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"Beyond the medical, professional, and ethical failures, Khader Adnan's story demonstrates Israel's fear of addressing the main issue against which Adnan protested for so many years—the injustices of the occupation," said one human rights group.
Resistance fighters in Gaza launched a volley of rockets at Israel amid protests and a call for a general strike after Palestinian activist Khader Adnan, who had been on a nearly three-month hunger strike, died in an Israeli prison early Tuesday.
Adnan, a 45-year-old father of nine and member of the resistance group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, died in Nitzan Prison in Ramle on the 87th day of a hunger strike to protest the Israeli practice of administrative detention—indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial.
"My flesh has melted, my bones have gnawed, and my strength has weakened from my imprisonment," Adnan said in his will, written a month ago. "My dear Palestinian people… do not despair. Regardless of what the occupiers do, and no matter how far they go in their injustice and aggression, our victory is close."
\u201cHeartbreaking news: Khader Adnan has died in Israeli prison after 87 days of being on hunger strike. \n\nThis was the 10th time Israel arrested him, placing him under administrative detention. They never filed any charges against him. Never gave him a trial. \n\nThey killed him.\u201d— Fadi Quran (@Fadi Quran) 1683000901
Palestinian media report hundreds of people gathered outside Adnan's home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank town of Arraba. Randa Musa, Adnan's widow, urged Palestinians to remain peaceful.
"We do not want a single drop of bloodshed," she said. "We do not want rockets to be fired, or a following strike on Gaza."
\u201cRanda Musa, wife of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan, who had been on hunger strike for 86 days, spoke out after he died in an Israeli prison on Tuesday.\n\nAdnan had been arrested by Israel multiple times and given "administrative detention" without trial or charges by Israel\u201d— Middle East Eye (@Middle East Eye) 1683046800
The Associated Pressreports Palestinian militants launched 22 rockets from Gaza into southern Israel after Adnan's death, wounding three people—all foreigners—at a construction site in Sderot.
"This is an initial response to this heinous crime that will trigger reactions from our people," a coalition of Gaza-based Palestinian militant groups led by Hamas said in a statement.
Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees Palestinian prisoners, responded to Adnan's death by ordering the Israel Prison Service (IPS) to show "zero-tolerance toward hunger strikes."
\u201cMake no mistake: Israel killed Khader Adnan. He valiantly struggled against injustice\u2014multiple months-long hunger strikes against administrative detention\u2014until his last breath. He never enjoyed a minute of freedom but dies w his head raised high. His resilience wont be forgotten\u201d— Omar Shakir (@Omar Shakir) 1683001727
According to Middle East Eye, Adnan spent a total of 316 days on hunger strikes in various Israeli prisons over the past two decades:
Growing up under Israeli military rule, Adnan became involved in anti-occupation work from a young age.
He was first arrested by Israeli forces while he was still a student at Birzeit University in Ramallah, where he graduated with a degree in economic mathematics in 2001.
His first detention lasted four months without charge or trial. He was then rearrested and held for another year.
Over the next two decades, Adnan was arrested 10 more times, spending a total of eight years behind bars.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), an umbrella advocacy group, called Adnan a "true fighter" who waged "long battles with his empty stomach to gain his freedom."
"Today we lost a true leader," PPS said in a statement, adding that Adnan "carried the voice of Palestinian prisoners to the world."
\u201cFollowing an 87 day hunger strike, Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan died aged 45.\n\nWe hold Israel\u2019s brutal regime of settler-colonialism & apartheid solely responsible for this intentional execution of a leading Palestinian political prisoner. \n\n#FreeThemAll\n#BoycottHP\n#StopG4S\u201d— BDS movement (@BDS movement) 1683032795
Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) tweeted: "When he was arrested for the last time, Adnan again protested his detention. The hunger strike was Adnan's last resort to nonviolently protest the oppression he and his people face every day. These strikes were a protest not only against his own administrative detentions but also against its decadeslong use as a tool of political oppression against Palestinians."
PHRI continued:
For weeks, following a severe deterioration in his condition, we tried to convince the Health Ministry, Kaplan Hospital, and the Israel Prison Service to keep Adnan hospitalized. The IPS clinic was not equipped to monitor Adnan and could not provide emergency intervention in case of sudden deterioration. After visiting Adnan a few days before his death, PHRI chairperson Dr. Lina Qasem-Hassan published a medical report warning that he faces imminent death and must be urgently transferred to a hospital for observation. Unfortunately, our efforts to raise these concerns judicially and individually fell on deaf ears. Even the request to allow Adnan's family to visit him in prison—when it was clear this may be their final meeting—was denied by the IPS.
"Beyond the medical, professional, and ethical failures, Khader Adnan's story demonstrates Israel's fear of addressing the main issue against which Adnan protested for so many years—the injustices of the occupation," the group added.
PPS said Adnan is the 237th Palestinian since 1967 to die while imprisoned by Israel. According to Middle East Eye, at least seven other Palestinians previously died while on hunger strike in Israeli prisons; the last such death occurred in 1992.
