Palestinian prisoners on Hunger Strike

Started by give her dixie, February 12, 2012, 04:43:53 PM

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give her dixie

http://gazatvnews.com/2012/02/khader-adnan-is-now-64-days-on-hunger-strike/


A few short hours ago, Khader Adnan started his 64th day on Hunger Strike.

Sahar Francis, a Lawyer for Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Ad-Dameer, visited Khader on Friday.  During the meeting, Khader told Francis that he is determined to continue his hunger strike, despite his gradually deteriorating health condition, Francis added that:

"his battle is not personal, but a Palestinian struggle against the illegal Administrative Detention, that confines hundreds of detainees behind bars without charges, in direct violation of International Law and the Fourth Geneva Conventions".

Francis said that the Israeli Prison Administration agreed, only two days ago, to allow Adnan to bathe, cut his hairs and nails, for the first time since he was kidnapped and taken prisoner in December 2011.

She added that Adnan still enjoys high confidence and solid determination, despite his bad health condition, and is determined to continue his strike.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, issued a statement on Saturday, saying:

"The EU is concerned over reports of the deteriorating health condition of Khader Adnan,"

Ashton went on to say that

"the EU is concerned about the extensive use by Israel of administrate detention without formal charge."


Today, Khader's wife Randa said that he was not ending his Hunger Strike, and is determined to carry on.
In his hometown, family and friends handed out bags of bread from his bakery.

On Wednesday, Randa visited him in hospital, and she described his condition in the following statement:

"His health has drastically deteriorated from the last time I saw him. . . .I expect the worst,
The world should pressure the Israeli government to release him before it's too late.
Israel denied Khader fairness & decency, maybe the rest of humanity will show more mercy."


A Doctor who examined Khader 4 days ago, described his condition as been "In immediate danger of death", and his Lawyers have filed an urgent appeal. The appeal was approved by a High Court Justice, and will be heard at the earliest opportunity.

Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories,  described the situation as urgent, and said the international community should intervene on Mr. Adnan's behalf.

"In view of the emergency of his situation, the Government of Israel must take immediate and effective action to safeguard Mr. Adnan's life, while upholding his rights," said Mr. Falk in a statement.

The Jimmy Carter Center in Atlanta issued the following statement on Thursday:

"The Carter Center calls on the Israeli government to immediately charge or release Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan, who was arrested on Dec. 17, 2011, based on "secret evidence" and has been held in administrative detention without charge. Mr. Adnan has undertaken a hunger strike since his arrest 62 days ago and his life is in imminent danger. His grave medical condition has been verified by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel."

Due to the urgency of Khader's condition, the Palestinian Council of Human Rights Organizations (PCHRO) urges the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the European Union to take immediate action and intervene with Israel in the strongest manner possible to save Khader's life.

The PCHRO demands that the international community put pressure on Israel to end his arbitrary detention before it is too late.

In Gaza and the West Bank, thousands of people came out to show their support for Khader.
Speaking to a mass rally in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh had this to say about Khader:

"We stand by the heroic symbol of prisoners, brother Khader Adnan, in his unlimited hunger strike,"

Across the world, vigils are been held for Khader, and at the Ofer prison facility, daily demonstrations are been held. The protesters have come under sustained attacks from the Israeli military, and many people have been injured after been shot with rubber bullets, and effects of tear gas inhalation.

Support for Khader Adnan has also come in from Oliver Hughes, whose brother Francis , 25, died in the H Blocks after 59 days. His cousin, Thomas McElwee, 33, also died on Hunger Strike after 62 days. In total, 10 Irish men died during this Hunger Strike in 1981 which included Bobby Sands.

OnTuesday, as Khader Adnan entered his 60th day on Hunger Strike, Oliver, sends a message of support and solidarity to Khader.

