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Palestinian
Political Prisoners |
By Stephen Lendman |
| 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 son on 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 lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 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. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs. posted by Steve Lendman @ 2:38 AM FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 2015 Genocide Advocate Appointed Israeli UN Envoy Genocide Advocate Appointed Israeli UN Envoy by Stephen Lendman Israel is run by a fanatical criminal gang of lunatics - genocidists wanting greater Israel for Jews alone, Arabs entirely eliminated from areas they want ethnically pure. It’s permanently at war with Palestine, terrorizing defenseless civilians, mass slaughtering them at its discretion, brutalizing children like adults, attacking Palestinian fishermen a reported 1312 times since Operation Protective Edge ended last August. Likudnik Danny Danon is a notorious racist - an outspoken opponent of Palestinian self-determination. Netanyahu sacked him last summer as deputy defense minister for calling Operation Protective Edge too soft on Gaza. He urged greater genocide than than already inflicted. “We should have given the order to the army to clean up Gaza,” he said. Form your own judgment on what he meant. He issued a statement rejecting ceasefire, claiming “Hamas is once again setting conditions for us. We must not be humiliated.” “We must correct the mistake of the cabinet decision (for ceasefire) and allow the army to do what it must” - urging full-scale ground invasion, increased terror bombing, inflicting far greater mass casualties, mainly affecting noncombatant men, women and children. “The campaign continues, and with Hamas we must speak in a language it understands,” Danon blustered. He wants Palestine’s legitimate Hamas government entirely eliminated. He thinks Netanyahu isn’t ruthless enough. He’s one of many ugly Israeli regime faces - an apartheid state far worse than South Africa, with lunatics like Danon still around. Netanyahu appointed him UN envoy - the equivalent of Hitler giving Adolph Eichmann the job had the world body existed at the time. He currently serves as Science, Technology and Space minister. He formally was deputy Knesset speaker. In a 2011 Al Jazeera interview he said “(t)here is place only for one state on the land of Israel…I do not believe in a two-state solution.” He sought Likud leadership last year. He was the only party member challenging Netanyahu - unsuccessfully. He retained his Knesset seat in March parliamentary elections. He wants war, not peace. He chairs the Likud Central Committee and World Likud. As UN envoy, he’ll have a world stage to promote his racist hate. Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying he’s “been dealing with public diplomacy and international relations for over two decades.” He wants all valued West Bank territory annexed to Israel - forcefully displacing Palestinians from their own land. He believes Israel erred in not doing it in 1967. “But it’s not too late,” he says. He claims a divine right to what international law prohibits, blustering “(w)hen you win the war, you don’t make compromises after that. It doesn’t work like that.” “We won the war. They can’t go back now and say, ‘(w)ell, (when the UN partitioned Palestine in 1947) the intention was different. “The fact is that they lost. That’s part of life. We should retain what we won in the war.” In 1947-48, it was genocidal slaughter and displacement. In 1967, it was a 6-day walkover for the remaining Palestinian territory Israel didn’t steal earlier, including East Jerusalem. The difference between Danon and other Israeli hardliners is he’s more vocal about what they all support. In November 2013, the pro-Israeli New Republic called him the “the (over-the-top neocon Republican) Ted Cruz of Israel.” He “driv(es) just about everyone…crazy.” At the time, he said if there’s ever a UN vote for Palestinian self-determination, “it will be (for) a Facebook state.” “(I)t will not change the lives of the Israelis, the Jewish pioneers who live in the hills of Judea and Samaria.” He supports an ethnically pure Israel the way Hitler wanted Germany for Aryans alone. Earlier he proposed forcing Israel’s 20% population to “declare (their) loyalty to the State of Israel as a Jewish Zionist and democratic state, and solemnly swear to maintain its values and not engage in illegal acts against it or against any of its institutions” - as a condition for obtaining an ID card required to be carried at all times by Israelis aged 16 or older, and displayed on demand by security forces. Danon and likeminded ideologues want Palestinians stripped of all rights ahead of eliminating them from all valued parts of Judea and Samaria - everywhere except Israeli controlled isolated/ghettoized bantustans, their idea of a final solution. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 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. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs. posted by Steve Lendman @ 11:54 AM Palestinian Hunger Striker Near Death Palestinian Hunger Striker Near Death by Stephen Lendman Thousands of Palestinian political prisoners languish unjustly in Israel’s gulag hell. Hundreds are held administratively - uncharged, untried because they committed no crimes. Alleging they planned them is Israel’s phony way of justifying the unjustifiable. Hunger striking for justice is the only way Palestinian prisoners can call attention to their wrongful incarceration. It’s a Palestinian tradition. Many previous hunger strikers preceded current ones. A previous article discussed Muhammad Allan hunger striking since mid-June - 60 days of torment, protesting for justice, willing to die for what’s right. Friday he lapsed into coma after shivering severely. He clings to life precariously. He may not make it. Israel’s new law authorizes universally condemned force-feeding - brutal torture by any standard. No