The High Court of Justice in Jerusalem will hear the appeal of a Palestinian
hunger striker on Tuesday, following a last-minute request on Monday to move the
hearing up from Thursday.
Khader Adnan is currently on the 65th day of
his hunger strike, the longest by a Palestinian prisoner in Israel. Adnan is
being held at the Galilee Medical Faculty in Safed, and doctors who have treated
him said that he is on the verge of death and it is unclear how long he can keep
up the strike.
He is set to be released from administrative detention in
May, but last week he issued an appeal to the High Court requesting he be
released immediately.
Supporters plan to hold solidarity protests in
support of Adnan outside the courthouse during the 3 p.m. hearing.
The
33-year-old Islamic Jihad member from the West Bank village of Arrabe began the
hunger strike on December 18, the day after he was arrested in his home by IDF
troops. Adnan called the strike over what he said was abusive treatment by the
arresting soldiers and to protest administrative detentions, in which suspects
arrested by the IDF in the West Bank are held indefinitely without knowing the
charges against them.
There are over 300 Palestinians under
administrative detention in Israel.
Richard Falk, the United Nations
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian
territories, said on Sunday that Adnan’s case “is a revealing microcosm of the
unbearable cruelty of prolonged occupation.”
MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab
List – Ta’al) visited Adnan in Safed on Monday, and called on Israeli
authorities to release Adnan immediately, before he faces “a certain death which
Israel would be responsible for.”
If Adnan dies in Israeli custody “it
will ignite flames and wild protests in the West Bank and across the world,”
Tibi said.
Falk also drew a parallel between Adnan’s story and the
campaign to release Gilad Schalit, held captive by Hamas for over five years in
Gaza, saying it shows “the contrast that is drawn in the West between the
dignity of a single Israeli prisoner held in captivity and the steadfast refusal
to be attentive to the abuse of thousands of Palestinians languishing in Israeli
jails through court sentence or administrative order.”
Deputy Speaker MK
Danny Danon (Likud) on Monday called for the Knesset plenum to discuss the
matter of the Arab MKs who visited Adnan this past week to show their
support.
“The Arab MKs are welcome to join the terrorist in his strike,
but that won’t deter Israel from defending its citizens,” Danon
said.
Danon accused the Arab MKs of having “crossed all red lines in
their support for a terrorist, and for condemning the state of
Israel.”
Danon said the place of these MKs “is in the diplomatic bureau
of [Hamas leader Khaled] Mashaal and not in the Knesset.”
Joanna
Paraszczuk contributed to this report.