting the abuse and humiliation he says he suffered while being interrogated, as well as his long detention without trial. Next week Adnan, an Islamic Jihad activist from Arabeh, will set a new Israeli record for the country’s longest hunger strike, longer than that of peace activist Abie Nathan (45 days ), and of a group of security prisoners who went 65 days without eating in 1970.
His hunger strike is arousing considerable interest abroad. Solidarity demonstrations have been held in places around the world, as well as in Tel Aviv – but most Israelis have heard almost nothing about this. Daily solidarity protests in the West Bank go mostly unreported in Israel, as does the fact that 14 prisoners and wardens have reportedly joined his strike.
On Monday, the 58th day of Adnan’s strike, we visited his home in Arabeh accompanied by Physicians for Human Rights’s mobile clinic coordinator Saleh Haj Yihyeh. At that moment, Adnan’s wife Randa was updating the tally of days her husband had been not eating, displayed on a poster in the living room. “My honor is more important than my food,” declares the caption at the bottom of the poster, which bears the prisoner’s image. With his thick beard and round glasses, he looks like a settlement rabbi.
Arabeh is surrounded by lush green fields. Randa is raising her two small daughters, 4-year-old Ma’alia and 18-month-old Bissan, in the family home, which spans several stories. Before speaking with us, she dons a white veil that covers her face and black gloves that cover her hands.
Khader Adnan was arrested on December 17. Israeli soldiers came to this house in the middle of the night. This was his seventh detention or arrest by Israel. The first time was in 1999, when he was held for half a year without trial. After that, he spent eight months in detention in 2000; he was arrested again in 2002-2003; detained in 2004; detained for 18 months in 2005-2006 and six months in 2008.
In 2010, the Palestinian Authority arrested him for 12 days. Then, too, he went on a hunger strike, for the first time in his life. Between arrests, he worked at a pita bakery in Qabatiya and was an Islamic Jihad activist. His family says he is a political activist.
After midnight on December 17, Randa heard voices outside. Large groups of soldiers encircled the house for several hours. A bit before 3 A.M., when Adnan’s father left to start his workday as a vegetable merchant, he ran into the soldiers, who burst into the house. Adnan woke up and fled to his parents’ apartment on the second floor. Randa and the little girls remained in their apartment on the ground floor.
The soldiers immediately ran up to the second floor and pulled Adnan from the bathroom. He asked to get dressed, and they let him. Then they bound him and blindfolded him, and took him out from the house. Randa says an officer promised him that this time, his detention would be brief. While previous arrests had included a violently conducted search of the house, this time the soldiers simply arrested Adnan.
He was brought before a judge after being interrogated for 18 days at the Al-Jalama facility. The judge, at the military court in Salem, extended his remand. Randa came to court, where her husband told her the soldiers had beaten and kicked him after they detained him, as he lay on the floor of their Jeep. He told the court how he had been humiliated during interrogation: The interrogators had cursed at him, pulled his beard and told him his daughters were not his own.
The day after his arrest, Adnan launched his hunger strike to protest his lack of trial and the humiliation he suffered. That was two months ago. In the meantime, he has been sent to four months of administrative detention.
After the interrogation, Adnan was transferred to the Israel Prison Service’s medical facility in Ramle. A few days later, when his condition deteriorated, he was taken to a hospital. In recent weeks he has been shuffled through various Israeli hospitals – Bikur Holim in Jerusalem, Mayanei Hayeshua in Bnei Brak and now Sieff Hospital in Safed.
IPS spokeswoman Sivan Weizman said Adnan was being moved due to a shortage of beds. This whole time, he has been bound by one hand and both feet to his bed, and prison wardens have been guarding him around the clock.
His family says he drinks one liter of water a day, without salt. The IPS says he has agreed to accept an intravenous drip. He does not take food in any form. Last week, when his condition deteriorated, the Shin Bet and the IPS agreed to allow his wife and his daughters to visit him at the hospital, hoping they would persuade him to stop his strike. This came after a long campaign by Physicians for Human Rights.
Last week on Tuesday, Randa, Bissan and Ma’alia went to Safed. The wardens kept them from entering Adnan’s room even though the visit had been coordinated in advance. Randa recalls that several wardens were present in the room, and that her husband told her not to come in so long as they were there. Finally they compromised, and allowed two wardens to remain. Adnan hugged his daughters with his free arm and asked what was happening outside.
