Ameed said that “the Israeli authorities allowed his mother to see Mohammed twice during the past week, each time only for a quarter of an hour”.
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Pressure mounting for release of hunger striking prisoner Muhammad Allan, who is in a coma and on life support since Friday. He is receiving treatment and his condition is stable.
A doctor at the Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon where Allan is being treated told the court he had not appeared to suffer irreversible damage but would probably not survive if he resumed his hunger strike.
At the beginning of July, Israel was holding 5,442 Palestinians, almost 400 of them under administrative detention orders issued by military courts.
“He is determined to continue his hunger strike”, despite the risk to his life, Naser Allan said of his son.
While Israel’s new law applies to all prisoners held in Israeli jails, Palestinian prisoners have used hunger strikes as a tool to draw attention to their detention without trial or charges.
Doctors were giving Allan fluids, electrolytes and vitamins after his condition deteriorated Friday morning into loss of consciousness, convulsions and hallucinations.
Doctors and rights activists strongly oppose the law, including those who say force-feeding amounts to torture and robs Palestinians of a legitimate form of protest.
Monday’s incident occurred near an Israeli military checkpoint. A doctor, who is working on behalf of the Allan family, Dr. Hani Abedin, was denied access to visit Allan by Israeli Prison Service guards. It has denounced the law as unethical and a violation of global conventions. They searched his office and sifted through his documents, according to Addameer, a group that advocates for Palestinian prisoners.
The UN labelled hunger strikes “a fundamental human right”. Authorities said Allan was being held for his activities in Islamic Jihad, a group which has carried out numerous violent attacks against civilians. A doctor who does comply could face sanctioning from the IMA, Walden said but any IMA action would not affect a doctor’s medical license, authorized by the Health Ministry.
No Palestinian prisoner has yet died while on hunger strike, though Israel’s force-feeding of prisoners in the 1980s led to several deaths, according to Addameer.
Highlightining the tensions stoked by Allan’s case, five Jews and four Arabs were arrested on Sunday during street confrontations touched off by a march toward Barzilai hospital by supporters of the hunger-striker, Israeli police said.
Hunger strikes are a common practice among Palestinian security prisoners, especially those in administrative detention.
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Islamic Jihad spokesman Daoud Shehab has accused the Israeli government trying to “assassinate” the hunger striker.
