UN-Truth

As Palestinian protestors outside Ofer Prison were surrounded by tear gas and hit by rubber bullets fired by Israeli soldiers [at "Beitunia Checkpoint"] today [the second such demonstration in three days], an Israeli military court inside Ofer affirmed the 4-month sentence of Administrative Detention that was imposed on Khader Adnan on January 8.

UPDATE: Addameer put a name on this decision Monday night, reporting in a statement received by email that: “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 … 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”.

Khader was arrested in a pre-dawn raid on his home near Jenin on December 17.

No specific accusations — other than being a threat to the peace + security of the area — and no evidence has been presented by Israeli security services. That is what happens in cases of Administrative Detention — and that is why it is impossible to mount any legal defense.

Sentences of Administrative Detention can be renewed indefinitely — and have been for up to six consecutive years. Longer, too, is possible under the Israeli military justice system in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli military court’s confirmation of the earlier sentence of Administrative Detention — to last four months, starting from January 8, until May 8 — was confirmed Monday, which is the 58th day of Khader Adnan’s hunger strike in protest of the Administrative Detention procedure, and abuses during his arrest and detention.

Physicians for Human Rights – Israel noted in a statement, posted here, that “According to the World Health medical association, after the 42nd day of a hunger strike, it is expected that individuals will begin to lose their hearing and vision, and suffer bleeding in the gums, intestines, and esophagus. The body will gradually stop functioning. After the 45thday, there is a high risk of death due to vascular system collapse and/or cardiac arrest”.

Human Rights Watch, in a statement issued on 11 February and posted here, said that “Adnan, 33, has been on hunger strike for 55 days. According to a 2006 study by the British Medical Association, ‘during the 1980 and 1981 hunger strikes in Northern Ireland […] death generally occurred between 55 and 75 days’. In general, ‘the final stage’ of a hunger strike occurs between 45 to 75 days ‘due to cardiovascular collapse or severe arrhythmias’, the study said”.

In other words, death by starvation usually occurs because of a collapse in heart functioning and in the vessels and veins that compose the blood circulatory system.

Today, in remarks published on the Mondoweiss blog, here, Khader Adnan’s wife, Randa, said: “My husband is dying inside an Israeli jail. The world should make sure I am able to see him”. According to this post on Mondoweiss, Randa said that “a human rights organization coordinated our family’s first visit to him in the hospital last Tuesday. They refused to allow us to stay with him for more than 15 minutes”…

According to the Human Rights Watch statement, Khader Adnan’s “wife, Randa, said he has been arrested nine times, first in 1999, sometimes under administrative detention, and that he had also been convicted and sentenced by military courts for advocating on behalf of Islamic Jihad, an organization banned by the Israeli authorities … [but that] Adnan’s lawyer said the only known allegation against him arose when Adnan was questioned after his detention about his participation in a graduation ceremony for a kindergarten that was allegedly funded by Islamic Jihad”.

However, an interview published on 9 February on the Electronic Intifada website here, seems to confirm Adnan’s association with Islamic Jihad. In the piece, American-Israeli Bekah Wolf interviews her husband, Beit Ummar activist Mousa Abu Maria [who she married, by proxy, when he was being held in Administrative Detention]:

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.

Al-Jazeera reported today here that “Khader Adnan, widely believed to be a leader of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, has been refusing food since he was detained on December 17, without trial or charge”.

On the other hand, Adnan is [according to some reports] a schoolteacher, and would not likely still have had his job when he was arrested in December if he were a leader of Islamic Jihad, as Al-Jazeera wrote, because the PA has fired many schoolteachers in the West Bank for allegedly having ties to Hamas… But maybe that is why he is now identified as a baker? He is also reportedly a graduate student of economics at Bir Zeit university.

The Al-Jazeera article also reported that “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”.

Filed under: Boundaries & Borders, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel, Palestine & Palestinians