Click on the link below to hear Oliver's message.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLQg7Xy_b1s

Tommy McKearney, an Irish man who went 53 days on Hunger Strike also sent a message to Khader as he entered his 54th day last week

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1iwWZJPl_k&feature=related

A web site has been set up where messages of support from across the world have been flowing in. To leave a message, click on the following link:
http://khaderadnan.posterous.com/

Khader was arrested on 17 December 2011 and has since been refusing food and medical treatment until he is granted release. On 8 January 2012, Israeli authorities issued a four-month administrative detention order, which was confirmed on 7 February 2012 by an Israeli military judge despite his worsening health condition.

The appeal against his administrative detention order was rejected by an Israeli military judge on 13 February.
next stop, September 10, for number 4......

give her dixie

next stop, September 10, for number 4......

give her dixie

Khader has now entered his 66th day on Hunger Strike. He must be one tough man.

Support for Khader has been pouring in world wide, and the spotlight has gone straight to the brutal
practice of "Administrive Detention". Internment.

While world leaders shouted from the roof tops for the release of Gilad Shilat, the Israeli POW caputred in Gaza,
and recently released, the same leaders are now silent. Thus proving once again that the PAlestinians don't really count for them.

For 6 days now, a Twitter campaign has been raging for an hour each evening.
A different hash tag is released every day, and thousands of people go flat out tweeting.
Tonight, #HungerStrikingFor65Days was top of the worldwide trends for an hour, with over 16,000 tweets.

This campaign has forced the media to sit up and take notice, and they are now covering his plight.
Today alone, my web site www.gazatvnews.com received over 2,500 hits.

I received messages of support for Khader from the McCreesh and O'Hara families, Michelle Gildernew, and Noam Chomsky

Their voices have made a big difference, and Khader's family have received the. A friend has been translating them into Arabic, and re posting.

Tomorrow, Khader's case is in the Israeli high court, and fingers crossed, he willl be released.

To date, he has not been charged or tried for ANY crime. But hey, Israel does what it does best, and that is total
humiliation and no regards for international law or for humanity.

Once I hear anaything, I will post.


Noam's message:   http://gazatvnews.com/2012/02/khader-adnan-his-life-is-in-our-hands-noam-chomsky/

Michelle:               http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnSKHJ3Qejo

McCreesh's           http://gazatvnews.com/2012/02/khader-adnan-receive-message-of-support-from-mccreesh-family/

O'Hara's               http://gazatvnews.com/2012/02/khader-adnan-receives-a-message-of-support-from-patsy-oharas-family/


Also, have a listen to this song by David Rovics,   Khader Adnan, Bobby Sands:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoEPftesWyA&feature=related
next stop, September 10, for number 4......

give her dixie

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/hashtagging-khader-adnan-global-protest-twitter

Hashtagging Khader Adnan: A Global Protest on Twitter

Organizing a trending hashtag for Khader Adnan is just like organizing a large protest on the corner of the busiest and most crowded street in a city.

As you read this, Khader Adnan is very close to death. It is high time the Israeli state respond to calls by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Carter Center, and many other human rights organizations to release Adnan immediately.

As Adnan enters the 65th day of his hunger strike, activists and human rights defenders have joined this campaign. In addition, Amnesty International is calling for Israel to abolish the system of administrative detention.

Adnan is the victim of arbitrary detention. He is one of 309 Palestinians who are currently being held under Israeli administrative detention. Adnan, an administrative detainee, has not been charged, he has not been tried, and he does not know when the period of detention will end. Indefinite detention without a trial or charge is not permitted under International Law. It is considered a form of arbitrary detention which no country should be practicing.

The silence of the world community is deafening. The late awakening of the mainstream media is inexcusable.Imagine if Adnan were an Iranian man on hunger strike in an Iranian jail. Would we have had to do this massive movement on Twitter to get the world's attention? I don't think so. The silence of the world community is deafening. The late awakening of the mainstream media is inexcusable.
While the mainstream media has failed to cover Adnan's story, Twitter is at the forefront of the campaign to pressure the Israeli government to act. Twitter users have taken on the responsibility of filling the void created by the mainstream media.

