[Ppnews] Israeli Prison Service Refusing to Transfer Her to Hospital Despite Immediate Risk of Death

[Political Prisoner News]

Israeli Prison Service Refusing to Transfer 
Shalabi to Hospital Despite Risk of Death

Published on Thursday, 22 March 2012 01:00
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php/prisoners/1162-israeli-prison-service-refusing-to-transfer-her-to-hospital-despite-immediate-risk-of-death 


On Wednesday, March 21, Addameer, Physicians for 
Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) and Al-Haq 
express their grave concern for the health of 
Hana Shalabi, who is at immediate risk of death 
on her 34th day of hunger strike. As of today, 
the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) is refusing to 
transfer Ms. Shalabi to the hospital, despite 
yesterday's urgent reports by her doctor that she 
should be transferred immediately. Addameer, 
PHR-Israel and Al-Haq are certain that the 
quality and facilitation of medical care 
administered by the IPS is not adequate to attend 
to her current condition. Meanwhile, today, the 
Israeli military judge of the Court of Appeals 
postponed yet again making a decision regarding 
Ms. Hana Shalabi's four-month administrative 
detention order following a meeting with her 
lawyers and the military prosecution.

Following an urgent report issued by the 
PHR-Israel doctor who examined Ms. Shalabi 
yesterday, 19 March, which concluded that Ms. 
Shalabi is in immediate mortal danger and should 
be immediately transferred to a hospital for 
close observation, Ms. Shalabi was transferred to 
the civilian Meir Hospital last night. However, 
for unknown reasons, she was not admitted to the 
hospital and the IPS transferred Ms. Shalabi back 
to the IPS medical center in Ramleh Prison 
Hospital later on the same night. Ms. Shalabi's 
doctor was not informed of this transfer until 
today. Addameer, PHR-Israel and Al-Haq share 
fears regarding the adequacy and timeliness of 
the medical care available in Ramleh, especially 
given the growing concern about her rapidly deteriorating condition.

Today, the chairman of PHR-Israel has been 
pushing on all possible fronts for her immediate 
transfer to a hospital. When he asked the IPS why 
they are refusing to transfer her, IPS Chief 
Medical Officer Dini Orkin informed him that the 
commissioner of the IPS—who is not a medical 
official—said that Ms. Shalabi's doctor would 
have to return to Ramleh and provide another 
medical opinion before they would even consider 
her transfer, despite her urgent report from 
yesterday. Furthermore, and even more troubling, 
Ms. Shalabi reported to the PHR-Israel doctor 
that during her various transfers yesterday, she 
was handled violently, including being "dragged 
across the floor". Her PHR-Israel doctor is 
particularly worried about Ms. Shalabi in light 
of this mistreatment, which undoubtedly is having 
an effect on her already-fragile state. Any 
further deterioration or aggravation of her 
condition, including emotionally, could cause a heart attack.

Addameer, PHR-Israel and Al-Haq also condemn the 
IPS' latest actions regarding its role in 
pressuring Ms. Shalabi to end her hunger strike. 
During a visit by Addameer lawyer Muna Neddaf on 
16 March, Ms. Shalabi stated that the IPS' 
attempts to get her to end her hunger strike have 
included continuing to deny her family visits for 
the next month from 13 March; pressure from a 
Muslim cleric who is a member of the IPS "Ethics 
Committee"; and attempts to undermine her 
confidence and trust in her PHR-Israel doctor, 
including providing her with misinformation and 
telling her the doctor does not care about her. 
The IPS continues to consider force-feeding in 
disregard to the principles of medical ethics and 
the guidelines of the World Medical Association 
and the Israeli Medical Association.

In legal proceedings, today's meeting followed 
her original appeal hearing on 7 March, during 
which the military judge stated that he would 
make his decision on 11 or 12 March in order to 
give the military prosecution ample time to 
"revise its position" and to allow for any 
negotiations on a "deal" between the military 
prosecution and the committee of lawyers 
representing Ms. Shalabi. He noted that his 
intention was for any such "deal" to occur at the 
Appeals Court level and not after, as in the case 
of Khader Adnan. No decision was made on 11 or 12 
March in this regard. Today's meeting with the 
Israeli prosecutor and Ms. Shalabi's lawyers was 
called for by the military judge to discuss 
developments on the matter. However, the 
negotiations have not resulted in any agreement 
as of today. As a result, the judge stated that 
he will be announcing his decision soon, but did 
not specify when. The judge requested a detailed 
medical report on Ms. Shalabi's health condition, 
which has been prepared by the PHR-Israel doctor and submitted to the court.

Commenting on the discussions, Addameer lawyer 
Mahmoud Hassan stated that "the Israeli military 
prosecution's concern is to get Hana to end her 
hunger strike as opposed to seriously considering 
the reasons underlying Hana's protest, including 
the infringement on her right to fair trial and right to an effective defense."

At least 23 other Palestinian political prisoners 
are currently on hunger strike to protest the use 
of administrative detention as an indefinite form 
of detention without charge or trial, including 
72-year-old Palestinian Legislative Council 
member Ahmad Al-Hajj Ali. Since the beginning of 
March, a number of administrative detainees have 
refused to acknowledge the military court and 
refused to participate in legal discussions of 
their cases. Due to Israel's use of 
administrative detention, and the lack of due 
process afforded to Palestinians in the military 
court system, a hunger strike serves as a 
non-violent and sole tool available to 
administrative detainees and other political 
prisoners to fight for their basic human rights.

Addameer, PHR-Israel and Al-Haq are gravely 
concerned for the life of Hana Shalabi and call 
for her immediate transfer to a hospital, with 
adequate care that is uninterrupted by frequent 
and unnecessary transfers. Addameer, PHR-Israel 
and Al-Haq also appeal to the local and 
international communities to take every action in 
applying pressure on Israel to seriously address 
the underlying reasons behind the growing 
protests of Palestinian political prisoners and 
to end the large scale practice of internment 
without charge or trial. This practice is 
indicative of willful deprivation of the right to 
fair trial afforded to protected persons, in 
addition to the well-documented systematic policy 
of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment as 
methods of intimidation and coercion that Israel employs.




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