Politicians, media mostly ignore Palestinian hunger strike

[Jefferson23]

A courageous Palestinian hunger strike is nearing its 50th day, yet it has barely made a dent on the local, regional or international scene. Palestinian administrative detainees — those being held without charge or trial — are with their stomachs fighting an unjust practice carried out by a country that claims to be a democracy, but no one is paying attention. Israel currently holds 189 Palestinians under administrative detention, and 100 to 125 of them have been on a hunger strike since April 24.

On June 6, more than 40 days after the beginning of the strike and after 70 prisoners were transferred to hospitals, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon publicly spoke out against the detentions, urging Israeli authorities to release the prisoners or charge them. The secretary-general’s statement came a day after the UN Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories urged Israel to heed the demands of Palestinian prisoners concerning what it called “arbitrary” detentions. “It is a desperate plea by these detainees to be afforded a very basic standard of due process: to know what they are accused of and to be able to defend themselves,” said the committee after a fact-finding mission that also included visits to Amman and Cairo. The committee stated that the massive hunger strike is in response to a lack of due process, as the administrative detainees are subject to unlimited renewals of their detention period, again without formal charges against them.

To bring attention to the plight of these prisoners, Palestinians in the West Bank held a partial general strike on June 8. In Gaza, hundreds of citizens held a candlelight vigil. Demonstrations in solidarity with the prisoners have also taken place in a number of countries, but they have attracted little notice. Social media efforts to bring attention to the hunger strike chose the hashtag #Water_and_Salt in Arabic, with the hope that it would generate international support, like the 2012 strike led by Adnan Khader, which succeeded in pressuring the Israelis into forgoing renewal of his administrative detention order.

Various other efforts have been made to humanize the hunger strike — including publishing profiles of the doctors, parliamentarians, teenagers and school teachers taking part — but, again, with little success. The strike has been eclipsed by major news from the region, including the visit of Pope Francis to the Holy Land, the Egyptian elections and inauguration of a new president and the ongoing violence in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Meanwhile, Ukraine captured most of the international headlines.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/06/palestine-hunger-strike-detainees-regional-crises.html#ixzz34ErjVMkl

[Fozzledick]

1. Maybe they should just hold their breath until they turn blue.

[Jefferson23]

2. I appreciate your candid remarks, tells me a great deal. n/t

[Fozzledick]

3. Well, it's really hard to manufacture sympathy for terrorism these days.

The rest of the world just doesn't seem to appreciate the moral superiority of self-inflicted "martyrdom".

The latest Pallywood production seems to be getting a little more traction, but it's only a matter of time before it's objectively debunked.

[Jefferson23]

4. Very telling about you, pairing this opinion with your previous claim of B'Tselem as a

propaganda organization.

[King_David]

5. Lots of very telling things in this group

That wasn't one of them.

[Jefferson23]

6. Coming from you, yea it is. n/t

[King_David]

15. Yes please elaborate on that insult,

Coming from me ?

[Jefferson23]

17. Your support for Palestinian administrative detention..the reason you responded

in this thread...it came from you.

[King_David]

20. C'mon I know and everybody else knows why you dislike

And insult me so ,you know very little about me , your reasons are for what you do know about me, it's clear to everyone .

[Jefferson23]

21. You asked I told..you came into this thread supporting Palestinians detention.

What I know about you is that you support Israeli policies such as this one...so yea,
I am being very clear.

[King_David]

22. I know it has nothing to do with my views

on Palestinian or Israeli policies , your biases ( clean word )are clear .

[Jefferson23]

23. Israeli policies you have defended for years and I have taken positions against them.

All documented here on DU.

[King_David]

24. That's because I'm one of the 2 groups involved in the conflict

that's because it's part if my heritage .
We have the same reasons for being obsessed about this conflict -- both to do with the Jewish people.

[Jefferson23]

25. This group is open to any DU member to post. Appears you would prefer to silence

people by presuming you know who they are, their backgrounds and what you
imagine are their motives...not logical but it might intimidate some people, those
tactics you attempt to employ.

[King_David]

26. Nope

Just explaining your dislike .

[Jefferson23]

27. Good to know how you judge situations to protect a state that has kept the Palestinians

under occupation for more than 40 years...thanks.

[Fozzledick]

8. Actually the B'Tselem videos you've posted have been EXTREMELY telling.

Belligerently assaulting and harassing army patrols to try to provoke a violent incident and then when they fail fraudulently misrepresenting the staged videos of their provocateurs being taken into custody after committing acts that in this country would be considered "suicide by cop". They're like minor-league James O’Keefe wannabes, only not half as clever.

[Jefferson23]

10. Link the videos you are referring to..be specific.

[Fozzledick]

12. Why? You know what they are, did you lose the links?

If you're too lazy to look them up then why should I bother?

What I don't get is why you think this crap has any credibility at all. Don't you have any real world experience outside your extremist ideological bubble, or are you just determined not to think about it?

