Prisoner force-feeding law challenged in Israel
RAMATGAN Hospital-bound , ISRAEL and shackled, Palestinian detainee Mohammed Allan was 60 days into his hunger strike, launched in protest of his detention without charge in an Israeli jail, when he slipped into unconsciousness on Friday.
What happens next — whether or not the suspected militant becomes the first Palestinian prisoner forcefed to stay alive under a controversial new Israeli law — is an issue that has caused cleavages between doctors and the state in a clash over medical ethics and Israel’s detention policies.
At the heart of the matter is the new, contentious law that allows a judge to sanction force-feeding or administration of medical treatment if there is a threat to an inmate’s life, even if the prisoner refuses. Israel fears that a hungerstriking prisoner’s death could trigger Palestinian unrest amid widespread disillusionment with stalled peace negotiations.
The law passed by a slim margin in July and elicited harsh criticism. Critics call force-feeding an unethical violation of patient autonomy and akin to torture. The Israeli Medical Association, which has urged physicians not to co-operate, is challenging the law in the Supreme Court.
“There have been clashes between the IMA and the government, but never on such basic ethical issues,” said Raphi Walden, a physician and member of the group Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.
Lawmakers argued the legislation is needed to deter Palestinian detainees from hunger striking to pressure Israel for their release or other demands. Supporters also countered that force-feeding is preferable to letting a patient die.
Under the new law, Israel’s prison service needs to seek permission from the attorney general to ask a judge to allow the force-feeding of a prisoner. The judge would then weigh a doctor’s opinion, the prisoner’s position as well as security considerations before ruling in the matter, according to the Israeli physicians’ group.
Doctors have not known how serious Allan’s situation has been lately because he refused to submit to an examination. Authorities transferred him to two different hospitals over the past week, where at each hospital an ethics committee authorized doctors to perform a forced examination. But in both instances, doctors criticized the committee’s decision and refused. Authorities have not yet approached a court to ask for force-feeding authorization.
The 30-year-old Allan was arrested in November 2014 and detained without charge for two six-month periods, under a measure called administrative detention.