Thousands of Palestinian political prisoners languish in Israeli gulag hell – ruthlessly brutalized for their faith, ethnicity and determination to live free, not for any crimes they committed.
Israel cracks down hard on anyone challenging its police state harshness and longstanding plan for an ethnically pure nation exclusively for Jews – with Arabs confined to ghettoized bantustans, prisoners on their own land, denied virtually all rights, victims of apartheid viciousness worse than South Africa’s.
Hunger striker Muhammad Allan may die – in a coma after two months without food, hospitalized on a respirator receiving liquid minerals and nutrients intravenously.
Before losing consciousness, doctors said he suffered continuous shivering and seizures, struggling to breathe. After visiting her sonon Friday, Allan’s mother said “my son is dying.” If coma persists, he may become brain dead, perhaps beyond resuscitation.
Force-feeding in his critical state could kill him. The Addameer prisoner support group said “(a)ny medical coercion on Allan despite his refusal may cause the opposite effect and result in severe health problems and even potentially jeopardize Allan’s life, as evident in Israel’s previous attempts to force-feed Palestinian hunger strikers during the 1980s, which resulted in several deaths.”
Despite Israel’s new law authorizing the practice, its 1996 Patient’s Rights Act, Chapter 4, Informed Consent to Medical Care, Section 13 (a) states:
No medical treatment will be given to a patient unless the patient has given his informed consent to the treatment. In addition, the Act anchors the provisions with regard to medical treatment without consent under very strict conditions which are intended to undergo examination by the ethics committee of the medical institution.
Section 15 states:
(1) A clinician may give medical treatment that is not one of the treatments enumerated in the Supplement to this Act without the informed consent of the patient, if all the following conditions are met:
(a) The patient’s physical or mental state does not permit obtaining his informed consent;
(b) The clinician is not aware that the patient or his legal guardian objects to the receipt of medical treatment;
(c) It is impossible to obtain the consent of the patient’s authorized representative, should such a representative have been appointed under Clause 16 of this Act, or it is impossible to obtain the consent of the patient’s legal guardian, if the patient is a minor or a legally incapacitated person.
(2) Should the patient be deemed to be in grave danger but reject medical treatment, which under the circumstances must be given soon, the clinician may perform the treatment even against the patient’s wish, if an Ethics Committee, after having heard the patient, has approved administering the treatment, and has been persuaded that (c) there are reasonable grounds to suppose that, after receiving treatment, the patient will give his retroactive consent.
No family member or lawyer consented to Allan’s force-feeding. No ethics committee approved it. Allan wants freedom or death. No evidence suggests he’d give retroactive consent to what he refused for two months.
His father said he wrote letter to be read if he dies. He’ll “be part of history” dead or alive, he explained.
Israel imprisoned him twice before for courageously resisting tyranny. The PA detained him. He’s a successful young lawyer, the youngest of 10 children.
Residents of Einabus village where he lives call him gentle, conscientious and well-respected. His cousin Saif said “(m)any people come to him because he is an honest man.”
Eiabus attorney Mohammad Radshan said other lawyers call his service for clients “exemplary. He has an excellent relationship with the judges, lawyers and state prosecutors.”
Israel lied calling him “dangerous.” PA officials have done nothing to help him. Prison authorities refuse to release him despite no justification for his indefinite detention.
Hundreds of Palestinian political prisoners are protesting Israeli brutality – including violent raids any hour of the day or night, harsh prison conditions and denial of their fundamental human rights.
They remain in their cells, boycott work, and refuse to answer security checks or roll calls. They demand no more violent cell raids, proper medical care routinely denied, canceling sanctions against hunger strikers, ending solitary confinement, restoring family visits for prisoners denied them, no further arbitrary transfers, and restoring Arabic television channels blocked earlier.
At least four other political prisoners are hunger striking for justice. Musa Sufan since July 18 protesting longterm isolation without family visits and appalling medical care despite being diagnosed with cancer.
Fathi al-Khatib refused food for over three weeks. Othman Abu Aram almost as long. Abdul Majid Khdeirat for over two weeks.
Occupied Palestine could explode in violence if Allan dies. A spokesman for Islamic Jihad’s military wing said “(i)t is an Israeli crime against our prisoners and people if Muhammad Allan dies, that forces us to respond forcefully and ends any commitment of our side to the ceasefire” agreed to last summer.
A possible bloodbath looms. Israeli response to resistance is unrestrained brutality, including mass murder.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected].
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
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