Israel relents on hunger striker Khader Adnan

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 07:50:00 +0000

Khader Adnan may live to see his 34^th birthday after all. He has been on hunger strike for 66 days to protest against his “administrative detention,” which allows the Israeli military to detain Palestinians without charge, indefinitely, on the basis of evidence the detainees are not allowed to see. Today, in the face of mounting pressure, Israel reportedly promised to release him in April if it could not discover any new evidence against him. His lawyer said that Adnan will end his strike.

Israeli, Palestinian and international rights groups have long said that Israel’s administrative detention practices are unlawful, but Adnan – whose hunger strike was the longest of any Palestinian prisoner –gained particular attention. Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and members of Palestinian political factions had gone on solidarity hunger strikes, and demonstrators in the West Bank, Gaza and in Tel Aviv called for Israel to end arbitrary administrative detentions. Security forces dispersed protests outside the Ofer military jail in the West Bank with rubber bullets and tear gas.

Israel's misguided crackdown strategy

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:01:00 +0000

The Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Liberman has said that he fears "tens of thousands" of Palestinians may demonstrate this month to support a Palestinian bid for upgraded United Nations status, and predicts "bloodshed on a scale we haven't seen." According to leaked documents, the military is preparing for "mass disorder" and has spent $22 million on crowd-control equipment, and issued orders to fire at the legs of any Palestinians who cross the "red lines" that it has demarcated around settlements.

But if Israel wants to lower the risk of violence around the expected U.N. vote, its usual, get-tough response to Palestinian protests is the wrong approach. Instead, it should start by meeting its legal obligation to respect freedom of peaceful assembly and expression in the occupied territories.

Israeli military orders in the West Bank have effectively banned even peaceful protests. Any gathering of 10 or more people, even in a private home, about "a political matter or one liable to be interpreted as political," is prohibited without a military permit, on pain of up to 10 years in prison. The Israeli military commonly imposes "closed military zones" on Palestinian villages that seek to hold demonstrations, restricting access to the villages for up to six months at a time.

Salon.com > Bill Van Esveld

Israel relents on hunger striker Khader Adnan

Israel's misguided crackdown strategy