Knesset approves torture of force feeding
In this posting on force-feeding: 1) Israel to start force-feeding Palestinian hunger strikers, +972; 2) Palestinian hunger striker recalls being force-fed, Al Jazeera; 3) Israel passes law allowing force-feeding of prisoners, BBC news; 4, Palestinian hunger striker recalls being force-fed.
Demonstration in support of hunger-striker Khader Adnan
Israel to start force-feeding Palestinian hunger strikers
By Haggai Mattar, +972
July 30, 2015
One month after administrative detainee Khader Adnan’s successful hunger strike, the Knesset passes a law to allow for the force-feeding of Palestinian prisoners.
The Knesset passed a law early on 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.
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, who 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.
Palestinian hunger striker recalls being force-fed
Abdulrahim Nubani, who spent 20 years inside Israeli jail, says hunger strike is mode of resistance against occupation.
By Al Jazeera
July 30, 2015
It’s been 35 years and nine days since the former Palestinian prisoner was force-fed. “The pain was larger than words,” Abdulrahim Nubani told Al Jazeera.
Although he spent 20 years in Israeli prison between 1974 and 1994, he says that he can’t think of a day worse than that when his name was called and he was accompanied to the prison clinic on July 21, 1980.
Until then Nubani says he had only heard of force-feeding. “It was used to break spirits, not to feed prisoners – it was torture,” he says.
“There was a pot of boiling water and a plate of rice pudding,” Nubani recalled. “I sat on the chair, an officer asked me to eat. I refused – I told him I was hunger-striking.”
Trembling, he described how he was tied down to a chair, stripped off his clothes.
“They tied me down and brought a tube, shoved it down my nose and pushed – I felt my head exploding, down to my stomach,” Nubani said recreating the scene. “I felt my stomach burn… I was bleeding and powerless.”
An image, no doubt, will cross the minds of hunger-striking prisoners and those who plan to hunger strike in the future now that Israel has authorised force-feeding.
Nubani’s word of advice: suck it up. “[Prisoners] have to take it and be patient,” he says. “Resistance has so many facets and one shouldn’t expect mercy from the enemy.”
Israel passes law allowing force-feeding of prisoners
BBC News
July 30, 2015
The Israeli parliament has passed a law allowing the force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strike.
Under the law, force-feeding an inmate will need to be approved by a judge.
Palestinians held in Israeli jails have used hunger strikes to protest against the policy of detention without charge or trial.
The Israeli Medical Association condemned the law, saying force-feeding was tantamount to torture, and urged doctors not to participate.
The association said it would petition the High Court of Justice against the law, according to Israeli radio.
The law passed by a narrow margin of 46 votes to 40.
Internal Security Minister Gilad Erden said the measure was necessary as “hunger strikes of terrorists in prison have become a tool to pressure and threaten the state of Israel to release terrorists”.
Mr Erden’s office said the law was initiated following prolonged hunger strikes by prisoners in 2012 in protest at detention without charge.
Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def) force fed under standard Guantánamo Bay procedure
Earlier this month Israel freed Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan, an Islamic Jihad activist, who was on hunger strike for 56 days.
Mr Adnan called the new law “Israeli bankruptcy in dealing with Palestinian prisoners who are on hunger strikes”.
He had been held for more than a year without charge and his hunger strike had left him in a critical condition.
Palestinian hunger striker recalls being force-fed
By Al Jazeera
July 30, 2015
Abdulrahim Nubani, who spent 20 years inside Israeli jail, says hunger strike is mode of resistance against occupation.
It’s been 35 years and nine days since the former Palestinian prisoner was force-fed. “The pain was larger than words,” Abdulrahim Nubani told Al Jazeera.
Although he spent 20 years in Israeli prison between 1974 and 1994, he says that he can’t think of a day worse than that when his name was called and he was accompanied to the prison clinic on July 21, 1980.
A popular image of force-feeding (British suffragette) although now the tube is forced down through a nostril.
Until then Nubani says he had only heard of force-feeding. “It was used to break spirits, not to feed prisoners – it was torture,” he says.
“There was a pot of boiling water and a plate of rice pudding,” Nubani recalled. “I sat on the chair, an officer asked me to eat. I refused – I told him I was hunger-striking.”
Trembling, he described how he was tied down to a chair, stripped off his clothes.
“They tied me down and brought a tube, shoved it down my nose and pushed – I felt my head exploding, down to my stomach,” Nubani said recreating the scene. “I felt my stomach burn… I was bleeding and powerless.”
An image, no doubt, will cross the minds of hunger-striking prisoners and those who plan to hunger strike in the future now that Israel has authorised force-feeding.
Nubani’s word of advice: suck it up. “[Prisoners] have to take it and be patient,” he says. “Resistance has so many facets and one shouldn’t expect mercy from the enemy.”
Prisoner movement
The Palestinian prisoner movement has a history of at least 26 hunger strikes. The first dates back to 1969, but the most well known remains the hunger strike of 80 prisoners in Nafha back in 1980, in which Nubani took part.
It is when two Palestinian prisoners – Rasem Halaweh and Ali Ja’fari, died due to forced-feeding and two others died later of medical complications.
That, however, didn’t stop Palestinian prisoners to resort to hunger strike as a means to protest. That is the only weapon, they say, they have to demand their rights while inside Israeli jails.
Re-introduced by Khader Adnan in 2012, hunger strike was used by individual prisoners who had political demands – trial or release.
He was released after a 66-day long strike to protest his administrative detention, a practice that allows Israel to detain prisoners without charge for renewable six-month periods.
Others followed suit and mass hunger strikes took place since in support of individual hunger strikers or to demand an end to Israel’s policy of administrative detention.
Administrative detention
He was detained last year again, but after another 56-day hunger strike he was released on July 12.
Of around 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, nearly 400 are in administrative detention. They are threatening to go on hunger strike to defend their rights. One, Mohammad Allan, has been on hunger strike for the past 43 days demanding to be released.
Allan, 30, was last arrested in November 2014 and has had his administrative detention sentence of six months renewed twice since.
Allan’s mother, 65-year-old Ma’zuza could hardly complete a sentence without crying. “I’m a mother; I’ve spent nights up looking after him… I’m so scared,” she says.
Mohammad had called her a couple of days before starting his strike, she says. He told her that the Israelis were holding him without charges.
“I didn’t sleep since he started his strike, now that this law was introduced I feel I’m a 100 years old,” she says. “I’m terrified.”
There was a moment of silence there, and sobbing.
Back at his home, Nubani went through pictures of his old prison mates in Nafha. “It’s history now. I’m proud to have been part of it,” he says. “We beat death.”