EDITOR: Khader Adnan is allowed to die by Israeli judicial system
Israel is intent on making sure that Khader Adnan dies rather than release him from his unjust arrest – this is what Israeli justice means for Palestinians. The man has never been charged with any offence or found guilty of one, unless being a Palestinian is an offence. Adnan is the Palestinian Bobby Sands, and now some three hundred Palestinian prisoners have joined his hunger strike.
February 14, 2012: Press Release: PHRI
Khader Adnan’s Lawyer Files Urgent Appeal Against his Administrative Detention.
Case to Be Reviewed As Soon As Possible; According to a Medical Opinion Issued by a Physicians for Human Rights-Israel Affiliated Doctor: Adnan’s Life is in Immediate Danger
Today, Wednesday, February 15, 2012, lawyers representing Khader Adnan, a Palestinian Prisoner currently on the 61st day of a hunger strike, submitted an appeal to the Israeli High Court of Justice (HCJ) protesting their client’s continued administrative detention. Adnan, who began his hunger strike on December 18th, one day after he was detained, is protesting his administrative detention and the harsh and degrading treatment and torture he claims he was subjected to at the hands of Israeli authorities.
Shortly after being filed, the appeal was approved by a High Court Justice. Adnan’s lawyer was also informed that a hearing will be set as soon as possible.
The urgent appeal includes a medical opinion issued by a physician representative of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel) who has been overseeing the patient’s care. Adnan has given PHR-Israel exclusive permission to release the following excerpt.
From the medical opinion:
“I have examined the patient five times over the past week, most recently three hours ago, at Internal Department B at Rebecca Ziv Hospital in Safed. I examined him at the request of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, and with the agreement of the Director of the Department, Dr. Raymond Farah.
When I met the patient, he had been on hunger strike for 52 days, shackled to his bed by both legs and one arm, and was refusing to undergo tests and medical treatment. He has lost 30 kgs and weighs 60 kg. He suffers from stomach aches, vomiting, sometimes with blood, and headaches. As of today, he is completely lucid and aware of his medical condition, without confusion or disorders in cognition or perception. His general condition is pale and very weak, his tongue is smooth, he has slight bleeding from the gums, dry skin, loss of hair, and significant muscular atrophy. His pulse is weak, blood pressure 100/75. He is permanently connected to a heart monitor.
On the basis of my promise, and that of the hospital, to maintain absolute medical confidentiality, he agreed to undergo tests and treatment with the infusion of liquids and salts, and subsequently with the addition of glucose and vitamin in accordance with my recommendation. However, he maintains his refusal to end his hunger strike.
In my opinion, his current condition as described above is commensurate with the impact of 60 days’ of fasting. In light of the medical literature, and on the basis of consultation with experts, Mr. [Khader Adnan] Musa is in immediate danger of death. An absolute hunger strike in excess of 50 days causes the decomposition of muscles, including muscle of the heart and stomach, and the creation of toxins in the body. Death may occur suddenly, due to heart failure, or as the result of infection following the collapse of the immune system. Bleeding in the digestive tracts and renal or hepatic failure are possible. A deterioration in his state of consciousness can be expected due to the shortage of vitamins and intracerebral hemorrhage. A fast in excess of 70 days does not permit survival. Infusion of liquids, adjustment of salts, and the addition of glucose and vitamin cannot prevent certain death due to such a protracted hunger strike”.
For further information:
Yael Marom, spokesperson of PHR-I: 052-5563485
Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan ‘near death’ in Israeli detention: Guardian
Medical report warns Israeli court Khader Adnan is in immediate danger after 61 days of protest at his ‘administrative detention’
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
Thursday 16 February 2012
A Palestinian prisoner on his 61st day of hunger strike while shackled to a bed in an Israeli hospital is in immediate danger of death, according to a medical report submitted to the supreme court in an effort to secure his release.
Khader Adnan, 33, a baker from a village near Jenin, is being held without charge by the Israeli authorities under a four-month term of “administrative detention”. He began his hunger strike on 18 December, the day after being arrested.
