Palestinian hunger striker tests Israeli force-feeding law
EINABOS, West Bank — Palestinian hunger striker Mohammed Allan spent his college years as an activist and leader in the student wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group at a West Bank university. Now unconscious and shackled to a hospital bed, the lawyer accused of affiliating with terrorists has focused attention on Israel’s controversial detention and force-feeding policies.
Allan was arrested in November 2014 and held for two six-month periods under administrative detention, which allows authorities to imprison suspects for months or years without charge. Israel defends the practice as a necessary tool to stop militant activity.
He began his hunger strike in June, 63 days ago, to protest his incarceration without charge and has been unconscious since Friday at the intensive care unit of the Barzilai hospital in Israel’s southern city of Ashkelon. Doctors say he has organ damage because of the fast and his condition remains precarious.
Palestinian prisoners have used hunger strikes before to draw attention to their detention without trial or charges. Fearing that a fasting detainee’s death could spark unrest among Palestinians, Israel has at times acceded to hunger strikers’ demands. In June, it freed Khader Adnan, a 36-year-old senior activist in Islamic Jihad, after a 55-day hunger strike protesting his detention without charge.
Allan’s fast is the first to test Israel’s law, passed narrowly in July, that allows a judge to sanction force-feeding or medical treatment if an inmate’s life is threatened, even if the prisoner refuses.
It is still unclear if the procedure will be carried out in Allan’s case. On Monday, Israel’s Supreme Court delayed a decision on releasing him. Israel’s medical association has urged doctors not to comply with force-feeding, denouncing the act as inhumane.
Israel has accused the 31-year-old Allan of ties to Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group that has staged countless attacks against Israeli civilians, including suicide bombings and rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.
An Israeli defense official said Allan was an Islamic Jihad operative who in recent years “became known as someone who identifies with the global Jihad ideology.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case with the media.
“My son is not dangerous,” said Allan’s father, Nasser, denying any links to militant activities.
Allan was born to a conservative family of 10 children in Einabos, a West Bank village of 4,000 people. Many of the older residents harvest olives and farm the land, while younger generations have often sought better opportunities in nearby cities like Nablus. Relatives said that as a lawyer in Nablus, Allan was the main breadwinner for the family. He was known to work long days on his cases, but recently had expressed interest in finding a wife and having children, his father said.