“Their fate is in our hands” – a call to action for the striking prisoners by Khader Adnan

Samidoun

 

Khader Adnan writes in gratitude for the support he was given while on hunger-strike and calls for solidarity with the prisoners:

In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah.

Dear free people of the world. Dear oppressed and disenfranchised around the globe. Dear friends of our people, who stood with me with a stern belief in freedom and dignity for my people and our prisoners languishing in the Occupation’s prisons.

Dear free women and men, young and elderly, ordinary people as well as intellectual elites everywhere – I address you today with an outpouring of hope and pain for every Palestinian that suffers from the occupation of his land, for each of us that has been killed, wounded or imprisoned by the state of terror, that denies anything beautiful in our lives, even the smile of our children and families. I am addressing you in my first letter following my release – praying it will not be the last – after Allah granted me freedom, pride and dignity. I was an “administrative detainee” in the jail of occupation for four months, out of which I have spent 66 days on hunger strike.

I was driven to declare an open-ended hunger strike by the daily harassment and violation of my people’s rights by the Israeli Zionist occupation. The last straw for me were the ongoing arrests, the brutal nighttime raid on my house, my violent detention, during which I was taken to the “Mavo Dotan” settlement on our land occupied 1967, and the beatings and humiliation I was treated to during arrest interrogation. The way I was treated during the interrogation at the Jalameh detention center, using the worse and lowest verbal insults in the dictionary. After questioning, I was sentenced to imprisonment under administrative detention with no charges, which proves mine and others’ arrests serve only to maintain a quota of prisoners, to harass us, to restrict our freedom and to undermine our determination, pride and dignity.

I write today to thank all those who stood tall in support of my people, with our prisoners, with Hana al-Shalabi and with myself. I call on you to stand for justice pride and dignity in the face of occupation. The assault on the freedom and dignity of the Palestinian people is an assault on free people of the world by a criminal occupation that threatens the security, freedom and dignity of all, no matter where.

Please, continue in exposing this occupation, boycotting and isolating it internationally. Expose it’s true face, the one that was clearly exposed in the attack of an Israeli officer on our Danish cohort. Unlike that attack, the murder our people is a crime that goes by unspoken of and slips away from the lens of the camera. Our prisoners are dying in silence. Hundreds of defenders of freedom are on hunger strike inside the prisons, including the eight knights, Bilal Diab and Thaer Hlahalh, who are now on their 61st day of hunger strike, Hassan Safadi, Omar Abu Shalal, Mahmoud Sarsak, Mahmoud Sarsal, Mohammad Taj, Jaafar Azzedine (who was arrested solely for standing in solidarity with myself) and Ahmad haj Ali. Their lives now are in great danger.

We are all responsible and we will all lose if we anything happen to them. Let us take immediate action to pressure the Occupation into releasing them immediately, or their children could never forgive us.

Let all those free and revolutionary join hands against the Occupation’s oppression, and take to the streets – in front of the Occupation’s prisons, in front of its embassies and all other institutions backing it around the world.

With deep appreciation,
Khader Adnan

Khader Adnan calls for urgent action as Diab and Halahleh’s health declines

Samidoun

 

Freed prisoner Khader Adnan called out for emergency night marches and rallies in support of Bilal Diab and Thaer Halaleh, following reports that Bilal and Thaer’s health has deteriorated greatly as they enter their 63rd day of hunger strike. Jawad Boulos of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society reported that Bilal Diab fainted suddenly today during a legal visit at the prison hospital.

Diab issued a statement, saying “We call upon all of the progressive forces of the world and all of our people who care for our national cause, and ask all human rights organizations and medical associations to urgently visit Ramle prison hospital to see with their own eyes the untold suffering around the clock. I thank all who have stood with us in the battle of the flesh and the sword…On day 63 of the hunger strike, I am aware that I am in the final phase of this battle of “biting the fingers” and that we are holding our position seriously and responsibly….I will continue the strike until freedom or martyrdom.”

Boulos also reported that Thaer Halahleh, also in Ramle prison hospital, had been kept on the hospital floor for five hours, and was cursed and threatened by the on-call physician, who wished him dead, and then briefly transfered to a hospital off-site before being returned to Ramle. Halahleh is feverish, vomiting bile and bleeding from the mouth. He called upon the United Nations to act, saying “I am in my 63rd day of hunger strike, I call on you for immediate intervention to save life in the face of the danger of imminent death at any moment. According to doctors, I am aching all over my body and have lost my immune system. Before it is too late, end continued administrative detention against me and all prisoners held without charge. This is contrary to international law, and you consider yourselves protectors and observers for their implementation, and ask states to apply the Geneva Conventions. Why do you not ask this of the occupier Israel, is this state a state above international law that is not held accountable for its crimes? Is it not your motto that human rights are most precious?”

The Prisoners Society also reported that hunger striker Muhammad Halas was moved to the prison hospital after 12 days without food, while Ahrar Centre for Prisoners Studies director Fuad al-Khafsh said, as reported by the Palestine Information Centre, that hunger striker Mohammed al-Aruri’s health is deteriorating, as he is not only on hunger strike since April 12 but also refusing medications for Thalassaemia, to protest his confinement under administrative detention. He emphasized the seriousness of al-Aruri’s medical state, saying that he must be released immediately in order to receive treatment, and called for international attention to his case. Aruri’s administrative detention was extended a third time with no charge or trial on the 5th of April, prompting his strike. He has been denied family visits and Red Cross doctor’s visits since 2011.

'Hunger strike a signal to world's oppressed'

Khader Adnan recounts his 66-day fast in Israeli jail that has made him a symbol of Palestinian resistance.
21 Apr 2012Linah Alsaafin Al Jazeera

Adnan's 66-day hunger strike inspired others in Israeli prison to do the same [EPA]

When Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan called his mother at 11:30pm on Tuesday night, she burst into tears. "He told me, 'Mother I am on my way home,'" she said. “For the first time in months my heart was at ease again." For Palestinians, Khader Adnan has become a symbol of resistance and steadfastness, or sumoud, after he waged a 66-day hunger strike against the Israeli prison service. He began his hunger strike immediately after his violent arrest by Israeli soldiers on December 17, 2011. He was detained under what Israel calls "administrative detention", a policy adopted from the era of the British mandate. Under administrative detention, Israel can detain a prisoner for up to six months, renewable indefinitely, without ever charging the prisoner or presenting any evidence against them.

There are currently more than 4,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, over 300 of those, in administrative detention. Adnan’s hunger strike, which eventually attracted international media attention and solidarity from around the world, inspired other administrative detainees to go on hunger strike. Hana Shalabi went on strike for 43 days before she was released and deported from her village in the West Bank to Gaza. Five others are now in the Ramleh prison hospital, including Bilal Thiab and Thaer Halahleh, who have not eaten for 52 days. After more than two months without food, Adnan’s lawyer brokered a deal in February with Israeli officials that saw him released on April 17. Coincidentally, that is the same day Palestinians commemorate Prisoners Day, which was marked this year by the open-ended hunger strike of 1,600 prisoners.

Sahar Francis, director of the Ramallah-based rights group Addameer, saw Adnan's hunger strike as a catalyst for this current mass hunger strike movement. "I definitely think the successful hunger strike of Khader Adnan and his release was a main feature in inspiring the 1,600 prisoners to carry out this act now, which is a continuation of what they began in September 2011," he says. "It should be noted that a successful hunger strike depends a lot on internal support, international pressure from the EU and UN, and the policy of the Israeli prison authorities."

Khader Adnan, who was was reunited with his family just before midnight on Tuesday, after visiting the families of the prisoners in Arrabeh, seven of whom are serving life sentences, later spoke to Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera: You've undergone the most difficult experience of your life and have been separated for months from your family. Why did you first stop by the families of other prisoners before seeing your own, and how does it feel to be free again?

