Muhammad Allan’s lawyer, Jamal al-Khatib rejected an Israeli military prosecution proposal to release the detained lawyer by forcibly deporting him from Palestine for four years on 17 August. Allan is currently in a coma in Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon after 63 days of hunger strike. He is held in administrative detention without charge or trial.
Today, the Israeli Supreme Court heard arguments filed by al-Khatib and human rights organization Adalah, urging Allan’s immediate release on medical grounds. The Supreme Court postponed its decision until Wednesday, saying that it needed to study the medical file.
This is the second such offer directed at Allan; both proposals have carried extreme penalties – this, 4 years of forcible displacement, and the prior, 2 years of imprisonment under administrative detention – despite the fact that Allan has been charged with nothing, and no evidence has been presented against him. Both proposals in fact violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, clearly using administrative detention in a non-emergent context and threatening to forcibly displace a person from occupied territory.
As the Supreme Court considers Allan’s case, Barzilai Hospital has announced that it is planning to reduce the sedation and anesthesia being administered to Allan, which would allow him to regain consciousness. Ma’an News reported that the decision would “depend on his medical condition.” After Allan fell into a coma on Friday morning, his lawyers have repeatedly charged the medical center with keeping him under sedation in order to administer salts and fluids intravenously without his consent. Palestinian medical sources have become increasingly concerned that important facts about his condition are being hidden after doctor Hani Abdeen was denied access to Allan yesterday, after previous consent was obtained for the visit and examination.
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Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network reiterates its call for the broadest international action to free Muhammed Allan and his fellow Palestinian prisoners and prevent his torture through force-feeding. Events are upcoming in New York, Berlin, Vancouver and other cities and it is critical that people around the world make their voices heard to hold the Israeli state accountable for the life of Muhammed Allan and release him instantly.
The imprisonment and torture of Allan is part and parcel of the Israeli colonial policy of the mass imprisonment of Palestinians, the attack on the rights of Palestinian prisoners won by long struggle of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement, and the attack on Palestinian existence everywhere in Palestine: the denial of Palestinian refugees’ right to return, land confiscation, home demolitions, ethnic cleansing, siege, apartheid, occupation and settler-colonialism.
Muhammed Allan’s situation is an emergency that requires mobilization and action by all, including the escalation of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel on all levels: economic, military, cultural, academic, as urged by the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.
Take Action: Demand freedom – not force feeding – for Muhammad Allan!
1. Sign on: Send a letter demanding Allan’s freedom, and that he not be force-fed. Israeli officials must hear the voice of the world demanding that this threat of torture be stopped, and that Allan, imprisoned without charge or trial, be freed.
2. Protest at the Israeli consulate or embassy in your area. Bring posters and flyers about administrative detention and Palestinian hunger strikers and hold a protest, or join a protest with this important information. Hold a community event or discussion, or include this issue in your next event about Palestine and social justice. Please email us at [email protected] to inform us of your action – we will publicize and share news with the prisoners.
3. Boycott, Divest and Sanction. Hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law. Don’t buy Israeli goods, and campaign to end investments in corporations that profit from the occupation. G4S, a global security corporation, is heavily involved in providing services to Israeli prisons that jail Palestinian political prisoners – there is a global call to boycott it. Palestinian political prisoners have issued a specific call urging action on G4S. Learn more about BDS at bdsmovement.net.
