The Israeli authorities have re-arrested Mohammed Allan, who had staged a hunger strike to protest against his detention without charge.
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Allan was arrested when he was discharged from the Israeli hospital where he been receiving treatment and returned to a prison facility, an Israeli police spokeswoman said, citing the standing “administrative detention” order, which the court had frozen but not canceled. Nonetheless, due to his medical condition he remained in hospital, until he was discharged this morning and promptly arrested.
A relative said Mohammed Allan was resuming his fast now that he was again in custody. It was not clear if Allan had done so.
The Arab civil rights group Adalah, which petitioned the court on Allan’s behalf, said the new arrest was a “random and vindictive act” that had nothing to do with the evidence required to keep him in administrative detention.
Allan, a lawyer and member of Islamic Jihad, was detained last November and held without trial.
Three alleged Jewish extremists are now in administrative detention following the July 31 firebombing of a Palestinian home that killed an 18-month-old boy along with his mother and father.
Allan had been on a 65-day hunger strike, when he fell unconscious and was placed into a medically-induced coma.
Allan began his fast to protest the policy of administrative detention.
Administrative detainees are allowed to appeal to the courts, but activists say the chances of having their detainment overturned are extremely slim.
His case tested a new Israeli law allowing fasting inmates to be force-fed.
His administrative detention was temporarily lifted and Israeli prosecutors told the court they would release him if he were found to have irreversible brain damage, but the ruling left open the question of what would happen if or when his health improves.
His hunger strike became a rallying cry for Palestinians, with pictures of his thickly bearded face posted on social networks and brandished on posters supporting his cause.
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Head of PPC said that the Israeli military prosecution and High Court of Justice have reinstated Allan’s administrative detention without charge or trial, slamming their decision to reinstate Allan’s detention as a “farce”.