Khader Adnan: Every day we live through Prisoners’ Day and its special symbolism. I went to see the families of those imprisoned before seeing my own family as a token of appreciation for their support during my imprisonment and their enduring anguish at having loved ones behind the bars of the Israeli occupation.

My freedom is incomplete because of the prisoners who I've left behind. We salute all of the prisoners; Lina Jarbouni [the longest serving female prisoner], Sheikh Ahmad Hajj [the oldest prisoner on hunger strike], Omar Abu Shalalah, Jaafar Ezzedine, Hassan Safadi, and of course Thaer Halaleh and Bilal Thiab.

I was received by Bilal Thiab's mother in [the nearby village of] Kufr RaI and relayed to her his message of endurance and commitment to his hunger strike.

After 66 days of refusing food, you spent 53 days recuperating. Did the treatment at the hands of the Israeli officers during your imprisonment improve after you ended your hunger strike?

No, not at all. Up until the last day in the prison hospital they would embark on ways to humiliate me, such as opening the door to stare at me whenever I would use the bathroom or shower.

When I was hunger striking, they would purposely eat and drink in front of me. They would insult me, call me a dog. One told me that they still haven't done anything to me yet. Their manners are so unscrupulous.

They tried to provoke me by repeating that my wife was unfaithful to me, and that my daughters were not mine. What else could they do? They banned the media from covering my case, proof that they are afraid of the truth.

Even after I ended my hunger strike, as I was being transferred from the hospital in Safad to Ramleh, they did so in a way so that no one could see me.

They kidnapped me and pushed me through an inner garage. My appeal was held in the hospital cafeteria! Is Israel that afraid of showing its true face to the world?

How did you manage to find the resilience and strength in continuing your hunger strike, especially after the three times your family visited you?

[Hurried laugh] I don't know how I did it. All strength comes from God, and when I began my hunger strike I knew that it would be until freedom or death … sometimes I am puzzled myself!

Israel granted permission for my family to see me not out of the goodness of their own hearts, but because they thought that the sight of my family would be enough to pressure me into eating again. It achieved the opposite effect, and I was further inspired to challenge my jailers.

I've spent many sleepless nights from the pain my body was going through. However, my family's happiness, my people's happiness, and the free people's happiness all over the world made me forget that I've ever experienced pain throughout my hunger strike.

Sixteen hundred Palestinian prisoners are on their third day of an open-ended hunger strike in Israeli jails demanding improved living conditions, including the right to family visits and the right to receive family photographs. Will this tactic succeed in translating a popular resistance movement outside of the prison walls amongst Palestinians?

My stance will always be with the prisoners, whether next to them, behind them, or in front of them. From the Gaza Strip to the West Bank to the '48 territories and the exile, every Palestinian is obliged to stand united.

We are all the children of the same cause, and one people living under the same occupation. I saw so much support from our family in 1948 Palestine, from the Palestinian doctors and nurses, the Palestinians in Haifa, the school girls from Nazareth who wrote an assignment on me … I will never forget their love.
The mass hunger strike is a signal to all oppressed and vulnerable people everywhere, not just Palestinians. It's a message to everyone suffering from injustice, under the boot of oppression. This method will be successful, God willing, and will achieve the rights of the prisoners.

I ask God to move the consciences of the free people around the world. I thank them all, especially Ireland, for they have stood by my hunger strike. I ask them to stand in solidarity with all the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in the past, present and future, with our tortured and oppressed people who live under the injustice of occupation day and night.

As the Palestinian prisoner to go on the longest hunger strike and survive, how does it feel becoming a symbol not just for Palestinian steadfastness but for resistance among other oppressed people?

During my days in the [Meir Ziv] hospital in Safad, occupied pre-partition Palestine, I was reminded of the holiness and the glory of this land. Being close to the resisting countries of Lebanon and Syria all gave me further incentive to defy the Israeli prison authorities, which I don't recognise.

I have barely presented anything worth of value to the Palestinian cause. I work at a bakery and sell zaatar, and will continue to do so to remind every Palestinian that their roots are deeply entrenched in this land, among the olive trees and the zaatar.

Detainee Khader Adnan Released

April 17, 2012 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Sheikh Adnan Khader, a leader of the Islamic Jihad who went on hunger-strike for 66 consecutive days demanding an end to his illegal detention without charges or trial, was released by the Israeli Prison Authorities at midnight on Tuesday.

Khader Adnan After His Release - Facebook Page of Palestinian Picture Society

The Maan News Agency reported that Adnan arrived in his home town of Arraba, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, and immediately went to the protest tent to show solidarity with detainee Ja’far Ez Ed-Deen, who has been on hunger strike for twenty days.

Maan said that hundreds of residents and several political and social leaders marched to Adnan’s home welcoming him and saluting his determination and steadfastness that led to the end of his illegal Administrative Detention.

Marking Palestinian Prisoners Day on April 17, the Palestinian Central Census Bureau and the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees issued a joint release revealing that 201 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons since 1967 due to torture, medical negligence, and by live ammunition. 76 of them died in Israeli prisons since late 2000.

The Bureau added that 4700 detainees are currently imprisoned by Israel, this includes 6 women, 185 children and 27 elected legislators.

What Palestinian political prisoners are fighting for

March 20, 2012 Ameer Makhoul The Electronic Intifada

Khader Adnan’s hunger strike was in protest of Israel’s entire system of repression.

(Issam Rimawi / APA images)

The case of the freedom fighter Khader Adnan reminds us of where the strength of the Palestinian people lies. This is the strength that was squandered and dissipated in the Oslo process and the pursuit of a state at the expense of national liberation.

With his historic hunger strike and his heroic resolve in his fight against the occupying state, Adnan has reaffirmed an important principle of resistance to colonialist regimes: when the people, or individuals, who are their victims remain resolute, the world will react. Sympathy turns into solidarity, and that in turn can nurture a growing movement of support for the struggle which is capable of shaking the foundations of the colonialist system.

His case has also confirmed the fact that the colonizer’s agencies can never protect its victim. Its project can only be defeated by breaking the dominance of those agencies and the rules they enforce.

Adnan’s battle for life and dignity is a model to be emulated in the Palestinian liberation struggle. It has lessons to offer the participants in that struggle, including prisoners and international solidarity activists, on how their work can be integrated.

Campaign of defiance

Adnan seized the initiative and declared an open-ended hunger strike to protest against his imprisonment under an administrative detention order. His aim was clear: to defy both the order and the Israeli system of oppression. He also was seeking to serve notice that Palestinians refuse to accept the treatment meted out to them by the occupation authorities.

The campaign he triggered illustrated how the components of popular struggle can be brought together. Inspired by the prisoner’s determination, Palestinians in the 1948 territories responded quickly. A popular media and mobilization campaign was rapidly launched, both locally and internationally. A variety of youth and other grassroots organizations became immediately involved, as did prisoners’ families and political groups.

This activism soon spread to the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem. It also spread among the Palestinian diaspora and spawned a formidable worldwide movement.

Prisoners in Israeli jails also launched a campaign to champion, support and share the responsibility with Adnan. They adopted the principles of organized collective escalation, which began by rejecting meals and refusing to receive supplies (the prison authorities responded by closing off the open-air courtyards and preventing the prisoners from leaving their cells). Growing numbers also declared open-ended hunger strikes.

Israel’s weak link

The prisoners knew that their battle was not with the prison authorities per se, but the occupation state as a system, with all its extensions and institutions. But the prison authorities were the weak link within the security apparatus on which pressure could be applied. The prisoners thus sent a message to the government of Israel that Adnan speaks for them all and warned of the consequences of endangering his life.

The prison authorities in turn urged the government to resolve Adnan’s case as quickly as possible in order to forestall the growing unrest among the prisoners. In effect, the prisoners’ message was received.

The Israeli security apparatus was extremely worried when the hunger strike continued and Adnan’s condition became critical. They were not concerned for his life, but feared his death could help trigger a new Palestinian intifada, including in the 1948 territories.