At this moment, according to Topsy Twitter statistics, the hashtag #KhaderAdnan has been mentioned about 40,000 times on Twitter. It should be noted that this statistic excludes other related hashtags which would count in the thousands.

A hashtag is a special tool used in Twitter to mark certain tweets as part of one conversation. In order to enter a hashtag, one must add (#) before any keyword. When a hashtag is selected the user is directed to a page where they are able to read all Twitter updates using this specific hashtag. Whenever there is a big news story, a popular event, or even a revolution, people use a certain hashtag to contribute to that conversation. That is what Palestinian and other activists are doing now for Adnan.

For the past week, Twitter users have organized different hashtags in support of Adnan in their attempt to garner wider attention for his case. Users have successfully been able to have all the hashtags to trend globally for minutes or even an hour. Twitter users have posted using hashtags like #KhaderExists, #Dying2Live, #hungry4justice, #KhaderIsAlive, #Khader61days, #Respect4Khader, #Khader62 and #HungerStrike63days. The use of those hashtags was organized by a few activists who tell other people via private messages to start using the hashtag at a certain time. So, according to Twitter algorithms, the hashtag would be considered a breaking story and would trend globally immediately. Hundreds, if not thousands have joined to tweet under each hashtag causing it to become listed as a globally trending topic on Twitter, which would eventually get people who have never heard of Adnan to hear about him for the first time.

Organizing a trending hashtag for Adnan is just like organizing a large protest on the corner of the busiest and most crowded street in the city. Getting thousands of people to tweet about Adnan isn't something easy, but Adnan's non-violent struggle for his dignity has motivated thousands around the globe to do whatever they can to save this man's life. Twitter users are currently Adnan's strongest voice to the world.

In a new update to Twitter.com, there is now a section named "Discover" where Twitter users can read about the top 10 most popular stories from around the globe. Each time Adnan's name trends, a story about him would remain in the "Discover" section's top 10 stories for over 6 hours after it trends. This guarantees that more and more people will learn about Adnan via the social media tool Twitter, at a time the main stream media fails to report.

"Khader is the spark that we all needed in order to remember our common goal," said Twitter user @sshusma who was one of organizers for some of the trending hashtags. She continued saying: "Khader is slowly dying before our eyes, we are watching as it happens and it feels grotesque that I sit in my home with the comfort of my computer while all i can do is tweet about it. On one hand i feel like i have to do what i can to help bring attention to him, on the other hand i feel guilty that this is what i do."

Twitter is at the forefront of the campaign to pressure the Israeli government to act.As another part of the campaign to call on the media outlets to shed light on Adnan's case, Twitter users started using #CoverKhader and #WaitingForKristof hashtags a few days ago to call on more media outlets to cover Adnan's hunger strike. The second hashtag was targeted specifically at The New York Times' correspondent Nicholas Kristof who published a piece in 2010 titled "Waiting for Gandhi". Nicholas Kristof is known for his personalized stories where he narrates the struggle of individuals who fight for justice and dignity. But, in his article, "Waiting for Gandhi," Kristof did not mention that many Palestinians were committed to non-violent struggle, such as those who were part of the first intifada. Kristof has not addressed Adnan and his hunger strike yet.

The famous Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands MP died on 5 May 1981, after 66 days on hunger strike in a British prison. Bobby Sands and 9 other hunger strikers' deaths in British prisons led to the British government being humiliated. This is generally considered the turning point in the Anglo-Irish conflict towards stability and independence. So far, two previous Irish hunger striker veterans, a brother of a dead Irish hunger striker, and Bobby Sands' spokesman and close friend, have voiced their complete support for Adnan's case. Their video messages have gone viral on social media sites such as Twitter. Those videos have also been listed for a few times in Twitter's "Discover" section.

Twitter had a very big role in calling on the world's conscience to act for Adnan. Adnan's wife is pregnant and he has two young daughters waiting for him at home. He doesn't want to die, but Adnan is willing to risk his life in order to fight for dignity, justice, and freedom.

