Palestinian Youth Movement – USA: Khader Adnan – Dying to Live, Dignity before Food

The following call was issued by the Palestinian Youth Movement-USA as an urgent demand for action for Khader Adnan, issued as his 59th day of hunger strike began.

URGENT CALL to PEOPLE OF CONSCIENCE

Palestinian Activist for Justice and Freedom

KHADER ADNAN

Dying to Live…Dignity before Food

Palestinian Youth Movement – USA (PYM – USA) urges all people of conscience and comrades in joint struggle for justice and freedom to heed the call to FREE KHADER ADNAN—a symbol of Palestinian resistance, resilience, steadfastness, and courage. Adnan’s body and life are on the line inside the oppressor’s jail in order to reclaim his dignity, rights, and freedom of his land and people.

On December 17^th, Khader Adnan Mohammed Musa, was arbitrarily arrested by Israeli authorities under orders of administrative detention*.  The next day, Adnan started a hunger strike, now in its 59^th day to protest his arrest and the authorities’ refusal to provide medical treatment needed as a result of injuries sustained during his arrest and torture during hours of interrogation. Above all, his hunger strike and now of dozens more Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails, is a principled stance against the racist and oppressive nature of Israeli colonization of Palestine.

Israeli authorities have denied his appeal for his release based on secret, yet admittedly insufficient evidence unshared with his lawyers, requiring that Adnan remains detained for the full four months of his administrative detention order, that expires on May 8th.  In spite of the increasing gravity of his health condition, authorities keep him inhumanely shackled to his prison-hospital bed; there is fear that he may lose his life at any moment.

On his fourteenth day of detention, December 31^st, President Obama ratified the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which permanently enshrines into law the power to militarily detain US citizens indefinitely without charge or trial, in a manner similar Adnan’s detention.  Khader Adnan’s story is the story of thousands of other Palestinian men and women held captive for resisting the ongoing Zionist colonization of Palestine—currently there are 4,417 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli prisons and detention centers, including 310 administrative detainees, 5 women and 132 children.  His plight is like that of countless Black and Brown men throughout the US whose rates of racialized captivity continue to soar, or thousands more political prisoners, incarcerated for challenging American exploitation and state sponsored repression, domestically and abroad.   Don’t let this happen at home or abroad…ACT NOW!

How YOU can HELP:

1. Picket, protest or call the Israeli embassy or consulate in your area and demand the immediate freedom of Khader Adnan, Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian political prisoners.  Make it clear that you are watching the situation of Khader Adnan and that Israel is responsible for his health and life, and demand an end to the use of isolation, solitary confinement, and administrative detention.
2. Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that the prisoners’ demands are implemented.  Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at [email protected], and inform them about the urgent situation of Khader Adnan. Make it clear that arbitrary detention without charge or trial is unacceptable, and that the ICRC must act to protect Palestinian prisoners from cruel and inhumane treatment.
3. Sign the widely circulated petition and see other recommendations for how you can act at Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
4.  Join in on an international wide hunger strike in solidarity with Khader Adnan and other political prisoners in Palestine and elsewhere, starting Wednesday, February 15^th.

For more information on Khader Adnan and the plight of Palestinian political prisoners, please visit:

·       Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association – ADDAMEER

·       The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat

·       Physicians for Human Rights

*What is Administrative Detention?Administrative detention is a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold detainees indefinitely on secret evidence without charging them or allowing them to stand trial. In the occupied Palestinian West Bank, the Israeli army is authorized to issue administrative detention orders against Palestinian civilians on the basis of Military Order 1651. This order empowers military commanders to detain an individual for up to six month renewable periods if they have “reasonable grounds to presume that the security of the area or public security require the detention.” On or just before the expiry date, the detention order is frequently renewed. This process can be continued indefinitely (source: http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=428)