The strategy of rapid, multi-faceted action proved its effectiveness. In addition to Palestinian action, a major and influential role was played by international solidarity movements. This pressure, coupled with fear of what would happen if there was an explosion of Palestinian anger, prompted even the US and European countries to make statements in the last few days of the hunger strike against the administrative detention of Adnan.

One of the major strengths of the campaign to support Adnan was that it told his personal human story, as well as of his life in politics and his struggle, in a manner that successfully conveyed both his suffering and his resolve. Adnan’s story also embodied the essence of the Palestinians’ experience and their quest for their rights and freedom, and serve to expose Israel’s essence for what it really is.

This was more effective at moving people than mere facts and figures — important as they are — could have been. The main part in the drama was played by the prisoner himself. Adnan’s family, wife, father and children also played heroic roles.

Bankruptcy of “moderation”

This battle highlighted the bankruptcy of the discourse of “moderation” which Israel and the US have foisted on the official Palestinian leadership. This moderate stance claims that if we Palestinians wish to secure international support, we must adopt a moderate posture. In practice, this means voluntarily accepting the oppressive controls imposed by the globalized terror of the state. “Moderation” here means abandoning the right to resist the occupying state.

Yet what we have just witnessed is that the world lends support when Palestinians themselves fight back and stand firm, regardless of their political affiliation. The ability to affect and move international public opinion and secure effective wide-scale solidarity was not the outcome of a public relations strategy but of a real struggle on the ground to stand up to the oppressive colonialist machine.

In all cases when an Israeli administrative detention by military order has been legally challenged — or an emergency regulations provision such as a ban on traveling or entering the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 — the Israeli high court has always upheld the policies of the military, security and intelligence services.

What happens in court is that the judge asks the Palestinian challenging the order, whether he is an Israeli citizen or not, to authorize the Israeli judges to see the “secret evidence” which the victims and their lawyers are not allowed to see or know. If the victim agrees, the judges rule on the basis of the “secret evidence” and invariably agree with the finding of the security agencies, normally issued in the name of a relevant minister or military leader.

Should the victim refuse to trust in the honesty or credibility of the occupying state, the legal challenge is in effect over, as the judges will throw it out and blame the victim for its failure.

Dangerous notions

During the Adnan campaign, a number of Palestinian political leaders, human rights activists and media outlets used the argument that if Israel had any evidence against Adnan, it should have brought him before an ordinary court. Others have suggested that the success of his campaign should inspire a new one against the use of administrative detention orders in general.

These are dangerous notions, particularly when coming from people of standing and influence. Israel is an occupying state and a colonialist entity. Even international law protects the victims of occupation and prohibits their transfer to prisons within the borders of the occupying state. Therefore, both administrative detention and the “ordinary” occupation prisons are equally illegal.

Moreover, what is “evidence” supposed to mean here? Evidence of resisting the occupation? Resisting the occupation is legitimate: it is the Israeli occupation and colonization, with its settlements and courts, that are illegitimate. Have the thousands of Palestinian and Arab prisoners in Israeli jail been legitimately sentenced? They have all been tried on “evidence” that is mainly secret and neither they nor their lawyers are allowed to see.

There is another factor. Israeli academic studies have proven unequivocally the scale of scandalous discrimination in the sentences handed down by judges in criminal cases. The sentences given to Palestinian citizens of Israel are much harsher than those given to Jewish Israeli convicts. So what can one expect when the judge representing the occupying state adjudicates on a charge of resistance by victims of this occupation?

Our battle

The real concern for the people under occupation is not whether the detention of their sons or daughters was carried out using an Israeli administrative order or a military or civilian court order. The oppression, repression and plunder are the same no matter which tool the occupation uses. Adnan’s battle is a fight against the whole colonialist project and not just one of its tools.

But when Palestinian leaders and human rights activists declare that the next step is to escalate the campaign against administrative detention orders, it indicates weakness or faulty vision.

The battle against Israeli emergency laws is a battle for the Israelis, not for the Palestinian people. The battle for the Palestinians, and all in the world who oppose occupation and colonialism, is against the occupation and the occupying state, and for national liberation, recovery of the homeland and the return of its people who are refugees and exiles.

The case of Adnan proves that victory over the colonialist project is not a mission impossible. It is possible. And it has renewed and strengthened the hope that the Palestinian people are capable of energizing their free will — the will for victory.

Ameer Makhoul is a Palestinian civil society leader and political prisoner at Gilboa Prison.

This article is co-published by Al Akhbar English and translated from Arabic.

Adnan’s Health Condition is stable after Surgery at Ziv Hospital

Tuesday, 28 February 2012 Palestinian News Network

On Tuesday, lawyer Ra'ed Mahammed from the Palestinian Prisoner's Society, stated during his visit to Khader Adnan in Ziv hospital in Safad that the prisoners health condition is now stable following surgery.

According to Mahamed, Khader Adnan suffered from severe abdominal pain for two days before he was escorted to hospital for an examination. The doctors found that Adnan had an obstruction in his intestine, a consequence of 66 days of hunger strike and needed immediate medical intervention.

Islamic Jihad leader suspended his hunger strike last week, following the agreement between the societies lawyer Jawad Bolus and the public prosecution in Israel that they will not renew his administrative detention after he has finished the four month period, taking into account the interrogation period from 17th September 2011, and are now treating him until he has totally recovered.

Adnan's family said that they received a phone call at dawn from the representative of the "doctors' organization for Human rights" in which he said the emergency surgery that was performed on Adnan, due to obstruction in the arteries of the stomach, was successful. Adnan has left the operation room in the hospital where he was detained for a month.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Society called for the immediate release of Adnan and condemned the Israeli authority for the administrative detention and holds them fully responsible for Adnan's health and full recovery.

Khader Adnan ends hunger strike - court to "erase" his file and release him on April 17

Israel agrees to free Khader Adnan on April 17 as part of a deal to end his 66-day fast over his illegal detention.

21 Feb 2012 Al Jazeera

A Palestinian detained by Israel, Khader Adnan, has agreed to end his 66-day hunger strike as part of a deal under which he will be released without charge, sources tell Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh, reporting from Adnan's hometown of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, quoted officials as saying on Tuesday that "Adnan has informed his lawyers that he has suspended his hunger strike and agreed to the offer to serve his sentence until April 17".

A spokesperson for the Israeli Supreme Court earlier told Al Jazeera that based on the deal reached between Adnan's lawyers and the Israeli justice ministry, he would end his fast in return for the court's decision to "erase" his file and release him on April 17, ending his "administrative detention".

Israel's supreme court had been expected to hear an urgent appeal by Adnan's lawyer later on Tuesday, but the hearing was cancelled after news of the deal became public.

“This man had no charges until now, no interrogation came up with any conclusions, no evidence against him. This is the truth, this is the reality," Jawad Bulus, one of Adnan's lawyers, told Al Jazeera.

"After three weeks of severe interrogation they shifted him as administrative detainee, where no charges could be faced. The only phrase that came out of them is that this man is a prominent activist in the Islamic Jihad of Palestine, which can be said against anybody in the world."

Potent symbol

Adnan has become a potent symbol of protest against Israel's practice of holding suspects without trial.

The continued detention of the 33-year-old Palestinian from the occupied West Bank had led to global anger, with protesters clashing with police on Tuesday in the latest such incident in the occupied West Bank.

Israel arrested Adnan, a baker by profession, on December 17 near the northern West Bank town of Jenin.

Adnan has broken the record for the longest hunger strike by a Palestinian prisoner

Israel accuses him of being a spokesman for the Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad.

Adnan's protest has seen him break the record for the longest hunger strike by a Palestinian prisoner, with the previous record set in 1976 when a group of prisoners refused food for 45 days.