[Jefferson23]

14. I have not posted any videos in this thread and I have asked you to link to

the videos that you claim support you...you refuse.

You like to dump a claim and can't back it up.

The laws are there for a reason and that you wish to ignore them for Israel is unfortunate.

[Jefferson23]

7. Statistics on Administrative Detention

Published:
1 Jan 2011
Updated:
12 May 2014

At the end of April 2014, 191 Palestinian administrative detainees were held in facilities run by the Israel Prison Service (IPS).

The following tables present the number of Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories who were held by Israel in administrative detention on specific dates from 2001 to 2014:

From the beginning of the intifada (December 9, 1987) until today, thousands of Palestinians have been held in administrative detention for periods ranging from six months to several years.

The following table details the number of Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories who were held by Israel in administrative detention on particular dates since November 1989. B'Tselem does not have summary statistics on the total number of Palestinians held in administrative detention during each year .

http://www.btselem.org/administrative_detention/statistics


snip* The basis for administrative detention in international law
Published:
1 Jan 2011

International human-rights law

The right to liberty is one of the pillars of human rights, and prolonged arbitrary detention constitutes a breach of international customary law.

Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states:

Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedures as are established by law.
Anyone who is arrested shall be informed, at the time of arrest, of the reasons for his arrest and shall be promptly informed of any charges against him.
[…]
Anyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings before a court, in order that that court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his detention and order his release if the detention is not lawful. The provisions of the Covenant are not absolute. Under article 4.1 of the Covenant, “n time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation”, the state may infringe, to a restricted extent, the rights enshrined in some of the articles, including the article addressing the right to liberty. Even then, the state is restricted and may only take vital measures, and only “to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation.”

http://www.btselem.org/administrative_detention/international_law

[Fozzledick]

9. What does that have to do with prisoners of war?

Aren't they usually held until the war is over or an exchange is negotiated?

[Jefferson23]

11. Educate yourself...they are not prisoners of war.

Reference the UN reports, and there are many others specific to the law on this subject.

[Fozzledick]

13. Ah, so it's not a war! I see...

So then it's not an occupation either.

Will wonders never cease?

[Jefferson23]

16. Your wondering will not likely cease, no. n/t

[Jefferson23]

18. Bill to force-feed hunger strikers passes first vote

Some 300 Palestinian prisoners on 6-week-old hunger strike would be force fed if bill passes three more votes.

Reuters
Published: 06.10.14

Israel's parliament has given initial approval to a law to enable the force-feeding of Palestinian prisoners on a hunger strike, drawing defiance from activists who said on Tuesday it would not deter the inmates.


Some 120 Palestinians held by Israel began refusing food on April 24 in protest at their detention without trial. Since then the number has risen closer to 300. Israel's Prisons Service say 70 have been hospitalised.

Israel says Palestinians suspected of security offences are sometimes jailed without trial to avoid any court proceedings that could expose sensitive intelligence information - a practice that has drawn international criticism.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4528941,00.html

[Jefferson23]

19. Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHR-IL),

05/06/2014

Although the crisis is one of human rights and politics, Israeli government expects the medical community to use its expertise and violate its ethics to subdue it.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHR-IL), the Israeli Medical Association (IMA), and the National Bioethics Institute, all voiced their objection to forced feeding as a practice that is completely and always prohibited. However, as firm as the medical community is in its opposition to the bill proposal, so is the government resolute not only to pass the bill, but also to find doctors who will comply with it. This obstinacy is extremely dangerous, manifesting Israel's government's inability not only to negotiate a life-saving peaceful resolution with the hunger striking prisoners and detainees, but even to hold a proper respectful discussion with its own medical community.

Thus, Israel's government sends a dismal message to its citizens: all ethics, professional standards and alternative discourse are silenced in the face of the official policy of oppression – if not by will than by law.

http://www.phr.org.il/default.asp?PageID=116&ItemID=1925

[Jefferson23]

28. Bennett: Bill curbing pardons for terrorists will stop 'lawlessness'

Proposal meant to limit prisoner releases moves forward in Knesset; legislature passes preliminary reading 36-20; Meretz leader Gal-On criticizes bill as effort by "right-wing extremists" to prevent peace deal.

A bill seeking to limit presidential pardons for terrorists and murderers moved toward becoming law Wednesday, passing a preliminary reading in the Knesset.

The legislation, which has Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's support, is meant to prevent large-scale releases of Palestinian terrorists by giving courts the option to sentence terrorists and murderers to life in prison with a clause saying the president will not have the power to commute the sentence, which he currently has.

"Today, the Knesset said: Enough lawlessness," Economy Minister Naftali Bennett declared after the bill passed. "This is not just moral, it will stop terror attacks. If the State of Israel couldn't follow basic morality, which says murderers need to die in prison, then now it will have to do so."

According to Bennett, if this law had passed earlier, many murderers may have under stood that "it doesn't pay to kill Jews."

http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Bennett-Bill-curbing-pardons-for-terrorists-will-stop-lawlessness-355989