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"Beyond the medical, professional, and ethical failures, Khader Adnan's story demonstrates Israel's fear of addressing the main issue against which Adnan protested for so many years—the injustices of the occupation," said one human rights group.
Resistance fighters in Gaza launched a volley of rockets at Israel amid protests and a call for a general strike after Palestinian activist Khader Adnan, who had been on a nearly three-month hunger strike, died in an Israeli prison early Tuesday.
Adnan, a 45-year-old father of nine and member of the resistance group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, died in Nitzan Prison in Ramle on the 87th day of a hunger strike to protest the Israeli practice of administrative detention—indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial.
"My flesh has melted, my bones have gnawed, and my strength has weakened from my imprisonment," Adnan said in his will, written a month ago. "My dear Palestinian people… do not despair. Regardless of what the occupiers do, and no matter how far they go in their injustice and aggression, our victory is close."
Palestinian media report hundreds of people gathered outside Adnan's home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank town of Arraba. Randa Musa, Adnan's widow, urged Palestinians to remain peaceful.
"We do not want a single drop of bloodshed," she said. "We do not want rockets to be fired, or a following strike on Gaza."
The Associated Press reports Palestinian militants launched 22 rockets from Gaza into southern Israel after Adnan's death, wounding three people—all foreigners—at a construction site in Sderot.
"This is an initial response to this heinous crime that will trigger reactions from our people," a coalition of Gaza-based Palestinian militant groups led by Hamas said in a statement.
Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees Palestinian prisoners, responded to Adnan's death by ordering the Israel Prison Service (IPS) to show "zero-tolerance toward hunger strikes."
According to Middle East Eye, Adnan spent a total of 316 days on hunger strikes in various Israeli prisons over the past two decades:
Growing up under Israeli military rule, Adnan became involved in anti-occupation work from a young age.
He was first arrested by Israeli forces while he was still a student at Birzeit University in Ramallah, where he graduated with a degree in economic mathematics in 2001.
His first detention lasted four months without charge or trial. He was then rearrested and held for another year.
Over the next two decades, Adnan was arrested 10 more times, spending a total of eight years behind bars.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), an umbrella advocacy group, called Adnan a "true fighter" who waged "long battles with his empty stomach to gain his freedom."
"Today we lost a true leader," PPS said in a statement, adding that Adnan "carried the voice of Palestinian prisoners to the world."
Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) tweeted: "When he was arrested for the last time, Adnan again protested his detention. The hunger strike was Adnan's last resort to nonviolently protest the oppression he and his people face every day. These strikes were a protest not only against his own administrative detentions but also against its decadeslong use as a tool of political oppression against Palestinians."
PHRI continued:
For weeks, following a severe deterioration in his condition, we tried to convince the Health Ministry, Kaplan Hospital, and the Israel Prison Service to keep Adnan hospitalized. The IPS clinic was not equipped to monitor Adnan and could not provide emergency intervention in case of sudden deterioration. After visiting Adnan a few days before his death, PHRI chairperson Dr. Lina Qasem-Hassan published a medical report warning that he faces imminent death and must be urgently transferred to a hospital for observation. Unfortunately, our efforts to raise these concerns judicially and individually fell on deaf ears. Even the request to allow Adnan's family to visit him in prison—when it was clear this may be their final meeting—was denied by the IPS.
"Beyond the medical, professional, and ethical failures, Khader Adnan's story demonstrates Israel's fear of addressing the main issue against which Adnan protested for so many years—the injustices of the occupation," the group added.
PPS said Adnan is the 237th Palestinian since 1967 to die while imprisoned by Israel. According to Middle East Eye, at least seven other Palestinians previously died while on hunger strike in Israeli prisons; the last such death occurred in 1992.
"By incarcerating him in the first place and purposely subjecting him to medical neglect the Israeli regime is responsible for Khader Adnan's death. But it is important to understand hunger strikes as acts of resistance in a context where prisoners are stripped of all agency," Palestinian academic Yara Hawari tweeted.
"Whilst it may seem that by inflicting damage on the body is oppositional to liberation, hunger strikes allow prisoners to seize back the power of life and death from the incarceration regime," she added. "This is why they have long been used as a tool of resistance around the world."
According to the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian advocacy group, Israel currently imprisons nearly 5,000 Palestinians, including more than 1,000 administrative detainees and 160 children.