After 10 minutes, the wardens said the visit was over, but when Randa asked her husband to end his strike, they gave her 10 minutes more.
Adan replied firmly: “God is supporting me. Don’t request that again.”
Ma’alia asked why he was shackled, and Adnan told her to ask the wardens.
Randa says her husband is being neglected. His clothing is filthy, his nails are long and his hair is falling out, she says. He is not being untied even for prayers. He has lost about 40 kilos and is very feeble and weak, she adds.
Before she said good-bye she heard him whisper: “These are my last days. I will never forgive those who did not stand by me.” He was referring to the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli people, she says.
He is psychologically strong, “even when you can see the tears in his eyes,” she says. Her husband will agree to eat only if he is released from prison.
His lawyer, who visited him this week, told her that Adnan is already hooked up to a cardiac monitor.
“His situation is grave and very dangerous. We fear that at any moment he will become a martyr,” she says from behind her veil.
Adnan’s father, Mussa, is 72 and wears a kaffiyeh. For years Israel has been preventing him from visiting his son when he has been in prison.
“Israelis, Arabs, [French President] Nicolas Sarkozy, [British Prime Minister] David Cameron, [U.S. Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton and [U.S. President] Barack Obama – no one who tried to obtain Gilad Shalit’s release is intervening on behalf of my son. This is a power struggle of one man against a whole state, the State of Israel,” says Mussa.
“Are you Israelis in favor of a hunger strike? People are rotting in administrative detention. We fear for his life but we think he is doing the right thing. Every person must defend his honor and his freedom. No man of honor would allow his wife to be cursed the way the interrogators cursed her. The hunger strike is the prisoner’s only weapon.
“Israel is a democracy? Where is its democracy when it arrests people without trial? Gilad Shalit was abducted while fighting as a soldier in Gaza. My husband was arrested alongside his wife and daughters.”
The Israeli nonprofit organization Physicians for Human Rights took up Adnan’s case when he began his hunger strike. PHR is fighting his imprisonment without trial and has filed numerous petitions concerning his case, asking to have a physician from the organization visit him after Adnan refused to let doctors from the hospital or IPS examine him. This request was eventually granted, and a PHR doctor has been checking in on him every day for a week now.
The organization is also calling on the prison authorities to allow him to be unshackled. Chaining down a prisoner in his condition violates the IPS’s own procedures, PHR claims, and the hospitals that allow a patient to be treated this way are violating medical ethics.
“The decision to to use restraints on a patient in custody lies with the law enforcement authority responsible for him,” a Sieff Hospital spokeswoman told Haaretz.
Israel Medical Association ethics committee chairman Prof. Avinoam Reches wrote to PHR that after such a lengthy hunger strike, two wardens and no shackles should be enough. The head of Mayanei Hayeshua, Prof. Mordechai Ravid, also told PHR that he opposed shackling hospitalized prisoners, but that Adnan is no longer at his hospital.
PHR also filed a petition in the Petah Tikva District Court. In response, the IPS said Adnan was being shackled to preserve public safety.
This week, hearings over his release were held in his hospital room, due to his grave condition. For previous hearings, he was brought to the court in a wheelchair.
Dr. Calin Shapira, deputy director of Sieff Hospital, told Haaretz that he could not release details about Adnan’s condition in order to preserve medical confidentiality. Hospital spokeswoman Yael Shavit told Haaretz: “His condition is not good … we fear for his health.”
According to the Israel Medical Association, a person on hunger strike could die after 45 days. What will happen if Adnan loses consciousness and is about to die? Weizman, the IPS spokeswoman, said this week that the hospital’s ethic’s committee is responsible for deciding on treatment.
She added: “Following further examination, the Prison Service decided that the prisoner would be detained without shackles in the hospital. The service conducts frequent appraisals of prisoners’ situations, and makes decisions after reviewing all the circumstances.
“In exceptional cases, for humanitarian reasons, the service allows visits by family members and clerics. In addition, we allow visits by PHR doctors and Red Cross representatives. The hospital where the prisoner is being detained was chosen based on the facilities it offers and the availability of beds in the internal medicine ward.
