Palestinian ends 66-day fast that tested Israeli policies

In a video released Friday, Allan thanked his Israeli Arab “brothers” for supporting his protest against his administrative detention by Israel.

Allan ended a two-month hunger strike Thursday that had put his life at risk and sparked intense debate over his detention without trial by Israeli authorities. The practice is commonly used with Palestinian militant suspects, though it was recently extended to Israel’s own citizens.

Around 340 Palestinians are now held in administrative detention, and detainees have regularly gone on hunger strike to protest.

Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said in a statement on Wednesday that Allan’s release “would constitute a reward for his hunger strike and could encourage mass hunger strikes among security detainees”.

When Mohammed Allan’s associates came upon he was launching a hunger strike, they knew his stubbornness meant he wouldn’t surrender simply.

Allan’s lawyer and his mother visited him in hospital in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Thursday and said his health was improving, though he remained bedridden and was receiving vitamins and minerals intravenously. The court on the other hand ignored the critical medical condition of Allan and the exceptionally high toll on his physical and mental health that he sacrificed to request the fundamental right of a fair trial.

To force-feed, the doctor must restrain the conscious and shackled prisoner and insert a tube into his or her empty stomach.

The attorney reported BMC medics as saying that it would take Allan about 10 days in order for him to gradually start eating.

The protesters arrived in four buses from Jerusalem, Jaffa and northern Israel, and were planning to hold a vigil outside Barzili Hospital, where Allan is now being treated, but were blocked by the police for over half an hour. It also cast light on Israel’s use of administrative detention, the holding of suspects for long periods without charge or trial. But earlier this week, Israel’s Supreme Court ordered his release amid fears that he would die or cause himself irreversible brain damage.

“The court may have accepted the petition but this occurred after Mohammed Allan’s case became extremely cruel and inhumane, and brought him to the brink of death”, the group said.

Last month, the Knesset passed into law the “Prevention of Damage by Hunger Strikers” bill, which gives the country the right to force-feed hunger-striking prisoners if certain conditions are met. The force-feeding can take place only if the individual case is approved by the attorney general and a president of a district court.