Khader Adnan, a Palestinian baker, who has been detained without charge by Israeli authorities since last year and has been on a hunger strike for over 65 days will be released, according to one of is lawyers and various media outlets.
According to The Telegraph/UK:
Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan has ended his 66-day hunger strike, the longest carried out by any Palestinian prisoner, after Israel agreed to set him free on April 17.
Mr Adnan has refused food since December 18, one day after he was detained without charge. He had lost more than 40 per cent of his body weight over the past nine weeks.
Mr Adnan's wife, Randa Mussa hailed the deal as a "victory" for her husband. "He forced the occupation to give in to his demands and I hope he returns safe to us," she said.
"The Israeli court decided to release Khader Adnan on April 17 and based on that he ended his hunger strike," Palestinian prisoner affairs minister Issa Qaraqaa said.
And an Al-Jazeera report this morning confirms the Adnan's release, citing one of his lawyers:
The revelation came hours before the supreme court was to hear an urgent appeal on Tuesday for Adnan's release.
The lawyer said that a settlement had been reached for ending his detention.
The continued 'administrative detention' of the Palestinian from the West Bank had stroked global anger with protesters clashing again with police in the West Bank on Tuesday.
Israel arrested Adnan, a 33-year-old baker, on December 17 near the northern West Bank town of Jenin. Israel accuses him of being a spokesman for the Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad.
He told lawyers and human rights organisations that masked soldiers violently broke into his house, where his mother and children were present.
Adnan said that his hands were shackled behind him and that he was thrown onto the floor of the military jeep and kicked and slapped by soldiers while they took him to the settlement of Mevo Dotan.
He began refusing food a day after his arrest and is now said to be in critical condition.
Earlier, Saeb Erakat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, urged world leaders to pressure Israel to free Adnan.
"I sent messages to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton today, and spoke with the EU and Chinese envoys," Erakat told AFP news agency.
"I asked them all to intervene in Adnan's case. They must apply pressure on Israel to release him," he said.
And Haaretz in Israel reports that Adnan will not be released immediately, but the agreement includes plans for his release in approximately two months:
According to a Justice Ministry statement, the state will not request to extend Adnan's administrative detention, which is due to end on April 17.
Adnan, who is hospitalized in Ziv Hospital in Safed, announced that he will be ending his hunger strike. Since an agreement was reached, there will not be a hearing at the Supreme Court.
Adnan continued his hunger strike longer than any Palestinian detainee before him. His doctors warned this week that the 33-year-old might die soon.
The hunger strike has transformed Adnan into a Palestinian hero, with thousands protesting in support of the once obscure bearded baker.
###
Each year, the U.S. State Department, as required by law, issues a "Human Rights Report" which details abuses by other countries. To call it an exercise in hypocrisy is to understate the case: it is almost impossible to find any tyrannical power denounced by the State Department which the U.S. Government (and its closest allies) do not regularly exercise itself. Indeed, it's often impossible to imagine how the authors of these reports can refrain from cackling mischievously over the glaring ironies of what they are denouncing (my all-time favorite example is discussed in the update here).

In 2010, the State Department included a long section on the oppressive detention practices of China. The "principal human rights problems" of the tyrannical Chinese government include "a lack of due process in judicial proceedings" and "the use of administrative detention." Indeed, "arbitrary arrest and detention remained serious problems. The law grants police broad administrative detention powers and the ability to detain individuals for extended periods without formal arrest or criminal charges." Can one even find the words to condemn these Chinese monsters?
Time's Tony Karon today writes about the case of Khader Adnan, a 33-year-old Palestinian baker currently imprisoned without charges by the Israeli government on accusations that he is a spokesman for Islamic Jihad. To protest his due-process-free imprisonment and that of thousands of other Palestinians, Adnan has been on a sustained hunger strike and is now close to death. Karon writes:
Israel has not charged Adnan with any crime . . . Israel deals with such cases using a legal framework based on emergency laws left over from British colonial rule to detain any suspect for six months at a time without needing to provide evidence or lay charges against them. When a detainee's six-month spell has expired, the detention can simply be renewed.
[...]
Of course, the U.S. has its own system of indefinite detention now firmly in place. ...
Read the rest including updates here.
