Description

A Palestinian hunger striker lies in an ICRC tent in Gaza City in 2014.(AFP/File)

Khader Adnan plays with his daughters in the West Bank village of Araba, near Jenin on his first day after being freed from incarceration in an Israeli prison, April 18, 2012. (Photo by Oren Ziv/Activestills.org)

Illustrative photo of Palestinian prisoners in an Israeli military prison (By ChameleonsEye / Shutterstock.com)
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JERUSALEM (AFP) -- The Israeli parliament approved Thursday a law allowing prisoners on hunger strike facing death to be force fed, a spokesman said, sparking criticism from rights groups and medical experts.

The law, which seeks to prevent imprisoned Palestinian prisoners from pressuring Israel by refusing food, was initially approved in June 2014 at the height of a mass hunger strike of Palestinian detainees, during which dozens were hospitalized.

While the law does not specifically mention Palestinians, Israeli Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who led the legislation, said it was necessary since "hunger strikes of terrorists in prisons have become a means to threaten Israel."

The law, which passed by 46 votes to 40, "will be used only if a doctor determines that the continued hunger strike will create an immediate risk to the life of a prisoner or long-term damage to his health," David Amsalem of the ruling Likud party said.

A Knesset press statement said a court will have to review the "prisoner’s mental state, the dangers of force-feeding via a feeding tube and its invasiveness, the prisoner’s stance on the matter and other considerations."

The court may grant requests to force feed if the prisoner is at risk of doing irreversible damage to their body, or endangering their life.

The statement said that Israeli officials must have used "all means at their disposal" to persuade the prisoner to willing ending their strike before resorting to force-feeding.

But opposition members decried the new measure, with the Joint List party criticizing "a law to torture Palestinian prisoners, aimed at uprooting their legitimate struggle".

Left-wing Hadash party member Dov Khenin said the law was"cruel, dangerous and unnecessary,”a Knesset press release said.

"No hunger-striking prisoner has ever died in the State of Israel, but 50 prisoners who were force-fed did die. This law kills, and it permits things that are prohibited according to international norms.”

The Israeli Medical Association called the law "damaging and unnecessary," stressing on Thursday its doctors would "continue to act according to medical ethics, which prohibit doctors from participating in torturing prisoners".

It said force feeding was "tantamount to torture".

Physicians for Human Rights Israel said the "shameful" law revealed the "anti-democratic face" of the Israeli parliament, saying they would continue to oppose the law and its implementation, and "support anyone who will refuse to obey the law".

Spokeswomen for both organisations said they were considering filing petitions at the high court against the law.

Palestinian prisoner rights group Addameer said the law was a way to provide "legal cover" to Israel's torture of prisoners, saying it would allow it "to kill more Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike" on top of the five who have died due to force feeding in Israeli prisons in the past.

According to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the majority of prisoners who go on hunger strike are Palestinians in administrative detention, under which they are held for renewable six-month periods without charge.

A spokeswoman for the Israel Prison Service said there was currently one Palestinian held on administrative detention and four "security prisoners" who had been on hunger strike for over a week.

Israel recently released Khader Adnan following a 56-day hunger strike. His strike, which brought him near death by the time it concluded last month, was the second he had undertaken, following a 66-day long hunger strike in 2012 that also ended in his release.

Around 5,750 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli jails, over 400 of whom are held under administrative detention.

As of last week, four prisoners were on hunger strike against the policy, including Uday Isteiti, 24, and Muhammad Allan, 33, who had entered the 35th day of the strike at the time.

Ma'an staff contributed to this report.
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By Haggai Matar for 972Mag

The Knesset passed a law early Thursday morning that sanctions the force-feeding of hunger-striking prisoners in Israeli jails. The law passed by a small margin, with 46 lawmakers in favor and 40 opposed.
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The so-called “hunger-strike law,” considered more “gentle” than the original bill proposed last June, allows a judge to sanction the force-feeding or administration of medical treatment if there is a threat to the inmate’s life. This applies even if the prisoner refuses.

The bill comes in the wake of a successful 50-plus-day hunger strike by Palestinian administrative detainee Khader Adnan last month. This was Adnan’s second extended hunger strike against his administrative detention; in 2012, Adnan won his release in a similar deal that ended a hunger strike. Most of the most high-profile hunger-strikes have been by Palestinian administrative detainees, which are held without sentence or trial.

The Israeli Medical Organization (IMA) has long announced that its doctors will refuse to carry out the procedure. In the past, Israel Medical Association Chairman Dr. Leonid Edelman said that the IMA will not protect doctors who will be tried at the International Criminal Court. The IMA’s position is praiseworthy, even if it stems from potential sanctions by the World Medical Association.

Force-feeding is considered a form of torture according to the World Health Organization. Not a single prisoner has died of hunger strike in the history of Israel, due to the wise conduct of both the prisoners themselves and the state, the latter of which often came to diplomatic solutions. On the other hand, five prisoners have died as a result of force-feeding before the practice was stopped by the Israel Prison Service (IPS). The Knesset is now bringing us back to the days of serious injuries, torture and death threats against prisoners.

The IMA must begin circulation a mass petition among Israeli doctors who refuse to carry out the procedure. It must enact special training, especially for doctors who work at hospitals that treat hunger strikers, as well as IPS doctors, in order to explain to them why they must not take part in force-feeding, which dangers they will be exposed to should they breach medical ethics, and what kind of support they will receive if and when they refuse to take part.

Furthermore, it must be made clear that hunger-striking prisoners do not threaten the state of Israel. Rather, the danger is the slippery slope that starts with a 50-year-old military regime in the occupied territories, through the suppression of all forms of resistance — both violent and nonviolent — and through the attempt to put down the last and only form of protest available to prisoners.

This article was first published in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it here.