Hassan Shokeh launches hunger strike against his administrative detention

Palestinian prisoner Hassan Shokeh, 29, from Bethlehem, launched an open hunger strike on Wednesday, 11 October 2017 in protest of his administrative detention, Israeli imprisonment without charge or trial. The Ofer military court ordered Shokeh detained for six months in an indefinitely renewable administative detention order. As of Tuesday, 17 October, he is on his seventh day of hunger strike.

Muhja Al-Quds foundation said that Shokeh launched his open hunger strike to protest his re-arrest and administrative detention only one month after he was released from Israeli prisons from a prior arrest, on 31 August 2017. Shokeh was moved to isolation in Ofer prison as soon as he launched his hunger strike, reported Asra Voice. He was imprisoned before on multiple occasions on the basis of allegations of involvement with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement.

The announcement of Shokeh’s hunger strike came as Khader Adnan, former long-term hunger striker and ex-political prisoner, announced that Bilal Diab may declare an open hunger strike if his administrative detention is extended again. Diab, 32, previously engaged in a 77-day hunger strike along with fellow Palestinian prisoner Thaer Halahleh against their imprisonment without charge or trial.  Adnan emphasized that the Israeli military courts are illegitimate and that administrative detention leaves no path of struggle but an open hunger strike available to Palestinians jailed without charge or trial.

There are currently over 450 Palestinians imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention out of 6,200 Palestinian political prisoners total. Administrative detention orders are issued for one to six months at a time and are indefinitely renewable; Palestinians have been imprisoned for years at a time without charge under administrative detention orders.