Israel treats Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike after health deteriorates

Hospitalized and shackled, Palestinian Mohammed Allan was 60 days into a hunger strike to protest his detention without charge in an Israeli jail when he slipped into unconsciousness Friday.

Israeli soldiers secure the scene after a Palestinian man wounded an Israeli soldier with a knife at a crossing between Israel and West Bank north of Jerusalem Saturday, August 15, 2015.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club submitted a request to hospital officials Sunday asking them to wake Allaan from his coma in order to check where he stands on his condition, according to the Haaretz daily.

Doctors at the Barzilai Medical Center, where Allan is being treated, have refused to force-feed him.

“Unlike a criminal proceeding, administrative detention is not intended to punish the detainee for an offense that has been committed, but to prevent a future offense”, the Israeli human rights group B’tselem, which has frequently criticized the practice, said, in an earlier statement.

Earlier this month, a Palestinian non-governmental organization said that almost 150 prisoners have gone on hunger strike since the beginning of August.

The prisoner, Mohammad Allan, could pose the first test of a new law in Israel that would allow authorities to force-feed detainees to keep them alive.

“Medical ethics requires that his doctors act in accordance to their understanding of the patient’s will”, it said.

Israel says Allan is being held for his activities with the Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group that has carried out numerous violent attacks against civilians.

The actions of hunger strikers like Mr Allan are helping to write this new chapter and hopefully sow the ultimate resolution.

Palestinian attorney Muhammad Allan has been detained in prison since November of last year without rights or a trial.

Israel’s parliament approved the law two weeks after authorities freed Islamic Jihad member Khader Adnan following a 56-day hunger strike that brought him near death. Several prisoners died around the 60-day mark of the 1981 Irish hunger strike.

“Before forced feeding, there are many, many medical processes”, he said. “No country can accept (hunger strikes) as a way to get out of prison”. He has been taking only water throughout his fast and experts say that survival under such conditions is uncertain after two months.

“But they support his strike – nobody but him can decide what he should do”.

Naser Allan said his son lost consciousness and was moved from a ward at Barzilai hospital into the intensive care unit of the facility in the southern city of Ashkelon.