Married for seven years, Adnan has two small daughters, Maali, four and 18-month-old Bissan. His wife, Randa, is five months pregnant with a baby boy.

Speaking to the AFP news agency on Monday, his wife described him as a determined man with very strong principles who would "stick to his message, even if he has to sacrifice his life".

"For him, a principle is a principle," she said.

Adnan is one of some 5,000 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails, and one of more than 300 currently being held in administrative detention.

His case sparked expressions of concern from the EU and the UN, and has gained widespread support among Palestinians.

Roseanne Barr and former Obama official join criticism of Israel as Khader Adnan on day 65 of hunger strike

Feb. 20, 2012 Electronic Intifada

Demonstrators spray graffiti with the image of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan, hunger striking for more than two months, during a protest to mark 7 years for the struggle against the wall in the West Bank village of Bilin, February 17, 2012.

(Oren Ziv / ActiveStills)

American actress and comedian Roseanne Barr and former Obama administration State Department official Anne-Marie Slaugher are among the growing number of people to join criticism of Israel’s use of administrative detentions of Palestinians highlighted by the 65 day hunger strike of Khader Adnan.

Meanwhile, social media campaigns have helped bring more attention to Adnan’s fight, even though time for him may be running out.

Adnan is gravely ill, and his lawyers fear he may not live until 23 February, when the Israeli high court has agreed to hear a petition against his detention without charge or trial. Adnan was seized from his West Bank home by Israeli occupation forces on 17 December. Israel says Adnan is a member of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, but has not charged him with any crime.

On Sunday, Twitter users trended the hashtag #KhaderExists to the number one spot worldwide to bring attention to Adnan’s hunger strike.

Slaughter, a professor at Princeton University, who served as Director of Policy Planning for the United States Department of State from 2009-2011 tweeted, “#KhaderExists and should be charged or released” and provided a link to a 12 February Guardian article on his case.

Solidarity with Khader Adnan

by Stephen Lendman Feb 18th, 2012 Indybay.org

Day 62 and counting. Adnan's hunger strike continues. On February 15, Israel let his wife Randa see him for the second time.

She said "(h)is health has drastically deteriorated from the last time I saw him" a week ago. "I expect the worst. He insists on continuing with the hunger strike." He wants to live but will die for justice.

PLO official Saeb Erekat said Abbas pressed Russia, China, Britain, and EU authorities to help during meetings with acting EU representative to Palestine John Gatt-Rutter, UK Consul-General Vincent Fean, Russian representative Alexander Rudakov, and Chinese PA ambassador Yang Wei Guo.

He also contacted Washington, EU Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland, and France. Nothing so far materialized. Western leaders provide one-sided support for Israel. Expect nothing from them for Adnan.

He's held administratively without charge. He committed no crimes yet faces imminent death. He lost over a third of his weight. His life force is slowly ebbing. His muscles, heart, stomach, and immune system are dying.

His entire system could stop functioning any time. Israel wants him dead. So far, pleas on his behalf are ignored. The Palestinian Council of Human Rights Organizations (PCHRO) called for emergency action to save him. So did Samidoun, the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. It demanded his immediate release before it's too late.

On February 16, the Carter Center "called on the Israeli government to immediately charge or release" Adnan. His "case highlights the inconsistencies of Israel's administrative detention policies with internationally recognized rights to due process."

On January 24, the Carter Center denounced Israel's arrests of Palestinian legislators, including PLC Speaker Aziz Dweik. Uncharged, he and others were sentenced to six months administrative detention.

Jimmy Carter said:

"These men are guilty of nothing more than winning a parliamentary seat in an open and honest election, which was monitored by the Carter Center in (January) 2006."

"The detention of Speaker Dweik and other Palestinian legislators appears to be an attempt to hamstring the PLC in order to prevent Palestinian reconciliation and a prospective election later this year. We urge that (they) be released."

In contrast, Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU High Foreign Affairs and Security Representative Catherine Ashton issued a weak-kneed statement, saying:

"The EU requests the government to do all it can to preserve the health of Mr. Adnan and handle this case while abiding by all legal obligations under international law. The EU reiterates its longstanding concern about the extensive use by Israel of administrative detention without formal charge."

EU countries express concerns without teeth. As a result, Israel breaches international law with impunity.

Arbitrary administrative detention (AD) is illegal. Prisoners may be held indefinitely. They aren't told why. Alleged secret evidence is unavailable to defense lawyers. They can't dispute it, examine witnesses, or present contradictory evidence refuting it.

AD's permitted only "in time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation," and only for the shortest possible time.

Israel uses it indiscriminately. Hundreds are imprisoned this way. AD should never substitute for customary criminal proceedings, except during short-term emergency conditions.

Adnan's one of hundreds of victims. After Friday prayers, thousands rallied supportively for him in Gaza. Crowds chanted, "We are all Khader Adnan." Hundreds also demonstrated in Jenin and other West Bank cities and towns. So did hundreds more in Israeli prisons.

Islamic Jihad (IJ) said his death won't go unnoticed. It promised to respond violently if he dies and continue resisting. IJ leader Nafez Azzam accused Arab states and Western powers of ignoring him, saying:

"Shame on the nations of hundreds of millions (of Muslims) for the fact that Khader Adnan is still in prison."

An IDF spokesman lied saying Adnan "threaten(ed) regional security." In fact, he owns a bakery, fruit and vegetable shop. Calling himself a local leader, he served as Islamic Jihad's spokesman. He committed no violence or other crimes.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said:

"The Palestinian people, with all its components and its factions, will never abandon the hero prisoners, especially those who lead this hunger strike battle."

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said his health remains at risk even if he starts eating because his system's acclimated to no food.

Major Media Response

US major media scoundrels ignore him. They support Israel's worst crimes. Others abroad noticed belatedly. On February 16, London Guardian writer Harriet Sherwood headlined, "Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan 'near death' in Israel detention," saying:

After two months without food "shackled to bed in an Israeli hospital," he risks imminent death. Petitioning Israel's High Court for help, one of his lawyers, Mahmoud Kassandra, said:

"This is the last chance. The medical report says he could die at any minute. We hope this will succeed but I am not optimistic."

So far, no Court hearing's been scheduled. It rarely intervenes in these type issues, but can convene on short notice other times.

Hundreds of Palestinians are held administratively without charge. "Many protesters say Adnan has become a symbol of Israel's occupation and its treatment of prisoners."

On February 17, London Independent writer Donald MacIntyre headlined, "Khader Adnan: The West Bank's Bobby Sands," saying:

In mid-December, Adnan was seized violently "at 3:30am by some scores of Israeli military and security personnel who surrounded the family home" south of Jenin.

Weak after two months without food, he faces "immediate danger of death." Though activist for years, "his family insists that he has never been involved in violence; nor has he been charged with it. Indeed, on this occasion, he has not been charged with any crime."

He's Palestine's Bobby Sands and an Arab Street hero. He declares his honor's "more precious than food." His sister Maali called him a model father who "loves life" and "wants to end administrative detention."

His wife Randa said he told one of his lawyers, "I do not want to go to oblivion or death. But I am a man who defends his freedom. If I die it will be my fate."

A Final Comment

In a letter written earlier, Adnan said the following:

“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.”

“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."

"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.”

A supportive Voice from Palestine letter to him said, in part:

"Dear brother, dear comrade,

As you continue to defy oppression and as you continue to struggle for freedom, in your name and in the name of every Palestinian and in the name of every conscientious human, listen to the voices around you."

"Listen to the voices of the walls of the dungeon that hold you captive. Listen to their silent whisper, shameful of imprisoning your dignified spirit, shameful of burying you alive, shameful of you and your steadfastness. Listen to your body break the limits of hunger, break the limits of pain."

"Listen to your willpower break the walls of the dungeons. Listen to your courage defeat oppression. Listen to your voice break the silence. And listen to the voices beyond your dark cold cell; listen to the voices rising high and growing strong with every day and every hour. Listen to them chant your name. Listen to them demand your freedom. Listen to them repeat your words: my dignity is more precious than food."