medical professional observing Hippocratic Oath standards to do no harm would touch this Joseph Mengele-like practice. So far, Israel hasn’t gotten any physicians to go along. Allan was put on a respirator Friday. On August 13, the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council, the Arab Association for Human Rights, Adalah and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel called for urgent action to save his life. He’s currently at Barzilai hospital in Askalan. Samer Sama’an representing the Addameer prisoner support group visited him on Wednesday. He wants to live - but only a life of dignity and freedom, he explained. Sama’an said despite his critical condition, he’s kept painfully shackled to what may become his deathbed - appalling inhumane treatment. The above human rights groups issued a joint appeal on behalf of Allan, saying in part: “The undersigned organizations (condemn the) continued arbitrary detention of Mohammad Allan under administrative detention” - a practice “violat(ing) international norms and standards as enshrined under the Fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits the systematic use of administrative detention by the occupying power against protected persons and limits its use for imperative security reasons and according to legal procedures which guarantee the right of a fair trial.” “The continued detention of Mohammad Allan endangers his life and violates his most basic rights to fair trial and human dignity.” “The undersigned organizations condemn Israel’s policy to allow the deterioration in the health condition of Mohammad Allan and refusing to negotiate his release in an attempt to escalate the current situation so as to proceed with force-feeding Mr. Allan and to undermine the use of hunger strikes as a non-violent form of protest by Palestinian prisoners and detainees who have no other means to protest and bring attention to the flagrant human rights violations they face in Israeli prisons.” “Depriving Palestinian detainees and prisoners from their fundamental right to peaceful protest by the means of hunger strikes is a major setback to the just demands of Palestinian detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons who are demanding justice, dignity and basic rights.” “We hereby urge immediate action including writing to relevant authorities, decision-makers, international bodies, diplomatic missions, and United Nations representative offices and agencies to pressure Israeli authorities to stop the use of administrative detention, to dismiss their plans to force-feed Mr. Allan and to put an end to his arbitrary detention in blatant violation of international human rights and humanitarian law guarantees and standards - in order to save his life.” Palestinian lawyer Jawad Boulos visited Allan days earlier. He can’t stand, has breathing difficulties, experiences pain throughout his body, can’t rise from bed and nearly can’t see. He’s suffering horrifically. Three prison personnel guarding him round the clock injured him, Boulos explained. They act “as if they were inside the prison, without the slightest concern for their presence in a hospital.” Lawyer Abeer Baker filed an urgent request for his medical release after the ICRC called his condition critical. On Friday, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel issued a statement saying: “Once Alan lost consciousness, medical ethics requires that his doctors act in accordance to their understanding of the patient's will and their discretion.” “PHR-Israel hopes and believes that the doctors in Barzilai Hospital have acted with respect and in accordance with Allan`s will.” “The situation we are now facing could have been avoided. It was possible to hold a dialogue and reach an understanding that would have prevented this deterioration.” “It is time for the Israeli political leadership to reach a decision to release Allan from administrative detention and enable his doctors to concentrate on fighting for his life.” On Friday, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said Allan’s health deteriorated dangerously overnight. The ICRC sent a doctor to Barzilai Medical Center. Allan is getting fluids and sodium intravenously. Palestinian MK Usama al-Saadi said he “might be a martyr in hours as his health condition is very critical.” Israel’s Prison Service declared a state of alert in all facilities. All sections were closed. Palestinian Authority Prisoners Committee head Issa Qaraqe said curfews were imposed in Ramon, Nafha, Negev and Eshel prisons. Former political prisoner numerous times before/twice longterm hunger striker Khader Adnan called for mass “Palestinian resistance” to save Allan’s life. A Friday Joint (Arab) List party statement said all JL MKs are visiting Allan at Barzilai Medical Center. Calls for an immediate protest on his behalf were made. The Jerusalem Post reported “(f)ighting broke out between Jews and Arabs Wednesday night at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, as a demonstration in solidarity with Palestinian hunger striker (Allan) turned violent.” Extremist Jews confronted Israeli Arabs - yelling “Muhammad is a pig” and other racist epithets. (S)ome carr(ied) signs that police said constituted incitement.” Violence and arrests followed, including peaceful Arab demonstrators. Around 200 Palestinian political prisoners went on hunger strike for a week in early August - protesting appalling prison conditions. Others joined them. How far this goes remains to be seen. Israel repression of Palestinians in or out of prison is some of the most ruthless imposed anywhere. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners began a campaign of disobedience - protesting their appalling treatment. An entire population needs to rise up against the oppressor Israeli state - a cancer harming Jews and non-Jews alike. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 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. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs. |
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