Khader Adnan, hunger striker in Israel, near death

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Tuesday February 14, 2012 17:24

by Justin Morahan

Chained to his prison Bed

Protests around the world, including Ireland, but the case of this dying hunger striker in Israel has escaped notice in our media

As Khader Adnan entered his 59th day on hunger strike, his wife Randa has appealed to us, the international community, to end his isolation and save his life. As he lies dying, his Israeli captors have chained him to his military prison hospital bed.

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

According to Joe Catron of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), Khader, a 33-year-old baker, a graduate economics student of Birzeit University, and Islamic Jihad Movement activist, was detained, without charge, in a 3:30 am raid on his home in Arraba, Jenin on December 17.

He began a hunger strike the same day to protest Israel’s administrative detention policy and the brutality of his captors, and to demand his own freedom and the freedom of thousands of other prisoners held in Israeli jails who are being deprived of their simplest human rights

"Israeli interrogators" says Catron, "responded by continuing the beatings that began during his arrest, tying him into painful positions for hours, ripping hair from his beard, smearing dirt onto his face, throwing him into a “punishment cell” with bright lights and loud noises intended to prevent sleep, and denying him treatment for his gastric illness, the disc problems in his back, and the injuries their fellow soldiers had inflicted on him. After they graphically insulted members of his family, including his two young daughters and elderly mother – a form of psychological torture used by Israeli troops to extract information from Palestinian suspects – he launched a speech strike, refusing to talk with them as well", the ISM report continues
His wife and children were allowed to see him only for 15 minutes for the first time last Tuesday but by then he could barely move to greet them.

Physicians for Human Rights have said that he has been transferred to five different hospitals over an eight day period.

A four hour vigil organised by the IPSC was held outside the Israeli Embassy in Dublin yesterday. A solidarity vigil outside Ramleh prison in Israel was met with tear gas assault and sixteen people were injured by rubber bullets.