“For the last two weeks the prisoner has been treated at the Sieff Hospital in Safed, in conjunction with [representatives from] PHR. As far as we know, no treatment has been administered against the prisoner’s wishes.”
entering his 63rd day of hunger strike. I probably won’t forward more today, unless something urgent comes up, or there is a change in Khader’s case.
Item 1 is a letter from Khader Adnan himself.
Item 2 is a commentary about him by Chris Knestrick, “Dying to Live.”
Item 3 is a brief note from Tamar (a lawyer who has been doing everything that she can think of to save Khader) regarding remarks that I made yesterday. Most important is her stress that Administrative Detention is legal only for cases where there is a threat to security. But in Adnan’s case, she states, “Considering medical reports Khader is not, cannot be, or rather has not been for quite a time, a security risk, he has not endangered anything or anybody except his own life. Therefore his detention is arbitrary and illegal.
Item 4 relates to Khader Adnan and more. Younes Arar, who compiled it, both tells Khader’s story and list all other Palestinians who have engaged in hunger strike, and the length of time that each continued it. Arar’s list and commentary is an important document.
The final item is Gideon Levy’s ‘Twilight Zone’ for this week. Levy devotes it to Khader Adnan.
May Khader survive, and may his desperate undertaking induce Israel’s authorities to dispense with Administrative Detention, a horrid practice that denies prisoners a most basic right: that of defending oneself against one’s accusers.
And please keep on doing all that you can to convince officials in your country, to convince members of the UN to take up the issue of Administrative Detention in general, and of Khader Adnan in particular.
Thanks,
Dorothy
1Hunger-striking prisoner not backing down
Maan News Agency | Febr 2012
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/6PRrCV/occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/a-must-read-khader-adnans-letter-from-his-prison/
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – Islamic Jihad prisoner Khader Adnan, who has been on hunger strike for 56 days, asserted Saturday that he would continue with his strike because he is defending his dignity and not fasting in vain.
In a letter from Zeiv Hospital where he is receiving treatment, Adnan said he only drinks water and that he lost 42 kilograms.
“I started my battle offering my soul to God almighty and adamant to go ahead until righteousness triumphs over falsehood. I am defending my dignity and my people’s dignity and not doing this in vain.
“The Israeli occupation has gone to extremes against our people, especially prisoners. I have been humiliated, beaten, and harassed by interrogators for no reason, and thus I swore to God I would fight the policy of administrative detention to which I and hundreds of my fellow prisoners fell prey,” Adnan wrote.
His letter, delivered by Jalal Abu Wasil, a lawyer from the Palestinian ministry of prisoners affairs who visited him in hospital, also highlighted that Adnan refused to be examined by doctors.
“Here I am in a hospital bed surrounded with prison wardens, handcuffed, and my foot tied to the bed. The only thing I can do is offer my soul to God as I believe righteousness and justice will eventually triumph over tyranny and oppression.”
“I hereby assert that I am confronting the occupiers not for my own sake as an individual, but for the sake of thousands of prisoners who are being deprived of their simplest human rights while the world and international community look on,” he wrote.
“It is time the international community and the UN support prisoners and force the State of Israel to respect international human rights and stop treating prisoners as if they were not humans.”
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2 February 18, 2012
Dying to Live
By Chris Knestrick
On December 13, Israeli soldiers entered Khader Adnan’s home and arrested him. Israel ordered him detained for four months but never charged him with a crime. The next day, he declared a hunger-strike to protest Israel’s policy of administrative detention calling for his release. He last ate 63 days ago. Still shackled, he is dying to live.
Under Israeli law, authorities are allowed to hold Palestinians and Israelis under “administrative detention” for up to six months without charging them with a crime. This six month term can be renewed indefinitely. While under detention, Palestinians can be deported to Israel and are typically held in Israeli military prisons, despite the fact that the Geneva Convention makes it illegal to transport a prisoner across international borders. These detainees have no legal access to lawyers, and their cases do not come before a judge because they have not been accused of any crime. In order to visit, their families must obtain special permits allowing them to enter Israel through checkpoints. Often these permits are denied, and some detainees have never received a visit from family.
