The Israeli parliament has passed a law allowing the force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strike. But the Israeli Medical Association (IMA) protested against the law because it contravenes the domestic Patients’ Rights Law and worldwide medical ethics accepted in the rest of the world.
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The bill was approved less than a month after Israel was forced to release Khader Adnan, a famous former Palestinian prisoner whose 56-day-long hunger strike brought him to the brink of death.
David Amsalem, a lawmaker with the ruling Likud party who backed the law, said it “creates the right balance between the state’s interest to protect the prisoner’s life and his rights and sovereignty over his body”.
Entitled “Preventing the Harm Caused By Hunger Strike”, the law is meant as a way to communicate to prisoners that “hunger striking is not a way out of prison or a way to fulfill any goals”, said Yoel Hadar, legal advisor for the Public Security Ministry, which aggressively sought to advance the bill. The Joint Arab List, the 13 Arab members of Israel’s parliament, called the legislation “a law to torture Palestinian prisoners, aimed at uprooting their legitimate struggle”.
The spokeswoman also told reporters there are now four “security prisoners” who had been on hunger strike for over a week.
Until recently, says his attorney, the Israel Prison Service’s preliminary condition for entering negotiations was an end to the hunger strike.
Israel has a policy called “administrative detention“, which allows it to detain Palestinians indefinitely without trial.
“This law is a blight on Israel’s book of laws”, said Leonid Edelman, who chairs the Israel Medical Assn.
While the legislation applies to all inmates held in Israeli jails, hunger strikes are most common among Palestinian prisoners, who use them as a tool to draw attention to their incarceration without trial or charges.
Hunger strikes have become an important form of protest for Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.
He ended his hunger strike in June after reaching a deal with the Israeli military prosecution for his release, which took place earlier in July. People held under administrative detention in Israel can be held for renewable six-month periods without charge.
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Hamouri expected that the force feeding law would “easily pass”, given that it is, like the Israeli government, a “racist law in every meaning of the word, denying the basic right of prisoners”, he said. The practice was criticized by rights groups, but US officials insist that it is needed to prevent the prisoners from harming themselves from “non-religious fasting” as the hunger strikes are termed.