"Listen to the thousands of Palestinian prisoners locked up behind Zionist bars. Listen to them in interrogation cells, defying the torture, refusing to surrender and say: we are Khader. Listen to them in dark dungeons, defying harassment, fighting against injustice and say: we are Khader."

"Listen to them on sick-beds, defying the pain, defying medical negligence and say: we are Khader. Listen to them in isolation cells, defying time and place, defying death and say: we are Khader. Listen to their voices penetrate the walls of the dungeons, cut distances between one Zionist jail to another and unite all Palestinian prisoners."

"Listen to them say: Khader, you are not alone, your message is ours, your struggle is ours, your pain is ours, your hunger is ours."

"Listen to your "Zionist jailers.....Listen to them as they sweat cowardice with every minute of your hunger strike. Listen to their faces cracking. Listen to their fear. Listen to their silence. Listen to their disgrace. Listen to their inhumanity."

"They wish you to lose your willpower. Tthey wish you to surrender. They wish you to die, because with every day, with every hour, with every minute of hunger strike you expose them, expose their hypocrisy, expose their lack of conscience."

Palestinians, the Arab Street, and thousands worldwide support him in solidarity. We're all Khader Adnan.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com

Khader Adnan’s Hunger Strike

Weekend Edition February 17-19, 2012 Counterpunch

4

Valiance in the Face of Cruelty

by CHARLOTTE SILVER

A month ago only those who had met him knew Khader Adnan. Now all of Palestine and people across the world know his name and his cause.

Before December 17, when Khader was arrested for the eighth time from his home in Jenin, he was one of thousands of Palestinians living in the Occupied Territories who had entered and re-entered administrative detention.

Administrative detention allows Israel to hold Palestinian prisoners without charging them, and potentially indefinitely. There is no specification as to why each person is held and the length of the detention has no legal limits.

In its very essence administrative detention is dehumanizing; its effects are to homogenize the Palestinian population and strip each man, woman and family that encounters it of his or her singularity and personal identity. Each person who enters administrative detention is the same as the one who came before, and the one who will follow. This endless cycle of incarceration paints all those who pass through it with the same brush, rendering the Palestinian population indistinct.

“The essence of totalitarian government and perhaps the nature of every bureaucracy, is to make functionaries and mere cogs in the administrative machinery out of men, and thus to dehumanize them.”

Hannah Arendt wrote these words after observing the trial of Nazi leader, Adolf Eichmann, in Jerusalem. What is perhaps so remarkable about this sentence is the ambiguity of whom she is speaking. Arendt’s words note that both the oppressors and the oppressed become agents of, or cogs in, a regime of totalitarianism. In this understanding, there is no room in a system of oppression for individuals.

But Khader’s unbearably long hunger strike has stopped this process, clearing the fog of bureaucracy that turns humans beings into mechanisms allowing them to disappear into the monochromatic fabric of administrated tyranny.

He told his lawyers, “I am a man who defends his freedom. If I die it will be my fate.”

Khader is a graduate student of Economics, a father of two girls, a husband to Randa, who is pregnant with their third child, and a member of Islamic Jihad. He is a political activist and a baker at a pita shop, Qabatiya, near his home in Jenin.

We cannot know the internal process by which Khader came to his decision to engage in a hunger strike that may end his life. He began the strike as soon as he was detained, so it seems certain that he was neither surprised that he was detained yet again, nor unprepared for a different and meaningful response.

In a letter he wrote from an Israeli hospital on day fifty-six of his strike, Khader stated, “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.”

But we do know that when Khader entered administrative detention on 17 December, he made the decision to interrupt the routine of administrative detention, a system whose banality defines its power.

His reaction, to go on hunger strike, marked a radical departure from obediently waiting out his sentence, as the steady stream of Palestinian detainees had done before him. After Khader refused his meal, Israeli soldiers proceeded to beat him, rip hair from his beard, smear dirt from a soldier’s shoe onto his face, force him into painful stress positions and verbally degrade female members of his family.

Even as Khader nears the end of his sixty-second day, the weakened man remains shackled to his hospital bed by both his feet and one hand—in a strange and symbolic recognition of how threatening and powerful this act truly is.

The might of Khader’s humanity and his valiance in the face of cruelty will not be met with a just response. There is no just response a master can give to a slave—for justice would see the end of the master/slave relationship. And while Khader’s strike will not and cannot lead to the end of Israeli tyranny over Palestinians, it is certainly a profound denial of its power to erase the humanity of Palestinians.

Khader has shown the face of a Palestinian. He has etched his name onto the hearts and thoughts of all who became aware of his plight, and in his quiet, agonizing determination he shows the world the man who Israel murdered with its savage weapon of “administrative detention.” That is a profound feat and for it, we owe Khader Adnan our deepest gratitude.

Charlotte Silver is a journalist based in Ramallah, West Bank and currently the editor of The Palestine Monitor. Her work has appeared in Al Jazeera English, Al Akhbar English,Truthout and other publications. She can be reached at charlottesilver@gmail.com

Hunger striker Khader Adnan's father says son's morale is "high" and appeals to parents of Gilad Shalit

Feb. 15, 2012 Electronic Intafada

Khader Adnan is in good spirits and his morale is as high as the sky, said his father today, despite 60 days of hunger strike that puts him at risk of imminent death.

Jihad Khader Adnan spoke today after visiting his son at Ziv Hospital where he is being held, manacled to the bed, according to reports.

A YouTube video shows Adnan’s father speaking in Arabic to reporters and supporters shortly after the visit.

Jihad Adnan said of his son, “He does not undertake this hunger strike for its own sake, but he yearns for freedom for his people, for his countrymen, in order to live with heads held up high, without occupation.”

He said his son’s condition was “stable” and “his morale is lifted to the sky.” Adnan is being held by Israel as an “administrative detainee” without charge or trial. Earlier this week an Israeli military court rejected Adnan’s appeal against the detention.

Jihad Adnan also addressed the Israeli people directly, thanking those who had shown support for his son, calling for his freedom, and appealed to the parents of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was held as a prisoner of war in Gaza for five years until last October.

“My son was arrested from his house, from among his wife and children, and was taken prisoner. He was not carrying any weapon,” Jihad Adnan said, “Whereas [Gilad] Shalit was fighting against the people of Gaza, and destroying their homes, and firing on them, and Shalit was released.”

“Where are the mother and father of Gilad Shalit? Do they not feel for me in this humanitarian case? Where are they?” Adnan added.

Jihad Adnan accused Israeli officials of cruelty and wanting his son dead as soon as possible. He also admonished regional leaders for their silence, and said his son would continue his hunger strike. He hoped to see his son “home again among his loved ones.”

Dire condition

Meanwhile, Physicians for Human Rights Israel revealed more information regarding Khader Adnan’s dire medical condition, from a doctor who examined him:

When I met the patient, he had been on hunger strike for 52 days, shackled to his bed by both legs and one arm, and was refusing to undergo tests and medical treatment. He has lost 30 kgs and weighs 60 kg. He suffers from stomach aches, vomiting, sometimes with blood, and headaches. As of today, he is completely lucid and aware of his medical condition, without confusion or disorders in cognition or perception. His general condition is pale and very weak, his tongue is smooth, he has slight bleeding from the gums, dry skin, loss of hair, and significant muscular atrophy.

His pulse is weak, blood pressure 100/75. He is permanently connected to a heart monitor.

Israel military rejects Khader Adnan appeal as hunger striker’s wife urges intervention to spare his life

Feb. 13, 2012 Electronic Intafada

“My husband is dying inside an Israeli jail. The world should make sure I am able to see him… And it should pressure the Israeli government to release him before it’s too late.”

