Hungry for freedom

[Watser?]

I have been hesitant to start yet another thread on Palestine, but this is not going away until Khader Adnan is dead. Adnan, a member of Islamic Jihad has been on a hunger strike for 64 days to protest the conditions of his 'administrative detention' (an Israeli euphemism for being jailed indefinitely without any trial or charges).

Randa Adnan panics every time the phone rings, and these days it never seems to stop. For now, it is mostly journalists, family, friends and supporters asking about her husband, Khader, who lies shackled by his hands and feet to a hospital bed in Israel, while his body wastes away.

Through sixty-four days of a hunger strike, the longest in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Randa Adnan has only been allowed to visit her husband twice, for a total of an hour, and each time surrounded by armed guards.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/fea...424541461.html

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/fea...355300838.html

Palestinian's hunger strike puts spotlight on Israeli detentions - CNN.com

Egyptians Urged for Action as Khader Adnan Nears Death | Occupied Palestine | �لسطين

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=461300

Protesting arrest without charges, Khader Adnan is dying

Document - Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories: Palestinian hunger striker’s life at risk: Khader Adnan | Amnesty International

Israel: Hunger Striker’s Life at Risk | Human Rights Watch

PETITION AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL – ISRAEL END USE OF ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION

[ZEZOZE]

[Watser?]

I remembered that two weeks ago, after I published an article about Khader Adnan, someone from Tel Aviv emailed me and asked about suggestions of what she should do to help Adnan.

Quickly I responded. I told her that emails, faxes and statements would make no difference. I suggested that Israelis who want to help should join Adnan’s hunger strike. Israelis might not care about a Palestinian doing hunger strike, but if Israelis join him, that will bring much more attention to his cause. After all, I believe that the best way for Israelis to help make a difference is by fully joining Palestinians not by words but by actions.

Today, I realized that I couldn’t write about Khader Adnan with a full stomach. So, I am not eating in solidarity with Adnan. I talked to a few friends and I was pleasantly surprised that many of them decided to join me.

I am convinced that those who want to help Khader Adnan and his cause, must first try to empathize with him, walk in his shoes, feel the pain of being hungry, at least for one day or one week. Last Friday all Palestinian prisoners joined Khader Adnan in his hunger strike. In different places in Palestine and the diaspora, groups of Palestinians are fasting in solidarity with Adnan.

Today, I join Khader Adnan’s hunger strike – will you?

“The West Bank’s Bobby Sands” is how some in the British media have begun referring to Khader Adnan, as the 33-year-old Palestinian detainee marks Monday as his 65th day of refusing food from his Israeli gaolers. The world knew the name and face of Bobby Sands long before, on the 66th day of his own 1981 hunger strike, he became the first of ten Irish Republican Army fighters to die in a British prison after starving themselves to demand prisoner-of-war status. The IRA’s political wing, Sinn Fein, made the prisoners an international cause celebre, even getting Sands elected to the British parliament during a Northern Ireland by-election held in the course of his hunger strike. (Needless to say, he never took his seat.) By contrast, Khader Adnan’s hunger strike appears to have been a solo act of defiance by a lone detainee with no other recourse, and only as his death appears to draws near has his plight begun to register on the international radar.

...

Indeed, the real danger of Khader Adnan’s hunger strike for the Palestinian political establishment is that he might turn out to be less of a Palestinian Bobby Sands than a Palestinian Mohammed Bouazizi, the Tunisian fruit-vendor whose suicide by self-immolation triggered the rebellion that has rocked autocratic regimes across the Arab world.

Khader Adnan's Hunger Strike: What It Says About Israel and Palestine | Global Spin | TIME.com

Khader Adnan and now-normalized Western justice - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

[Watser?]

Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan announced Tuesday that he will be ending his 66-day hunger strike after Israel agreed to release him.

...

According to a Justice Ministry statement, the state will not request to extend Adnan's administrative detention, which is due to end on April 17.

Adnan, who is hospitalized in Ziv Hospital in Safed, announced that he will be ending his hunger strike. Since an agreement was reached, there will not be a hearing at the Supreme Court.

Palestinian prisoner ends 66-day hunger strike after Israel guarantees his release - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

[Watser?]

Israeli officials were likely hoping that their policy of detention without charges would stop being a topic of discussion after Khader Adnan ended his hunger strike earlier this week. A new striker has emerged, however, in the form of 29-year-old Hana al-Shalabi.

Ms. Shalabi’s capture is nothing new. She was held in “administrative detention” for over two years without charges before being released in October as part of the Shalit prisoner swap. That lasted a couple of months, but Israel announced a new administrative detention for Shalabi late last week, still with no charges.

Shalabi has been refusing food since her capture last week, and is on day seven. Israel is planning to detain her for six months. Last time, her “six month” detention was renewed with additional six month periods four times.

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/02/23/i...prisoner-swap/

[Watser?]

Can anyone doubt that if there were more than 1300 hunger strikers in any country in the world other than Palestine, the media in the West would be obsessed with the story? It would be featured day after day, and reported on from all angles, including the severe medical risks associated with such a lengthy refusal to take food. At this time two Palestinians who were the first to start this current wave of resistance, Thaer Halaheh and Bilal Diab, entering their 64th day without food, are reported by the prisoner protection association, Addameer, and the NGO, Physician for Human Rights-Israel, to be in critical condition with their lives hanging in the balance. Despite this dramatic state of affairs there is scant attention in Europe, and literally none in North America.

http://www.zcommunications.org/the-m...y-richard-falk

[Crumb]

I had no idea that so many were hunger striking. Our press here is so miserable. They are too busy fawning over how great our president is for watching a screen while some guys killed another guy.

[Watser?]

It's still not over:

Last month when the 2,000 dignity hunger strikers ended their protest against conditions in Israel’s prisons, two detained Palestinians vowed to carry on the battle of empty stomachs. Weeks later despite dwindling media coverage and solidarity protests, their protest continues and the remaining hunger strikers are now on the verge of death. A famed soccer player on Palestine's national team, Mahmoud Sarsak is on his 82nd day of fast, and diabetic prisoner Akram Rikhawi is on his 58th day of fast.

2 hunger strikers issue 'final distress call'

[Watser?]

Gosh, CNN finally noticed. Only because someone famous actually talked about it in public though:

The president of soccer's global governing body has urged the Israeli Football Association (IFA) to intervene in the case of a hunger striking Palestinian footballer.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter "expressed grave concern" regarding the incarceration of members of the Palestine team in Israel, including Mahmoud Sarsak who is on hunger strike.

"The reports FIFA received state that in apparent violation of their integrity and human rights and without the apparent right of a due process (trial), several Palestine football players have allegedly been illegally detained by Israeli authorities," read a statement on the organization's website.

"FIFA urgently calls on IFA to draw the attention of the Israeli competent authorities to the present matter, with the aim of ensuring the physical integrity of the concerned players as well as their right for due process."

FIFA wants action on hunger striking player - CNN.com

[Watser?]

Ok, this is different:

An Israel Defense Forces reserves soldier, who has refused to partake in army duty to protest Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, has gone on hunger strike in military prison, in what he said was a show of solidarity with Palestinian administrative detainees.

@ 'Defense Forces'. They attacked literally all the neighbouring countries and have taken half of one and are holding the other half occupied. That's some forward defense right there!