Adnan’s lawyers have submitted a petition for his release to Israel’s supreme court, but no date has been set for a hearing. The situation was urgent, lawyer Mahmoud Kassandra told the Guardian. “This is the last chance. The medical report says he could die at any minute. We hope this will succeed but I am not optimistic.”
Adnan’s hunger strike is in protest at his detention without charge or being told of any evidence against him, and over his claims of abuse and degrading treatment during arrest and interrogation. This is his ninth period of detention, according to reports. In the past he has acted as a spokesman for the militant group Islamic Jihad.
He was examined by a doctor from Physicians for Human Rights on Wednesday at the Rebecca Ziv hospital in Safed. Adnan was shackled by both legs and one arm, the doctor reported.
“He has lost 30kg and weighs 60kg. He suffers from stomach aches, vomiting, sometimes with blood, and headaches … His general condition is pale and very weak, his tongue is smooth, he has slight bleeding from the gums, dry skin, loss of hair, and significant muscular atrophy. His pulse is weak, blood pressure 100/75. He is permanently connected to a heart monitor.”
Adnan agreed to be treated with an infusion of liquids and salts, with the addition of glucose and vitamins, the doctor reported. “However, he maintains his refusal to end his hunger strike.” He was lucid and aware.
He was “in immediate danger of death,” the doctor concluded. “An absolute hunger strike in excess of 50 days causes the decomposition of muscles… and the creation of toxins in the body. Death may occur suddenly, due to heart failure or the result of infection following the collapse of the immune system. Bleeding in the digestive tracts and renal or hepatic failure are possible.
“A fast in excess of 70 days does not permit survival. Infusion of liquids, adjustment of salts, and the addition of glucose and vitamin cannot prevent certain death due to such a protracted hunger strike.”
Adnan’s wife, Randa, his two daughters and his father were permitted to visit him on Wednesday, although his mother, sister and brother were refused.
“Randa told me he was very thin and his health was worsening but his mental health is good,” his sister Maali said from the family home in Arrada. “But the whole family is worried, and Randa doesn’t know if she will see him again.”
Adnan’s elder daughter, also called Maali, who is nearly four, understood her father is very sick and was anxious about giving him a hug, the older Maali said. “She is telling her mother, please stop crying.” The younger daugher, Bissan, is 18 months and Randa is six months pregnant with the couple’s third child.
Following the visit, Adnan’s father addressed a demonstration outside the hospital in solidarity with Adnan, reporting that his son’s morale was high. “He does not undertake this hunger strike for its own sake, but he yearns for freedom for his people, for his countrymen, in order to live with heads held up high, without occupation,” Jihad Adnan told protesters.
Thousands of Palestinians and other supporters of Adnan have protested in the West Bank and Gaza, and outside Ofer military prison near Jerusalem. There have been clashes with police, who have fired tear gas and rubber bullets.
According to Addameer, a Palestinian prisoners’ support group, detainees in other prisons have also begun refusing food.
Many protesters say Adnan has become a symbol of Israel’s occupation and its treatment of prisoners. More than 300 Palestinians are held under “administrative detention” orders in Israeli prisons.
The Palestinian Authority has appealed for Adnan’s release. Physicians for Human Rights on Thursday urged to Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, to intervene in the case because of the prisoner’s dire medical condition.
Earlier this week, an Israeli military court rejected an appeal against Adnan’s continued detention. The Israeli prison service has said Adnan was being dealt with in accordance to his “definition as a security-administrative prisoner” and with humanitarian sensitivity.
Adnan’s hunger strike has attracted a big following on Twitter and Facebook. Many of his supporters complain his case is being ignored by the mainstream media. There has been little coverage in the Israeli and international press.
Bobby Sands, the Irish republican prisoner who died on hunger strike in a Northern Ireland prison in 1981, lasted 66 days without food. According to the British Medical Association, death generally occurs between 55 and 75 days of a hunger strike.