Those are the words of Randa Adnan, the wife of Khader Adnan who is entering his 59th day on hunger strike, in a passionate and urgent appeal published the day an Israeli military court rejected his appeal against a 4-month “administrative detention” order.

Palestinian prisoner’s rights group Addameer reported today that:

The Israeli Military Appeals Court dismissed the appeal against Khader Adnan’s administrative detention order today, 13 February 2012. The court decision orders Khader to remain detained for the full duration of his four month administrative detention order, to be expired on 8 May.

Today’s decision follows the inconclusive Appeals Court hearing that took place on 9 February in a hospital room at the Zif Medical Center in Safad due to his critical medical condition. The decision comes as Khader Adnan persists in the 58th day of his ongoing hunger strike and his health continues to deteriorate.

The group warned that:

Addameer holds Israel accountable for the life of Khader Adnan, whose health has entered an alarmingly critical stage that will now have irreversible consequences and could lead to his fatal collapse at any moment.

Full text of Addameer’s statement

Israel’s Military Appeals Court Confirms Four Month Administrative Detention Today

Ramallah, 13 February 2012 - The Israeli Military Appeals Court dismissed the appeal against Khader Adnan’s administrative detention order today, 13 February 2012. The court decision orders Khader to remain detained for the full duration of his four month administrative detention order, to be expired on 8 May. Today’s decision follows the inconclusive Appeals Court hearing that took place on 9 February in a hospital room at the Zif Medical Center in Safad due to his critical medical condition. The decision comes as Khader Adnan persists in the 58th day of his ongoing hunger strike and his health continues to deteriorate.

In the Appeals Court decision confirming Khader’s administrative detention, Judge Moshe Tirosh stated that according to the secret material available to the judge but not available to Khader or his lawyers, the court decision was “balanced”. He also commented that the secret material confirms that Khader Adnan is a political leader in the Islamic Jihad party. In his decision, Judge Tirosh completely disregarded Khader’s lawyers’ numerous arguments, including the lack of evidence that Khader Adnan has carried out any activities providing grounds for detention; that administrative detention is used in an arbitrary manner; and that affiliation to a political party is aligned with the right to freedom of expression, assembly and political association.

Furthermore, in response to Khader’s statement during the appeals hearing on 9 February, which outlined the details of the torture, inhuman and degrading treatment to which he was subjected by Israeli Occupying Forces since his arrest, the military prosecutor stated that these allegations were exaggerated and did not take place in the way Khader described. In commenting on Khader’s life-threatening health condition, Judge Tirosh stated that only Khader is to blame for his physical health condition as a result of his choice to continue his hunger strike and that his medical condition will not influence the administrative detention decision.

Addameer lawyer Samer Sama’n was also able to visit Khader in Zif Medical Center in Safad today. According to Khader, Israeli Prison Service (IPS) forces carried out an extensive search of his room on 10 February, despite the fact that throughout his stay in the hospital room, IPS forces have continued to shackle one arm and his opposite leg. Khader also stated that yesterday, 12 February, IPS personnel threatened to shackle all four of his limbs for reasons that were unclear to him.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel doctors were permitted to visit Khader today and conduct medical examinations. This examination is only the third since he began his hunger strike. His medical condition, already at a life-threatening stage, continues to deteriorate and he is experiencing extreme pain. For more details on his current medical condition, please refer directly to Physicians for Human Rights.

Addameer condemns the Israeli Appeals Court Judge Tirosh’s confirming decision in blatant disregard of Khader Adnan’s life-threatening condition. Addameer further protests the Israeli Appeals Court’s blatant exploitation and violation of international law to guise its illegal and sweeping policies, including the categorization of all Palestinian parties as terrorist parties, and also protests the inaction in pursuing serious investigation into Khader’s claims of torture, abuse and inhuman and degrading treatment. Addameer holds Israel accountable for the life of Khader Adnan, whose health has entered an alarmingly critical stage that will now have irreversible consequences and could lead to his fatal collapse at any moment.

Addameer holds the international community responsible for not taking action to save Khader’s life. Addameer demands that the European Union, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross intervene with Israel immediately before it is too late. Addameer further hails all local and international solidarity efforts made on Khader’s behalf and urges individuals to continue calling attention to this most urgent matter.

Hundreds in Israeli jails join hunger strike

Palestinian inmates join Khader Adnan, who has gone 56 days without food or water to protest his pre-trial detention.

Feb 12, 2012 Al Jazeera

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have joined a fellow inmate on a hunger strike, after human rights groups reported the original protester's life was in danger.

Khader Adnan, widely believed to be a leader of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, has been refusing food and water since he was detained on December 17, without trial or charge.

Jamil Khatib, Adnan's lawyer, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that an appeal against his detention will likely be decided by an Israeli military court on Monday.

On Thursday, Adnan appealed his detention without charge before an Israeli military judge sitting in a special session in hospital.

His hunger strike, longer than any Palestinian prisoner before him, according to Palestinian officials, is in protest over what he calls his unjust detention and mistreatment by Israeli authorities.

Human Rights Watch on Saturday called on Israel to "immediately charge or release" him.

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement that Israel should "immediately end its unlawful administrative detention" of Khader Adnan and "charge or release him".

Administrative detention

Adnan was arrested from his house in the occupied West Bank on December 17, and given a four-month administrative detention order by an Israeli military court on January 10.

Hundreds of Palestinians, protesting outside Ofer Prison in the West Bank in solidarity with Adnan on Saturday, were dispersed by Israeli soldiers using rubber bullets and tear gas.

An Israeli military spokesman said that protesters had "hurled rocks at security forces".

In addition, two Israelis and two Palestinians were arrested in a separate rally for Adnan in the West Bank village of Beit Omar, the military and activists said.

There are currently some 310 Palestinians in administrative detention, a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold prisoners indefinitely without charge or trial.

"Israel should end, today, before it's too late, its almost two-month-long refusal to inform Adnan of any criminal charge or evidence against him," Whitson said.

Mistreatment allegations

On Friday, Robert Serry, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process, called on Israel "to do everything in its power to preserve the health of the prisoner and resolve this case while abiding by all legal obligations under international law".

Adnan’s wife, Randa, complained that medical staff were treating him badly after she visited him in hospital on February 7, the first time since his detention.

His health is deteriorating, she said, adding that a doctor had "mocked him when he asked for water and said that he should also stop drinking water".

"A lot of the hair on his face and head has fallen off. He has not been allowed to shower or wash during all his time in detention, nor is he allowed to wear warm clothes in this cold weather," Randa said.

Israeli Appeals Court Decision Delayed in Disregard of Khader Adnan’s Critical Medical Condition

Ramallah, 9 February 2012 – Addameer reiterates its grave concern for the life of Khader Adnan, who received no decision today in the appeal against his administrative detention order. On the 54^th day of his hunger strike, Khader’s health has entered an alarmingly critical stage that will likely have irreversible consequences and could lead to his fatal collapse at any moment. He stated that he will remain steadfast in his hunger strike until he is released.

Khader’s appeal hearing took place today, 9 February, at Zif medical center in Safad and was attended by his lawyers, including two from Addameer. His hands and feet were shackled while he was moved from his room in the hospital to a different room for the court hearing. During the hearing, the shackles were removed from his hands only. Israeli military appeals judge Moshe Tirosh did not reach a decision on Khader’s appeal of his 4-month administrative detention order and is expected to make a decision within the coming week, though any delay may prove fatal. The legal discussions of the hearing are not public, as per the Israeli standards of administrative detention.

A Physicians for Human Rights-Israel doctor was able to visit Khader yesterday, 8 February. This examination was only his second since he began his hunger strike. Because Israeli Prison Service guards did not grant Khader and the doctor privacy during the examination, Khader did not feel free to discuss the full extent of his condition. For more details on his current state, please refer directly to Physicians for Human Rights.

