Khader Adnan : appeal filed by Physicians for Human Rights

Khader Adnan’s family were permitted to visit him in Ziv hospital in Safed today, Day 60 of his hunger strike against an Israeli military court’s sentence of Administrative Detention — a process in which the details of charges as well as all evidence is kept secret from the accused and from his/her lawyer, so no defense is therefore possible.

He is also protesting the “harsh and degrading treatment and torture he claims he was subjected to at the hands of Israeli authorities”, according to a communication sent out tonight by Physicans for Human Rights-Israel.

Hunger striking is not a tactic that has previously been used so drastically by Palestinians protesting against the injustices of the occupation.

The Israeli Supreme Court today accepted to hear an -Israel against Khader Adnan’s continuing Administrative Detention, and a hearing will reportedly be set “as soon as possible”.

The issue in the petition, as defined in consultation with Khader Adnan, is his continuing Administrative Detention [the argument is not the fact that he should be freed because just he is at risk of imminent death, but because Administrative Detention is unjust and a grave violation of human rights].

As a result, apparently, of the Supreme Court’s acceptance of the appeal, a doctor with Physicans for Human Rights said that “On the basis of my promise, and that of the hospital, to maintain absolute medical confidentiality, he [Khader Adnan] agreed to undergo tests and treatment with the infusion of liquids and salts, and subsequently with the addition of glucose and vitamin in accordance with my recommendation. However, he maintains his refusal to end his hunger strike”.

Physicians for Human Rights warned that, despite the infusions Adnan has now accepted, he is nevertheless still “in imminent danger of death”.

The doctor who examined Adnan said, according to a statement sent around by Physicians for Human Rights, that “An absolute hunger strike in excess of 50 days causes the decomposition of muscles, including muscle of the heart and stomach, and the creation of toxins in the body. Death may occur suddenly, due to heart failure, or as the result of infection following the collapse of the immune system. Bleeding in the digestive tracts and renal or hepatic failure are possible. A deterioration in his state of consciousness can be expected due to the shortage of vitamins and intracerebral hemorrhage. A fast in excess of 70 days does not permit survival. Infusion of liquids, adjustment of salts, and the addition of glucose and vitamin cannot prevent certain death due to such a protracted hunger strike”.

UN-Truth