Israel authorizes force-feeding of hunger-striking prisoners

The Israeli parliament voted Thursday to allow the force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strike.

The law, which seeks to prevent imprisoned Palestinian militants from pressuring Israel by refusing food, was initially approved by cabinet in June 2014 at the height of a mass hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners, during which dozens were hospitalised.

The Israel Medical Association also hit out against it and said it would appeal to Israel’s high court of justice. They say the law is political, meant to prevent violence sparked by a hunger striker’s death rather than protect the prisoner’s dignity and well-being.

Lital Grossman of the activist group Physicians for Human Rights in Israel called it a “shameful law, which reveals the real, anti-democratic face of its members”. In the case of loss of consciousness, doctors must also be aware of the prisoners’ plans, the report says.

Israel is concerned about a backlash if a Palestinian dies in its prisons as a result of a hunger strike.

The 37-year-old had been held in administrative detention for nearly six years.

Palestinians held in Israeli jails have used hunger strikes to protest against the policy of detention without charge or trial.

File phot of Palestinian Khader Adnan, center, who recently ended a 55-day hunger strike, is greeted by Palestinians after his release from an Israeli prison in the West Bank village of Arrabeh near Jenin.

A lengthy parliamentary debate preceded the vote, and was met with outcry from both the opposition and the Israeli Medical Association when it passed.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, called the legislation a “flagrant violation of global law and conventions”, including a 1991 declaration by the World Medical Association calling force-feeding “inhuman and degrading treatment”.

“The hunger strikes of the terrorists in jail have turned into a tool they use to try to pressure and threaten the state of Israel and to cause it to release terrorists”, he said.

“We must not reach a situation in which a prisoner who poses a public threat will be freed because the state did not have the ability to save him from death and is compelled to release him”, Erdan said.

“Under no circumstance will force-feeding of prisoners and detainees on hunger strike comply with human rights standards”, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dainius Pûras, said.

The Knesset on Thursday, 14 Menachem Av, approved the bill that empowers Israel Prison Authority officials under certain conditions to force feed a striking prisoner.