On 7 February, Khader’s wife, Randa, and his two young daughters were permitted to see him for the first time since his arrest on 17 December. His wife described his shocking appearance, noting that his body had shrunken significantly, that he had ulcers covering his face and tongue and that his hair, beard and nails were extremely long. He told her that he had not been allowed to shower or change his clothes or underwear since his arrest. His 4-year-old daughter repeatedly asked her mother, “Why is he tied to the bed? Why does he look like this? Why can’t he come home with us?” During the visit, both his legs and his right hand were shackled to the bed and soldiers stayed in the room the entire time. Nevertheless, he remained mentally aware and was able to fully express his love for his family. Khader’s unwavering hunger strike is in protest of the inhuman and degrading treatment he has been subjected to since his arrest despite his deteriorating health and of Israel’s ongoing policy of detaining Palestinians without charge or trial.

Addameer holds the Israeli Occupying Forces accountable for Khader’s life-threatening condition and also holds the international community responsible for not taking action to save his life. Addameer demands that the European Union, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross intervene with Israel immediately before it is too late. Addameer further hails all local and international solidarity efforts made on Khader’s behalf and urges individuals to continue calling attention to this most urgent matter.

****

ACT NOW!

Here is how you can help Khader Adnan:

Write to the Israeli government, military and legal authorities and demand that Khader Adnan be released immediately.

• Brigadier General Dani Afroni
  Military Judge Advocate General
  6 David Elazar Street
  Harkiya, Tel Aviv
  Israel
  Fax: +972 3 608 0366; +972 3 569 4526
  Email: arbel@mail.idf.il; avimn@idf.gov.il
• Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi
  OC Central Command Nehemia Base, Central Command
  Neveh Yaacov, Jerusalam
  Fax: +972 2 530 5741
• Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak
  Ministry of Defense
  37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya
  Tel Aviv 61909, Israel
  Fax: +972 3 691 6940 / 696 2757
• Col. Eli Bar On
  Legal Advisor of Judea and Samaria PO Box 5
  Beth El 90631
  Fax: +972 2 9977326

Write to your own elected representatives urging them to pressure Israel to release Khader Adnan and to put an end to such an unjust, arbitrary and cruel system of incarceration without trial.

Interview: Ex-prisoner reflects on friendship with Khader Adnan and his hunger strike for justice

Bekah Wolf

The Electronic Intifada

9 February 2012

Palestinians in Ramallah rally in solidarity with Khader Adnan and other political prisoners, 7 February 2012.

(Fadi Arouri / Xinhua)

Mousa Abu Maria spent nearly five years, from 1999 to 2003, in Israeli prisons. He spent an additional 14 months, from 2008 to 2009, in administrative detention (without charge or trial). He, like current hunger striker Khader Adnan, was subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment and torture as part of his interrogation. In 2001, he shared a cell with Adnan.

Abu Maria, a member of the popular committee in the West Bank village Beit Ommar and co-founder of the Palestine Solidarity Project, spoke to Bekah Wolf about Khader Adnan, who is being held by Israel without charge and has entered his 55th day of hunger strike.

Bekah Wolf: How do you know Khader Adnan?

Mousa Abu Maria: We met in 2001 or 2002 in Askelon prison. He was an organizer in the prison, because it wasn’t the first time he’d been in jail. He used to lead classes about Palestinian history and the uprising. Prison was like a university in those times and he was one of the professors.

BW: What was he like as a person?

MAM: Most [foreign] people think if you have a beard or you’re a member of Islamic Jihad, you just sit and pray all day. Khader would joke around, just like anyone else. He’s my age, we were young, we were like any other young people. He would try to make us feel like we weren’t in prison, like we were in a dorm room. He was always organizing the prisoners, which of course got him in trouble with the guards. He was often put in solitary confinement, but would come out and continue what he was doing before.

BW: He began his hunger strike to protest how he was treated during his interrogation. He was held in stress positions, beaten and insulted. Is that similar to what you experienced?

MAM: This is what the occupation forces do to activists. They try to show how they have control over you. They want to say, maybe you had power [as an organizer] outside, but in here [prison] we have complete control. They would force me to sit with my hands cuffed to my ankles, on a tiny chair that was tilted over so that I was in a crouching position for hours, day after day. It is both very painful and a psychological torture. You can’t lift your head, you can’t look them in the eye. They want you to feel that you do not own yourself, that they own you, and you do not have any power to resist.

BW: What about the beating and insults? What is the purpose?

MAM: Again, it is just to show control, to break your will to resist. They know you have been an activist and that you have internal strength to resist. They have to break that from you. Sometimes it’s to try to get information from you but many times it is just to break your will. That’s why you go on hunger strike. It is the only thing you can control: what you eat, what you put into your body. It is the way to show that you can still resist. You are showing your captors and your comrades, but you are also showing yourself, giving yourself strength that you are still resisting, that they haven’t taken everything away from you.

BW: Khader is now striking to protest being in administrative detention. You were in administrative detention for 14 months. Can you explain what it is and why it is inspiring a man to die rather than live under such conditions?

MAM: First of all, I do not believe Khader wants to die. That is not in his mind. We all went on hunger strikes before, to protest conditions of our imprisonment. He is showing his commitment to resistance in the only way he can right now, with his own body.

Administrative detention is also a psychological attack on a person. You are held, without knowing what you are accused of, but most importantly, without knowing when the imprisonment will end. When you are convicted, you can accept in your mind what is happening, and put it aside, and plan and hope for the day when you are released.

Administrative detention does not allow you to do that. Because you never know when you will be released, you are in constant turmoil. Your family is also in turmoil. You remember when I thought I was going to be released. The guards told me to pack my things, and I sent a message to you through another prisoner that I was being released. They even drove me to the gate of the prison, with all of my things, and I thought, after 12 months, I was being released, I would see my wife and family again.

And then they said it was a joke, and put me back into the jeep and brought me back to the prison. It destroys your soul. Your mind can only experience so much loss of power before you start to destroy yourself. It takes a huge amount of strength not to fall into despair. This is a powerful reason for Khader going on hunger strike. I believe he needs to feel that they [occupation forces] are not in full control of him. They can control when he sees his family, when he will be released, all of that — but he has control over something now, something they cannot take away from him. The goal of any occupation force is to demonstrate their total power over the people, so that they will not resist. Khader is showing himself, and all of us, that the power to resist is always in our hands. Occupation forces cannot take that away from us.

BW: Mousa, you were in jail for more than six years. You were beaten so badly during your interrogation for your first imprisonment that they had to take you to the hospital. You’ve had your house raided in the middle of the night several times, and any time you know they might take you away and put you in administrative detention again, even if you haven’t done anything. How do you continue working with the popular struggle? How do you keep resisting?

MAM: People like me, like Khader, like Bassem Tamimi [imprisoned organizer from Nabi Saleh], we made a commitment a long time ago to resist. We promised ourselves and our people that we would face the occupation and look it in the eye.

Of course, I do not want to go to prison again. I want to have a life with my wife and my daughter. We Palestinians are not robots, we are not living just to resist. We want to have a normal life, to laugh and joke and go to the park with our children. But we also want to keep our commitment to ourselves and our people: we will stand up to the occupation. We will not let them own us. Even if the only way to resist their control is to refuse them, to refuse their food, their water, their medical treatment, then that is what we will do. Khader Adnan is continuing the resistance to the very end. He is actually fighting for life, life with justice and dignity.

Bekah Wolf is a co-founder of the Palestine Solidarity Project, and has worked in the West Bank since 2003. She is married to Mousa Abu Maria.

Palestine - Khader Adnan - Dying to Live, Fighting for Freedom

Khader Adnan - Dying to Live, Fighting for Freedom

February 8, 2011 freeahmadsaadat.org

The situation of Khader Adnan, imprisoned Palestinian activist held without charge or trial under administrative detention, is urgent. Khader Adnan has been on an ongoing hunger strike since December 17, 2011, protesting abuse of his family, torture and inhumane treatment, and the use of administrative detention to imprison Palestinian activists without charge or trial.

