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<h1><font size=4><b>Amnesty to Israel: Release or try Khader Adnan,
gravely ill after 51 days hunger strike
</b></font></h1><font size=3>Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Mon, 02/06/2012
- 20:20<br>
</font><font size=1>
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/amnesty-israel-release-or-try-khader-adnan-gravely-ill-after-51-days-hunger" eudora="autourl">
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/amnesty-israel-release-or-try-khader-adnan-gravely-ill-after-51-days-hunger</a>
<br><br>
</font><font size=3>Adnan Khader, the head of the Islamic Jihad Movement
in the West Bank, talking to the media after a meeting with the
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Muqata in the West Bank town
of Ramallah June 28, 2005.<br>
(<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/mushir-abdelrahman">Mushir
Abdelrahman</a> /
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/maan-images">Maan
Images</a>)<br><br>
Amnesty International today told Israel to release or try
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/khader-adnan">Khader
Adnan</a>, the gravely ill Palestinian prisoner who has been on hunger
strike for 51 continuous days, ever since his arrest by Israeli
occupation forces in the West Bank on 17 December.<br><br>
Amnesty’s demand came as
<a href="http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=458276">Musa
Adnan, Khader’s elderly father, announced that he was going on hunger
strike</a> too in solidarity with his son – whom doctors said is at
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/palestinian-detainee-khader-adnan-risk-imminent-death-after-45-days-hunger-strike#">
risk of imminent death</a>.<br><br>
Adnan’s hunger strike is to protest the fact that he has been held by
Israel without charge or trial in so-called
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/administrative-detention">
administrative detention</a>, and mistreatment by Israeli
interrogators.<br><br>
About 300 Palestinian prisoners, including 21 elected members of the
Palestinian legislative council, are currently in administrative
detention according to
<a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/israel-must-release-or-charge-palestinian-detainee-prolonged-hunger-strike-2012-02-06">
today’s statement from Amnesty</a>.<br><br>
The statements adds:<br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>“For years Israel has been using administrative detention to lock up
Palestinian activists without charge or trial, said Ann Harrison, Amnesty
International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East.<br><br>
<dd>“Military commanders can renew the detention orders repeatedly, so in
effect detainees can be held indefinitely. The process violates their
right to a fair trial which is guaranteed by international law Israel is
obliged to uphold.”<br><br>
</dl>Yet even if Israel does heed Amnesty’s call to charge and try Adnan,
he’d hardly be likely to get a fair trial. Like thousands of other
Palestinian prisoners currently held in Israeli jails, he would be
subjected to
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/israeli-military-court-system">
Israel’s military occupation courts</a> in which all the prosecutors and
judges are officers in the Israeli occupation army.<br><br>
<h2><b>Text of Amnesty statement</b></h2>
<dl>
<dd><font size=3>Israel must release or try Palestinian detainee on
prolonged hunger strike<br><br>
</b>
<dd>6 February 2012<br><br>
<dd>The Israeli authorities must release a Palestinian detainee or charge
him with a recognizable criminal offence and promptly try him, Amnesty
International said today amid fears the man could die in detention after
more than 50 days on hunger strike.<br><br>
<dd>Khader Adnan, 33, was arrested on 17 December 2011 at his home in the
village of Arrabe near Jenin in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli
security forces burst into his home in the early hours of the
morning.<br><br>
<dd>Mr Adnan, a baker, is allegedly affiliated with the Islamic Jihad
movement.<br><br>
<dd>On Wednesday a military court conducted a review of Khader Adnan’s
case but the judge has yet to announce the outcome - release, his
detention shortened or the order confirmed.<br><br>
<dd>“For years Israel has been using administrative detention to lock up
Palestinian activists without charge or trial, said Ann Harrison, Amnesty
International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East.<br><br>
<dd>“Military commanders can renew the detention orders repeatedly, so in
effect detainees can be held indefinitely. The process violates their
right to a fair trial which is guaranteed by international law Israel is
obliged to uphold.”<br><br>
<dd>Khader Adnan, who is also a post-graduate student, has been on hunger
strike since 18 December in protest against his ill-treatment, the
conditions of his detention, and the policy of administrative
detention.<br><br>
<dd>The Israeli military commander in the West Bank imposed a four-month
administrative detention order on him last month.<br><br>
<dd>The baker has been hospitalized since 30 December as his health
deteriorated. He has not been allowed any family visits and the Israeli
authorities have since moved him to various different hospitals around
the country.<br><br>
<dd>He was transferred to Ziv hospital in northern Israel on Sunday, in a
move which his lawyers believe is intended to add further pressure on
him, including by making it harder for his lawyers and family to visit
him.<br><br>
<dd>“The Israeli authorities must release Khader Adnan and other
Palestinians held in administrative detention, unless they are promptly
charged with internationally recognizable criminal offences and tried in
accordance with international fair trial standards,” Ann Harrison
added.<br><br>
<dd>He has reportedly lost more than 20 kilos since he began his hunger
strike, and his health has reached a critical stage. On 29 January, he
was visited by doctors from Physicians for Human Rights - Israel, who
gave him a medical check and warned that his life is at risk. He has
since been denied further examination by independent doctors.<br><br>
<dd>His hunger strike has prompted demonstrations in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, and last week other Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails
announced a hunger strike in solidarity.<br><br>
<dd>Administrative detention, a procedure under which detainees
considered a threat to Israeli security are held without charge or trial
for periods of up to six months, can be renewed indefinitely.<br><br>
<dd>No criminal charges are filed against administrative detainees and
there is no intention of bringing them to trial.<br><br>
<dd>Detainees are held on the basis of “secret evidence” which the
Israeli military authorities claim cannot be revealed for security
reasons.<br><br>
<dd>The “secret evidence” on which the military authorities base their
decision to issue an administrative detention order is not made available
to detainees or their lawyers, and detainees cannot challenge the reasons
for their detention.<br><br>
<dd>According to Israel’s prison service some 307 Palestinians were being
held in administrative detention on 31 December last year, but this
number may have since increased.<br><br>
<dd>Twenty-one members of the Palestinian Legislative Council are
currently being held in administrative detention.<br><br>
<dd>Amnesty International believes that the practice of administrative
detention in Israel and the Occupied Territories violates the
internationally recognized right to a fair trial which must be upheld for
all detainees, even during states of emergency.<br><br>
<dd>“Israeli military law applied in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
gives the authorities wide latitude to charge and try in military courts
those individuals who they believe threaten Israeli security,” said Ann
Harrison.<br><br>
<dd>“Despite this, the Israeli authorities continue to use administrative
detention to detain Palestinians without any charges whatsoever. These
have included individuals who should not have been arrested at all and
were prisoners of conscience.<br><br>
<dd>“Anyone now held solely for the non-violent exercise of their right
to freedom of expression, association and assembly must be released
immediately and unconditionally.”<br><br>
<br><br>
<br>
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