EDITOR: Sow the wind and ye shall reap the storm!
Israel has been killing people using death squads abroad for a number of generations now, so should they really be surprised when they get a dose of their own medicine? Terror breeds terror, killing breeds more killing, and extra-judicial murder is just what pariah states do. The wonder is that Israel got away with it for so long.
Bangkok bombers planned to attack Israeli diplomats, say Thai police: Guardian
Iranians who accidentally set off ‘sticky’ bombs intended to target individuals, according to investigators
Kate Hodal in Bangkok and agencies
Thursday 16 February 2012 05.40 GMT
Thai police have said three Iranians, arrested after accidentally setting off homemade explosives at their rented home in Bangkok, were plotting to attack Israeli diplomats, bolstering claims by Israel that the group was part of an Iranian-backed network of terror.
But Thailand’s deputy prime minister, Chalerm Yubamrung, said the three men were not linked to Hezbollah as the bombs were not designed for large-scale destruction.
“It was not a terrorist act, it was just an act to demonstrate some insignificant symbol,” he told reporters.
Police chief General Prewpan Dhamapong told a Thai television station late on Wednesday that the bombers’ “target was specific and aimed at Israeli diplomatic staff”, hours after a senior official told the Guardian that the men were more likely would-be assassins than terrorists.
Prewpan confirmed that the DIY “sticky” bombs found at the blast site in the leafy Ekkamai neighbourhood of east Bangkok matched the devices that were planted a day earlier on Israeli diplomatic cars in India and Georgia, causing injuries but no deaths.
“The type of improvised explosives they used were the same. The type that was attached to vehicles,” Prewpan said, adding that a magnetic strip found in Bangkok was the same type used in New Delhi.
Bomb squads scouring the two-storey house found two DIY bombs in the form of portable radios, stuffed with C4 explosives whose “kill radius” extends to five metres, the Nation reported. Hand grenades were to be used as the bombs’ detonator.
The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has denounced Tuesday’s violence in Bangkok, while Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has called the allegations against Iran baseless and declared Israel is trying to damage his country’s relations with Thailand and fuel conspiracy theories.
Thailand’s government says it is still piecing together what happened when the men accidentally detonated the homemade explosives, blowing off the roof and sending the trio running into the street.
One of the men, Saied Moradi, emerged from the house bloody and disorientated, according to eyewitnesses, then threw an explosive at a taxi, injuring four Thais. He tried to throw another at police but blew his own leg off instead – the other was amputated later in hospital, where he is still in critical condition.
Bomb disposal teams combed the Iranians’ house again on Wednesday looking for more evidence, while security forces were searching for an Iranian woman they said had originally rented it. Local media reported that the woman, named as Rohani Leila, 28, left Thailand on 5 February.
Two of the men who fled the destroyed house on Tuesday have been detained by Thai police, including Moradi, while a third was arrested on Wednesday in neighbouring Malaysia after boarding a flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur overnight. Thai authorities have said the men face charges of illegal use of explosives and attempting to kill others including officials on duty, but not terrorism charges.
The travel company that helped facilitate the Thai visas for the four suspects is being investigated by police, the Thai-Asean News Network reported.
Israel has accused Iran of waging a campaign of state terror and has threatened military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran in turn has blamed Israel for the recent killings of Iranian atomic scientists and denied responsibility for this week’s incidents in India, Georgia and Thailand.
A number of countries have issued travel advisories for Thailand, among them the US, UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada, while in Bangkok security has been increased at transportation hubs, shopping malls and popular tourist spots throughout the city, including Khao San road, local media have reported.
The Jewish temple on Sukhumvit 22 has been under 24-hour police watch after a Lebanese-Swedish man with alleged links to pro-Iranian Hezbollah was detained by police at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport last month. Authorities later discovered a warehouse filled with nearly four tonnes of urea fertiliser and several gallons of liquid ammonium nitrate.
Authorities said then that Thailand appeared to be a staging ground but not the target of an attack.