Khader is not the only one in detention. According to Amnesty International, “he is one of 309 Palestinians currently held in administrative detention by the Israeli authorities, including one man held for over five years…”
Ahmed Owawi has another story. He is 23 years-old and was arrested on September 17th, 2011 and is currently being held in administrative detention. Ahmed is a father of three sons, Abdul Karim age four, Sewar, who is about to turn two, and Omar, who is eight months old. Ahmed’s experience with administrative detention started when he was eight years old, during the First Intifada. Since then, he has been in and out of Israeli prisons. For example, in 2008, Ahmed Owawi was arrested in his house and transferred to administrative detention. Israel extended his detention five times, totaling two years. Most of the two years has been spent in isolation cells.
Thousands of Palestinians and internationals, including Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), have joined in solidarity calling for Khader Adnan’s release and the release of all individuals held in administrative detention. In Al Khalil/Hebron, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS), an organization formed by former prisoners, is holding a 24-hour vigil calling for the end of administrative detention and freedom for all those unjustly detained. The PPS was formed inside Israeli prisons to support the 5,000 political prisoners currently held within Israel, including those under administrative detention – each one, dying to live.
Take action by signing Amnesty International’s Petition, Click here
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3 Dear Dorothy,
Yes, Israeli electronic media and only Gideon Levy in Hebrew wrote about Khader. This is not a pure chance.
And even in English, even the foreign press is not friendly ot supportive. The Khader allegedly belongs to group wants destruction of Israel – they say, so why save him? – is the implied message. Only the Independent is different.
I tried to convince journalists , HR groups , lawyers that for some time his administrative detention has been illegal by the occupation, Israeli and international law albeit they allow for administrative detention (internment in the language of Geneva Convention) however only for compelling reasons of security, as a preventive measure against a person who is a security risk. Considering medical reports Khader is not , cannot be, or rather has not been for quite a time, a security risk, he has not endangered anything or anybody except his own life. Therefore his detention is arbitrary and illegal. My efforts to convince failed with one exception: a letter demanding to cancel the illegal detention order was sent on Thursday to the authorities by a lawyer, co-signed by me. Nothing happened. As far as I know nothing really happened after a petition was filed with the HCJ also last week by another lawyer.
Have you read “The man died” – prison notes by Wole Soinka who miraculously escaped death in Nigeria?
Tamar
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4 The history of the Palestinian Captive Movement Hunger Strike and the Story of Khader Adnan
Open hunger strike or what is known as “The Battle of empty Intestines”, is the detainee’s refrain from eating all varieties and forms of food in the reach of the prisoners with the exception of water and a pinch of salt, a step that is rarely used by the prisoners; since this move is considered the most dangerous and hardest step used by detainees because of its serious- physical and psychological risks – for prisoners and in some cases, it led to the martyrdom of a number of them starting with the martyr Abdel Qader Abu Elfahm, who died in 11/7/1970, during the hunger strike of Ashkelon prison, the martyr Rasem Abu Elhalawah and Rasem Ali Jaafari, who were martyred on 24/7/1980 during the hunger strike of Nafha prison, the martyr Mahmoud Fritkh who was martyred during the hunger strike of Junaid prison in 1984, and the martyr Hussein Nemr Obaidat who was martyred in 14/10/1992 during the hunger strike of Ashkelon prison.
Usually Palestinian prisoners resort to such a move only after depleting all other struggle steps, and after the Israeli occupation authorities fail to respond to their demands through open dialogue between the struggle committee that represent detainees and the Israeli authorities. The prisoners consider the open hunger strike, a means to achieve the goal, not a goal by itself, It is also more methods of struggle, and is considered the most important, in terms of effectiveness and impact on the administration of the prison, the Israeli authorities and public opinion to achieve their humanitarian demands, as it remains first and foremost a battle of will and determination.
The first Palestinian hunger strike experience in the Israeli jails was in Nablus prison in early 1968, where the detainees went on hunger strike that lasted for three days; to protest against the Israeli occupation policy of beatings and humiliation the prisoners suffered from at the hands of Israeli soldiers, and to demand better human living conditions. And then hunger strikes rolled after that.
How does the hunger strike affect the human body?
