Israel’s parliament approved on Thursday a bill to allow force-feeding of Palestinian hunger striking prisoners, triggering intense opposition by the country’s medical association.
Advertisement
The Knesset passed a law early Thursday morning that sanctions the force-feeding of hunger-striking prisoners in Israeli jails.
The government of Israel says they’re concerned that the death of a Palestinian prisoner from a hunger strike could lead to mass protests in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The Israeli Medical Association has condemned the law, saying force-feeding was tantamount to torture and urged the doctors not to participate. In the past, Israel Medical Association Chairman Dr. Leonid Edelman said that the IMA will not protect doctors who will be tried at the worldwide Criminal Court.
Eassa Qaraqe’a, the prisoners’ affairs department chief in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) told Xinhua that the law translates into “an execution of prisoners who go on hunger strike”.
The move, which saw 46 members of Knesset vote in favor and 40 oppose, was sharply decried by the Joint List oppositionist Arab group in the Knesset, which argued this law represents a new method of torture and seriously violates medical ethics.
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s Internal Security Minister, defended the regulation as a solution to forestall Palestinians jailed for safety offences from utilizing starvation strikes to strain Israeli authorities to launch them.
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel called the law shameful.
This was Adnan’s second extended hunger strike against his administrative detention; in 2012, Adnan won his release in a similar deal that ended a hunger strike.
Ashrawi said that the new bill would allow Israel to “continue committing its crimes” against Palestinian prisoners. Several hundred are held in administrative detention, according to the Palestinian prisoner advocacy group Addameer, where they can be held for months or years without charge or trial.
Advertisement
“‘It’s against the Geneva Conventions and worldwide humanitarian law, it legalizes torture of prisoners who are demanding their rights in a non-violent way”, he said in a televised statement.