Khader Adnan has completed 53 days of hunger strike and is now in a severe medical condition. Bobby Sands, the martyr of the Irish republican prisoners' movement, died after 66 days of hunger strike, demanding justice and human rights from his own colonial captors, much as Khader Adnan did today.

Ahmad Sa'adat, imprisoned Palestinian national leader, joined with Marwan Barghouti from his isolation cell today to urge the immediate release of Khader Adnan. The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat echoes this call and urges activists around the world to raise the call to free Khader Adnan, a symbol of the resistance, resilience, steadfastness and courage of Palestinian prisoners and the Palestinian people, who has put his body and his life on the line inside the occupation's jails, to claim his dignity, his rights, and the rights of his people.

TAKE ACTION: Please see the action items below, or write a letter and sign a petition at this widely circulated call: http://samidoun.ca/2012/02/take-action-for-hunger-striking-palestinian-prisoner-khader-adnan/

Picket, protest or call the Israeli embassy or consulate in your location and demand the immediate freedom of Khader Adnan, Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian political prisoners. Make it clear that you are watching the situation of Khader Adnan and that Israel is responsible for his health and life, and demand an end to the use of isolation, solitary confinement, and administrative detention. Send us reports of your protests at Israeli embassies and consulates at campaign@freeahmadsaadat.org.

Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that the prisoners' demands are implemented. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at JER_jerusalem@icrc.org, and inform them about the urgent situation of Khader Adnan. Make it clear that arbitrary detention without charge or trial is unacceptable, and that the ICRC must act to protect Palestinian prisoners from cruel and inhumane treatment.

Addameer details the experience of Khader Adnan with the Israeli occupation. He is currently held under administrative detention (arbitrary detention without charge or trial, based on secret evidence, and renewable indefinitely for repeated periods of up to six months.) Khader Adnan was issued a four-month administrative detention order on January 8, which was confirmed on February 6. This is the eighth time Adnan has been detained, and he has served a total of six years in Israeli prisons - mostly without charge or trial under the administrative detention scheme.

Addameer reports:

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.

Following his arrest, he was taken to interrogation, refused medical care and treatment, subject to physical abuse and mistreatment including being tied to a chair in a stressful position, causing extreme back pain, and pulling on his beard so hard that his hair was ripped out. Khader was subjected to abusive language about his family, and refused to speak any further to interrogators, as well as refusing food. In retaliation, he was placed into isolation and solitary confinement, denied family visits, awakened in the middle of the night and strip-searched. He has refused to end his strike, protesting the illegitimacy of his arbitrary detention by an illegal occupation authority as well as cruel and inhumane treatment and abuse.

This is not his first hunger strike - in 2005 he protested his isolation in Kfar Yuna with a 12-day hunger strike. Addameer has emphasized that the Israeli occupation is responsible for his life.

Amnesty to Israel: Release or try Khader Adnan, gravely ill after 51 days hunger strike

Ismael Mohamad / United Press International

Feb 6, 2012 Electronic Intifada

Adnan Khader, the head of the Islamic Jihad Movement in the West Bank, talking to the media after a meeting with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Muqata in the West Bank town of Ramallah June 28, 2005.

(Mushir Abdelrahman / Maan Images)

Amnesty International today told Israel to release or try Khader Adnan, the gravely ill Palestinian prisoner who has been on hunger strike for 51 continuous days, ever since his arrest by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank on 17 December.

Amnesty’s demand came as Musa Adnan, Khader’s elderly father, announced that he was going on hunger strike too in solidarity with his son – whom doctors said is at risk of imminent death.

Adnan’s hunger strike is to protest the fact that he has been held by Israel without charge or trial in so-called administrative detention, and mistreatment by Israeli interrogators.

About 300 Palestinian prisoners, including 21 elected members of the Palestinian legislative council, are currently in administrative detention according to today’s statement from Amnesty.

The statements adds:

“For years Israel has been using administrative detention to lock up Palestinian activists without charge or trial, said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East.

“Military commanders can renew the detention orders repeatedly, so in effect detainees can be held indefinitely. The process violates their right to a fair trial which is guaranteed by international law Israel is obliged to uphold.”

Yet even if Israel does heed Amnesty’s call to charge and try Adnan, he’d hardly be likely to get a fair trial. Like thousands of other Palestinian prisoners currently held in Israeli jails, he would be subjected to Israel’s military occupation courts in which all the prosecutors and judges are officers in the Israeli occupation army.

Text of Amnesty statement

Israel must release or try Palestinian detainee on prolonged hunger strike

6 February 2012

The Israeli authorities must release a Palestinian detainee or charge him with a recognizable criminal offence and promptly try him, Amnesty International said today amid fears the man could die in detention after more than 50 days on hunger strike.

Khader Adnan, 33, was arrested on 17 December 2011 at his home in the village of Arrabe near Jenin in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli security forces burst into his home in the early hours of the morning.

Mr Adnan, a baker, is allegedly affiliated with the Islamic Jihad movement.

On Wednesday a military court conducted a review of Khader Adnan’s case but the judge has yet to announce the outcome - release, his detention shortened or the order confirmed.

“For years Israel has been using administrative detention to lock up Palestinian activists without charge or trial, said Ann Harrison, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East.

“Military commanders can renew the detention orders repeatedly, so in effect detainees can be held indefinitely. The process violates their right to a fair trial which is guaranteed by international law Israel is obliged to uphold.”

Khader Adnan, who is also a post-graduate student, has been on hunger strike since 18 December in protest against his ill-treatment, the conditions of his detention, and the policy of administrative detention.

The Israeli military commander in the West Bank imposed a four-month administrative detention order on him last month.

The baker has been hospitalized since 30 December as his health deteriorated. He has not been allowed any family visits and the Israeli authorities have since moved him to various different hospitals around the country.

He was transferred to Ziv hospital in northern Israel on Sunday, in a move which his lawyers believe is intended to add further pressure on him, including by making it harder for his lawyers and family to visit him.

“The Israeli authorities must release Khader Adnan and other Palestinians held in administrative detention, unless they are promptly charged with internationally recognizable criminal offences and tried in accordance with international fair trial standards,” Ann Harrison added.

He has reportedly lost more than 20 kilos since he began his hunger strike, and his health has reached a critical stage. On 29 January, he was visited by doctors from Physicians for Human Rights - Israel, who gave him a medical check and warned that his life is at risk. He has since been denied further examination by independent doctors.

His hunger strike has prompted demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and last week other Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails announced a hunger strike in solidarity.

Administrative detention, a procedure under which detainees considered a threat to Israeli security are held without charge or trial for periods of up to six months, can be renewed indefinitely.

No criminal charges are filed against administrative detainees and there is no intention of bringing them to trial.

Detainees are held on the basis of “secret evidence” which the Israeli military authorities claim cannot be revealed for security reasons.

The “secret evidence” on which the military authorities base their decision to issue an administrative detention order is not made available to detainees or their lawyers, and detainees cannot challenge the reasons for their detention.

According to Israel’s prison service some 307 Palestinians were being held in administrative detention on 31 December last year, but this number may have since increased.

Twenty-one members of the Palestinian Legislative Council are currently being held in administrative detention.

Amnesty International believes that the practice of administrative detention in Israel and the Occupied Territories violates the internationally recognized right to a fair trial which must be upheld for all detainees, even during states of emergency.

“Israeli military law applied in the Occupied Palestinian Territories gives the authorities wide latitude to charge and try in military courts those individuals who they believe threaten Israeli security,” said Ann Harrison.

“Despite this, the Israeli authorities continue to use administrative detention to detain Palestinians without any charges whatsoever. These have included individuals who should not have been arrested at all and were prisoners of conscience.

“Anyone now held solely for the non-violent exercise of their right to freedom of expression, association and assembly must be released immediately and unconditionally.”