Today, several thousand Palestinians have rallied in Gaza and the West Bank in support of Khader Adnan, who was detained by Israeli forces two months ago and has been held without trial or charge. Adnan is on his 62nd day of a hunger strike protesting what Israeli forces call 'administrative detention'.
Many Palestinian prisoners have now joined Adnan's hunger strike adding to the outcry against Israeli detention practices.

After Physicians for Human Rights in Israel (PHR) insisted that Adnan is "in immediate danger of death" due to days without sustenance, protesters gathered again in the streets calling for the release of Adnan. Some are now saying that the situation is sparking great unrest and has renewed the "Palestinian political imagination".
***
Reuters reports:
"We are all Khader Adnan," chanted crowds gathered in the Gaza Strip, with activists from the main political parties joining forces in a rare display of Palestinian unity. [...]
At least 5,000 people took to the streets of Gaza, waving a mix of black Jihad flags, the green flags of Islamist group Hamas and the yellow flags of the secular Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Witnesses said hundreds had also demonstrated in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Palestinian officials said many other prisoners in Israeli jails had started hunger strikes to support Adnan [...]
Hamas, which governs Gaza, said it was pushing the Arab League and Egypt to press for the release of Adnan.
"The Palestinian people, with all its components and its factions, will never abandon the hero prisoners, especially those who lead this hunger strike battle," said Hamas's top authority in the Mediterranean territory, Ismail Haniyeh.
"The case of Khader Adnan is a revealing microcosm of the unbearable cruelty of prolonged occupation."
***
Ahram reports:
The procession, attended by all Palestinian movements, began at the Al-Omari mosque after Friday prayers and ended at the headquarters of the Red Cross.
"In his hunger strike, Khader Adnan is not fighting for a personal cause, but for the defence of thousands of prisoners," a Gaza leader of Islamic Jihad, Nafez Azzam said in a speech.
This Friday's weekly demonstration in the West Bank village of Bilin, marking the seventh anniversary of rallies against the Israeli separation barrier, was also dedicated to Adnan. An AFP correspondent said it was joined by some 1,000 demonstrators. [...]
Human rights groups in Israel and overseas have appealed to Israel to free him or put him on trial.
Under Israeli law, a military tribunal can order an individual held without charge for up to six months at a time. Such orders can be extended by further six-month periods indefinitely, if approved in a new court session.
"If Adnan is to die, a third intifada is to rise... he will be considered a martyr."
***
Adnan's strike has sparked widespread political activism and may become a catalyst for further demonstrations. Ahram interviewed the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Richard Falk:
"If Adnan is to die, a third intifada is to rise... he will be considered a martyr," expressed Falk, further emphasising the importance of the issue. He explained that that whatever happens to Adnan, "the Palestinian political imagination has been fastened on this case and it will never be forgotten."[...]
Egypt, Falk explained, was key to the situation: "it is important to use Egypt's relations with Israel, and to push the Egyptian authorities to take an initiative."
Randa, 31, Adnan's wife who is pregnant with the couple's third child, urged the Egyptian authorities to step in, as reported by MENA on Tuesday. "Our hope now lies in Egypt for Khader's release," said Randa. "There is talk of Egyptian efforts being made, which I hope is true as Egypt was instrumental in the last prisoner swap deal," she added making reference to Gilad Shalit.
Falk sees that Adnan's case is an opportunity for the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), as acting president, to step up and show concern over what is taking place outside of Egypt.
However, it is important to note that the SCAF has behaved in a similar way to Israel when handling domestic affairs in Egypt. Since 28 January, 2011 the ruling military council has abused Emergency Law and randomly arrested over 12,000 civilians. [...]
Falk deemed Adnan's imprisonment without charges illegal and called on the international community to pay attention to the way Israel mistreats thousands of Palestinian prisoners. This is a problem, Falk added, which should be of great concern to them.
***
Falk writes for Al-jazeera:
The case of Khader Adnan is a revealing microcosm of the unbearable cruelty of prolonged occupation. It draws a contrast in the West between the dignity of an Israeli prisoner and the steadfast refusal to heed the abuse of thousands of Palestinians languishing in Israeli jails through court sentence or administrative order. [...]
Have we not reached a stage in our appreciation of human rights that we should outlaw such state barbarism? Let us hope that the awful experience of Khader Adnan does not end with his death, and let us hope further that it sparks a worldwide protest against both administrative detention and prisoner abuse. The Palestinian people have suffered more than enough already.
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