• In the first three days the body begins to consume the “glucose” found in the blood completely, since glucose is the main source of energy for most creatures, including humans.
• After the liver starts to burn the fat in the body to produce energy for the various organs of the body, and in this phase signs of weakness, leanness and weight loss will appear on the hunger striker body clearly day by day.
• After three weeks, the hunger striker enters the stage of the so-called “starvation status” where the body begins, similar to “burn” the muscle cells and internal organs in the body for energy, causing real damage to these organs, especially that such a process produces toxic and harmful chemicals .. And then begins to lose bone marrow… And it is the most serious stage and the most threat to the life of hunger striker.
• In case the strike exceeds 50 days, the life of the hunger striker will be in real danger and risk increases by increasing the number of days that the strike continues, which depends first on the person’s health, and the nature of drinks they feed during the strike.
And according to the history of hunger strikes, there were already cases of death of the hunger strikers after 50 to 72 days, among them the case of the political prisoner ” Willmar Villar” less than a month in Cuba after only 50 days on hunger strike.
The following are the most prominent hunger strikes waged by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails:
1 – Ramle prison hunger strike in 18/2/1969, it lasted for (11) days.
2 – The Kfar Yona prison hunger strike in 18/2/1969. The strike lasted eight days, and coincided with the strike of Ramle.
3 – The Palestinian women prisoners’ hunger strike in Tirza prison in 28/4/1970, it lasted for nine days.
4 – The Ashkelon prison hunger strike in 5/7/1970. The strike lasted for seven days.
5 – The Ashkelon prison hunger strike in 13/9/1973 until 7/10/1973.
6 – An open hunger strike in 11/12/1976, which started from the Ashkelon prison; to improve the living conditions of the prisoners and lasted for (45) days.
7 – An open hunger strike in 24/2/1977, it lasted for (20) days in Ashkelon prison. It was an extension to the previous strike.
8 – Nafha prison hunger strike in 14/7/1980, and lasted for (32) days.
9 – Junaid prison hunger strike in September 1984, it lasted for (13) days.
10 – Junaid prison hunger strike in 25/3/1987, it was attended by more than (3000) Palestinian prisoners from various prisons, and lasted for (20) days. It was one of the initial contributions to the outbreak of the first intifada.
11 – Nafha prison hunger strike in 23/6/1991,and lasted for (17) days.
12 – The hunger strike of 27/9/1992, which included most of the prisons, and was attended by seven thousands prisoner, it lasted for (15) days. The prisons joined the strike as follows: (Junaid, Ashkelon, Nafha, Be’er Sheva and Nablus in 27/9, Jenin prison 29/9, Hebron prison 30/9, Ramallah prison and Telmond in 1/10, the isolation prison of Ramle in 5/10, Gaza Central Prison 10/10, while Shatta, Megiddo, Negev, and Fara participated just in solidarity with the striking prisons.
13 – The strike of 21/6/1994, which included most of the prisons, when prisoners went on hunger strike; following the signing of the Cairo Agreement (Gaza – Jericho); to protest against the mechanism carried out to release five thousand Palestinian prisoners as agreed, and it lasted for three days.
14 – The prisoners’ hunger strike in 18/6/1995 under the slogan (the release of all prisoners without exception). This strike came to move their political cause before the Taba negotiations, and lasted for (18) days.
15 – The prisoners fought indefinite hunger strike in 5/12/1998; after the release of (150) criminal prisoner instead of political prisoners, in a deal which included the release of (750) prisoners according to the Wye River Agreement and at the eve of the U.S. President Bill Clinton visit to the region.
16 – The prisoners entered the indefinite hunger strike in 1/5/2000; to protest against the policy of isolation, restrictions and the humiliating conditions to the prisoners’ families during visits imposed by the Israeli Jails Administration.
Khader Adnan’s open hunger strike
Name: KHADER ADNAN MOHAMMAD MUSA
Date of Birth: 24 March 1978
Place of residence: Arraba, Jenin
Marital status: Married with two daughters. His wife is five months pregnant with a third child.