\u201c\ud83d\udea8 The Israeli Prison Services' sustained practice of medical neglect, including the denial of hospital care to Khader despite a medical emergency and withholding his visitation rights, is directly responsible for Khader\u2019s death\n#EndIsraeliApartheid \nhttps://t.co/xur0m5kKdX\u201d— Addameer \u2013\u0627\u0644\u0636\u0645\u064a\u0631 (@Addameer \u2013\u0627\u0644\u0636\u0645\u064a\u0631) 1683032825
"By incarcerating him in the first place and purposely subjecting him to medical neglect the Israeli regime is responsible for Khader Adnan's death. But it is important to understand hunger strikes as acts of resistance in a context where prisoners are stripped of all agency," Palestinian academic Yara Hawari tweeted.
"Whilst it may seem that by inflicting damage on the body is oppositional to liberation, hunger strikes allow prisoners to seize back the power of life and death from the incarceration regime," she added. "This is why they have long been used as a tool of resistance around the world."
According to the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian advocacy group, Israel currently imprisons nearly 5,000 Palestinians, including more than 1,000 administrative detainees and 160 children.
Khader Adnan, a Palestinian baker, who has been detained without charge by Israeli authorities since last year and has been on a hunger strike for over 65 days will be released, according to one of is lawyers and various media outlets.
According to The Telegraph/UK:
Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan has ended his 66-day hunger strike, the longest carried out by any Palestinian prisoner, after Israel agreed to set him free on April 17.
Mr Adnan has refused food since December 18, one day after he was detained without charge. He had lost more than 40 per cent of his body weight over the past nine weeks.
Mr Adnan's wife, Randa Mussa hailed the deal as a "victory" for her husband. "He forced the occupation to give in to his demands and I hope he returns safe to us," she said.
"The Israeli court decided to release Khader Adnan on April 17 and based on that he ended his hunger strike," Palestinian prisoner affairs minister Issa Qaraqaa said.
And an Al-Jazeera report this morning confirms the Adnan's release, citing one of his lawyers:
The revelation came hours before the supreme court was to hear an urgent appeal on Tuesday for Adnan's release.
The lawyer said that a settlement had been reached for ending his detention.
The continued 'administrative detention' of the Palestinian from the West Bank had stroked global anger with protesters clashing again with police in the West Bank on Tuesday.
Israel arrested Adnan, a 33-year-old baker, on December 17 near the northern West Bank town of Jenin. Israel accuses him of being a spokesman for the Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad.
He told lawyers and human rights organisations that masked soldiers violently broke into his house, where his mother and children were present.
Adnan said that his hands were shackled behind him and that he was thrown onto the floor of the military jeep and kicked and slapped by soldiers while they took him to the settlement of Mevo Dotan.
He began refusing food a day after his arrest and is now said to be in critical condition.
Earlier, Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, urged world leaders to pressure Israel to free Adnan.
"I sent messages to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton today, and spoke with the EU and Chinese envoys," Erakat told AFP news agency.
"I asked them all to intervene in Adnan's case. They must apply pressure on Israel to release him," he said.
And Haaretz in Israel reports that Adnan will not be released immediately, but the agreement includes plans for his release in approximately two months:
According to a Justice Ministry statement, the state will not request to extend Adnan's administrative detention, which is due to end on April 17.
Adnan, who is hospitalized in Ziv Hospital in Safed, announced that he will be ending his hunger strike. Since an agreement was reached, there will not be a hearing at the Supreme Court.
Adnan continued his hunger strike longer than any Palestinian detainee before him. His doctors warned this week that the 33-year-old might die soon.
The hunger strike has transformed Adnan into a Palestinian hero, with thousands protesting in support of the once obscure bearded baker.
###
Each year, the U.S. State Department, as required by law, issues a "Human Rights Report" which details abuses by other countries. To call it an exercise in hypocrisy is to understate the case: it is almost impossible to find any tyrannical power denounced by the State Department which the U.S. Government (and its closest allies) do not regularly exercise itself. Indeed, it's often impossible to imagine how the authors of these reports can refrain from cackling mischievously over the glaring ironies of what they are denouncing (my all-time favorite example is discussed in the update here).
In 2010, the State Department included a long section on the oppressive detention practices of China. The "principal human rights problems" of the tyrannical Chinese government include "a lack of due process in judicial proceedings" and "the use of administrative detention." Indeed, "arbitrary arrest and detention remained serious problems. The law grants police broad administrative detention powers and the ability to detain individuals for extended periods without formal arrest or criminal charges." Can one even find the words to condemn these Chinese monsters?
Time's Tony Karon today writes about the case of Khader Adnan, a 33-year-old Palestinian baker currently imprisoned without charges by the Israeli government on accusations that he is a spokesman for Islamic Jihad. To protest his due-process-free imprisonment and that of thousands of other Palestinians, Adnan has been on a sustained hunger strike and is now close to death. Karon writes:
Israel has not charged Adnan with any crime . . . Israel deals with such cases using a legal framework based on emergency laws left over from British colonial rule to detain any suspect for six months at a time without needing to provide evidence or lay charges against them. When a detainee's six-month spell has expired, the detention can simply be renewed.
[...]
Of course, the U.S. has its own system of indefinite detention now firmly in place. ...
Read the rest including updates here.