Palestinian prisoners resort to hunger strikes
Hunger strikes by Palestinian detainees are sweeping Israeli prisons in protest of what looks like a pattern of abusive administrative detention rulings.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Umm Mohammed from Arraba, a Palestinian town near the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, sobs and prays for her son Sheikh Khader Adnan, long detained in an Israeli prison.
Adnan, 37, was arrested for the 10th time on July 8, 2014. He has been on hunger strike since May 5 in protest of the prison authorities’ decision to renew his administrative detention for the third time in a row. Israel had initially referred Adnan to administrative detention for a period of six months. At the end of that period, his detention was renewed for another six months (which was later shortened to four months), followed by a third four-month extension.
Umm Mohammed, 75, suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, and recently spent 25 days in the hospital with an intestinal infection. “I have been sick and bedridden for four months. I am following Khader’s news on television. Since he announced his hunger strike, I have been praying day and night for him to survive this predicament and overcome it victoriously. I feel helpless. There is nothing I can do but pray for him,” she told Al-Monitor.
“God willing, he will be released safe and sound to see me before I pass away. He was worried about my health before he was arrested. I follow news about him with a heavy heart. He named his hunger strike ‘I sacrifice my life for you, mother.’ I tell him: 'Son, you are my life and my everything,'” Umm Mohammed said, tears streaming down her cheeks.