Occupation: Baker and Master’s student in Economics at Birzeit University
Date of arrest: 17 December 2011
Place of detention: Ramleh prison hospital
Expected end of current detention order: 8 May 2012
Reason for this hunger strike: On 16 February 2012, Khader Adnan entered his 62nd day of hunger strike in protest of his administrative detention and the ill-treatment he suffered at the hands of the Israeli Prison Service. He is at grave risk of death and is refusing treatment until he is released.
History of Khader Adnan Arrests:
1. 1999, he was arrested for 4 months in administrative detention.
2. 200 – 2001, one year.
3. 2002, one year in administrative detention.
4. 2004, 6 months in the administrative detention, and he went on hunger strike for 25 days Kfar Youna prison.
5. 2008, 6 months in administrative detention.
His latest arrest:
Khader was arrested on 17 December 2011, when Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) raided his home outside Jenin at 3:30 am. Before entering his house, soldiers used the driver that takes Khader’s father to the vegetable market, Mohammad Mustafa, as a human shield by forcing him to knock on the door of the house and call out Khader’s name while blindfolded. A huge force of soldiers then entered the house shouting. Recognizing Khader immediately, they grabbed him violently in front of his two young daughters and ailing mother.
The soldiers blindfolded him and tied his hands behind his back using plastic shackles before leading him out of his house and taking him to a military jeep. Khader was then thrown on his back and the soldiers began slapping him in the face and kicking his legs. They kept him lying on his back until they reached Dutan settlement, beating him on the head throughout the 10-minute drive. When they reached the settlement, Khader was pushed aggressively out of the jeep. Because of the blindfold, Khader did not see the wall right in front of him and smashed into it, causing injuries to his face.
How to support Khader Adnan and other prisoners in this Battle?
The battle being fought by resistor prisoner Khader Adnan, is a battle of a special type that requires a quality and creative support and solidarity, and so it is not the fate of the prisoner struggling Khader Adnan and others of our leaders and our prisoners in Israeli prisons, and in order to make Khader able to avoid the same fate as “Bobby Sands” and his comrades, we must prepare and provide for this battle all the factors of victory that would force the occupation government to respond to the fair demands of our prisoners, but if the Israeli prison administration do not respond and yield to these demands, then there is no other way rather than the need to pay the price “martyrs”, the Irish way, martyrs, to afford our prisoners the chance to live in the Israeli occupation prisons with self-esteem and dignity, and close the unilateral isolation sections in which our prisoners life has become at serious and real risk.
The occupation government ministers describes the life of humiliation and indignity which our prisoners are going through in the Israeli prisons, isolation sections and cells as a five-star hotels life, this means that this government is determined to crush, break and humiliate our prisoners, and it will not respond to the fair demands of the struggling prisoner Khader Adnan and other prisoners of our people, unless it feels that there is serious support and effective and true back up and solidarity to him in his battle, which is the battle of all the Palestinian prisoners a battle that exposes and the occupation government and the Israeli prisons administration, a battle that requires us to come together and in harmony, the efforts of both the official and popular, a battle that is managed locally, regionally and internationally. A battle of special type, requires a special effort, any defeat in this battle will leave its impact and implications at the Palestinian prisoners for many years to come, including increasing the predominance of the Israeli occupation Prisons Administration towards our prisoners, and will deepen the prisoners suffering inside these stone bags.
Struggling prisoner Khader Adnan and the other prisoners have no choice but to fight this battle, either life with dignity and pride and or martyrdom for the right, homeland and a decent life, and we believe that our prisoners have the will, readiness and high morale to fight this decisive battle in the history of the Palestinian captive movement, and perhaps dating to a new stage in the life Movement captive Palestinian.
In order to enable Adnan together with our captive movement achieve decisive victory in this battle, then we have to supply them with all legitimate struggle forms and support including demonstrations, sit-ins, marches, seminars, lectures and the recruitment of all media to serve this battle, and to put the local, Arab and international institutions in the picture of our captive movement situation, the nature of their demands and causes that called on them to engage in this battle. This battle in which Khader Adnan is its spearhead, must activate all Palestinian popular, official, Arab, and International institutions to support this battle, including the internationalization of this battle, and to consider what is being practiced against our prisoners a war crime requires a warrant to bring the leaders of the Israeil Government of and the officers of its prisons administration to the international courts to try them as war criminals.