Jalal Abukhater is a Jerusalem-based blogger.
next stop, September 10, for number 4......

glens abu

Hearing rumours that he is to be released,anyone know if this is true?

Harold Disgracey

Nothing confirmed yet. Al Jazeera ran a false report saying he was to be released.

glens abu

Think it is now confirmed he has ended his hunger strike and will be release on April 16th.

Trout

Quote from: glens abu on February 21, 2012, 12:05:16 PM
Hearing rumours that he is to be released,anyone know if this is true?

As if u are bothered, obviously you have to pretend because the Palestinians are a republican hobby horse.
Sinn Fein delivers -

British rule

glens abu

Quote from: Trout on February 21, 2012, 01:11:17 PM
Quote from: glens abu on February 21, 2012, 12:05:16 PM
Hearing rumours that he is to be released,anyone know if this is true?

As if u are bothered, obviously you have to pretend because the Palestinians are a republican hobby horse.

Good one ;)

Harold Disgracey

A deal has been announced that he will be released on 17 April & his administrative detention will not be renewed but there has been no confirmation that he has ended his hunger strike.

mayogodhelpus@gmail.com

Quote from: Trout on February 21, 2012, 01:11:17 PM
Quote from: glens abu on February 21, 2012, 12:05:16 PM
Hearing rumours that he is to be released,anyone know if this is true?

As if u are bothered, obviously you have to pretend because the Palestinians are a republican hobby horse.

Ahh but Trout it seems they are not the only ones
Time to take a more chill-pill approach to life.

Nally Stand

"The island of saints & scholars...and gombeens & fuckin' arselickers" Christy Moore

glens abu

Quote from: Nally Stand on February 21, 2012, 02:12:29 PM


Nazis and Zionists well matched,only difference was is the scale of their brutality against the weak

heganboy

Quote from: Harold Disgracey on February 21, 2012, 01:20:51 PM
A deal has been announced that he will be released on 17 April & his administrative detention will not be renewed but there has been no confirmation that he has ended his hunger strike.

Reuters confirming
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/21/us-palestinian-prisoner-deal-idUSTRE81K0QL20120221
Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity

Evil Genius

#44
Let me preface this post by saying that if KA's detention is illegal (as seems evident) and if he has been mistreated (as has been reported), then there is no defending the Israeli Authorities' role in this matter.

However, this thread caused me to do a bit of Googling about Mr. Adnan.

First, according to the BBC, "He [KA] is widely believed to be a leader of Islamic Jihad"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-17112804

Second, if* that claim is correct and if** they're referring to "Palestinan Islamic Jihad", then there may be more to Adnan than some of his supporters would have us believe.

Anyhow, PIJ has been designated as a Terrorist Organisation by the EU, USA, UK, Japan, Australia and Canada (as well as Israel, of course).

PIJ has carried out, and admitted, numerous suicide (or car) bombings of a wide variety of targets, including (civilian) buses, shopping malls, nightclubs and tourist groups.

Particularly egregious tactics include:
1. Brainwashing minors to become Suicide Bombers - http://www.americanintifada.com/2004/3/3-30-3.htm
2. Hijacking a crowded bus to drive it over a cliff - http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2209&dat=19890707&id=bopKAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GZQMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1598,1500306
3. Using a vehicle with false "Press" markings on it to attack Israeli soldiers, a tactic roundly condemned by Human Rights Watch and the Palestinian Journalists Union - http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2007/06/12/gaza-armed-palestinian-groups-commit-grave-crimes
4. They have been implicated in the abduction and stoning to death of two 14 year old Israeli boys - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1658443.stm

Following a falling out with the Palestinian Authority, their HQ is said to be in Syria and their chief backer is Iran.

For easy further reading, their Wiki page lists additional claims, some of it with citations, make of it what you will:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Jihad_Movement_in_Palestine




* - I have no idea, myself

** - Tbh, there are so many similarly named Groups that I could be getting confused with some crowd from of 'The Life of Brian'
"If you come in here again, you'd better bring guns"
"We don't need guns"
"Yes you fuckin' do"