Hungerstriking Khader Adnan is fast approaching death

Demonstration in Tel Aviv in front of Red Cross office, 12-2-12 (Active Stills, Oren Ziv)

Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called on Israel last week to either bring charges against him or immediately release Khader Adnan, 33, is - what is unlawful -  kept in administrative detention and is in hunger strike since his arrest in December.   

 As the human rights organisation Addameer stated:

Khader was arrested on 17 December 2011, when Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) raided his home outside Jenin at 3:30 am. Before entering his house, soldiers used the driver that takes Khader’s father to the vegetable market, Mohammad Mustafa, as a human shield by forcing him to knock on the door of the house and call out Khader’s name while blindfolded. A huge force of soldiers then entered the house shouting. Recognizing Khader immediately, they grabbed him violently in front of his two young daughters and ailing mother.

The soldiers blindfolded him and tied his hands behind his back using plastic shackles before leading him out of his house and taking him to a military jeep. Khader was then thrown on his back and the soldiers began slapping him in the face and kicking his legs. They kept him lying on his back until they reached Dutan settlement, beating him on the head throughout the 10-minute drive. When they reached the settlement, Khader was pushed aggressively out of the jeep. Because of the blindfold, Khader did not see the wall right in front of him and smashed into it, causing injuries to his face.

Demonstration last week of schoolboys in Ramallah.

Adnan, who is a leader of the Islamic Jihad on the West Bank, started his trike under the motto ´´My dignity is more precious  than food´´.  Today is his day no 57. Adnan is extremely weak, his health is deteriorating rapidly. He is kept shackled against his bed in an Israeli hospital in Safed. He only takes water and some pills. His hunger strike is the longest ever held by a Palestinian. It brings to mind the case of Bobby Sands of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and 10 of his comrades who in 1981 maintained their hunger strike till the very end. Bobby himself died after 66 days. The strike and subsequent death of the participants gave a fresh impulse to the struggle of the IRA