Written by: Younes Arar
The coordinator of Beit Ommar Popular Committee
17/2/2012
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5 Haaretz
Friday, February 17, 2012
Twilight Zone / ‘One man against the state’
Khader Adnan, who is protesting his detention and humiliating treatment, is about to set a record for Israel’s longest hunger strike.
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/twilight-zone-one-man-against-the-state-1.413457
By Gideon Levy
Tags: Israel police Palestinian Authority Palestinians
A weak, starving Palestinian man lies in Internal Medicine Department B at Safed’s Rebecca Sieff Hospital. His condition is deteriorating, one of his hands and both his feet are shackled to the bed, and prison wardens guard him day and night. He has been on a hunger strike for months. His life is in danger, and he is at risk of doing irreversible damage to his body and mind.
Khader Adnan, 33, is protesting the abuse and humiliation he says he suffered while being interrogated, as well as his long detention without trial. Next week Adnan, an Islamic Jihad activist from Arabeh, will set a new Israeli record for the country’s longest hunger strike, longer than that of peace activist Abie Nathan (45 days ), and of a group of security prisoners who went 65 days without eating in 1970.
His hunger strike is arousing considerable interest abroad. Solidarity demonstrations have been held in places around the world, as well as in Tel Aviv – but most Israelis have heard almost nothing about this. Daily solidarity protests in the West Bank go mostly unreported in Israel, as does the fact that 14 prisoners and wardens have reportedly joined his strike.
On Monday, the 58th day of Adnan’s strike, we visited his home in Arabeh accompanied by Physicians for Human Rights’s mobile clinic coordinator Saleh Haj Yihyeh. At that moment, Adnan’s wife Randa was updating the tally of days her husband had been not eating, displayed on a poster in the living room. “My honor is more important than my food,” declares the caption at the bottom of the poster, which bears the prisoner’s image. With his thick beard and round glasses, he looks like a settlement rabbi.
Arabeh is surrounded by lush green fields. Randa is raising her two small daughters, 4-year-old Ma’alia and 18-month-old Bissan, in the family home, which spans several stories. Before speaking with us, she dons a white veil that covers her face and black gloves that cover her hands.
Khader Adnan was arrested on December 17. Israeli soldiers came to this house in the middle of the night. This was his seventh detention or arrest by Israel. The first time was in 1999, when he was held for half a year without trial. After that, he spent eight months in detention in 2000; he was arrested again in 2002-2003; detained in 2004; detained for 18 months in 2005-2006 and six months in 2008.
In 2010, the Palestinian Authority arrested him for 12 days. Then, too, he went on a hunger strike, for the first time in his life. Between arrests, he worked at a pita bakery in Qabatiya and was an Islamic Jihad activist. His family says he is a political activist.
After midnight on December 17, Randa heard voices outside. Large groups of soldiers encircled the house for several hours. A bit before 3 A.M., when Adnan’s father left to start his workday as a vegetable merchant, he ran into the soldiers, who burst into the house. Adnan woke up and fled to his parents’ apartment on the second floor. Randa and the little girls remained in their apartment on the ground floor.
The soldiers immediately ran up to the second floor and pulled Adnan from the bathroom. He asked to get dressed, and they let him. Then they bound him and blindfolded him, and took him out from the house. Randa says an officer promised him that this time, his detention would be brief. While previous arrests had included a violently conducted search of the house, this time the soldiers simply arrested Adnan.
He was brought before a judge after being interrogated for 18 days at the Al-Jalama facility. The judge, at the military court in Salem, extended his remand. Randa came to court, where her husband told her the soldiers had beaten and kicked him after they detained him, as he lay on the floor of their Jeep. He told the court how he had been humiliated during interrogation: The interrogators had cursed at him, pulled his beard and told him his daughters were not his own.
The day after his arrest, Adnan launched his hunger strike to protest his lack of trial and the humiliation he suffered. That was two months ago. In the meantime, he has been sent to four months of administrative detention.
After the interrogation, Adnan was transferred to the Israel Prison Service’s medical facility in Ramle. A few days later, when his condition deteriorated, he was taken to a hospital. In recent weeks he has been shuffled through various Israeli hospitals – Bikur Holim in Jerusalem, Mayanei Hayeshua in Bnei Brak and now Sieff Hospital in Safed.