Demonstrators gather with a Palestinian flag in front of Be’er Yaakov hospital where political prisoner Khalil Awawdeh is on hunger strike.
This Monday (29) marked the 180th day of the hunger strike by Khalil Awawdeh, a Palestinian imprisoned without charge or trial under Israeli “administrative detention”.
The appearance of Awawdeh’s frail body, almost a skeleton after six months of hunger strike, has sparked outrage and demands for action for his immediate release. Awawdeh, a father of four from the occupied West Bank village of Idna near Hebron, is one of approximately 700 administrative detainees out of a total of nearly 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners.
These prisoners are held under Israeli “administrative detention” orders, which are issued for a maximum of six months with no possibility of appeal or of knowing what charges are being brought against the detainees. This figure, which is renewed indefinitely, is frequently used against Palestinian community leaders and organizers and there is a growing campaign to end this policy.
For the past 22 days, brothers Ahmad and Adel Musa have joined Awawdeh in a hunger strike against their administrative detention. In addition, this Tuesday (30), the Palestinian Captives movement announced that 1,000 prisoners will begin a hunger strike next Thursday (1) as part of an escalating campaign against violent Israeli repression and the stripping of their most basic rights.
Lives at risk
Awawdeh has vowed to continue his hunger strike until freedom and through a video message highlighted the struggle for justice for the Palestinian cause.
“This suffering body, of which there is nothing left but skin and bones, does not reflect a weakness and vulnerability of the Palestinian people, but is a mirror reflecting the true face of the occupation, which claims to be a ‘democratic state’, at the moment it holds a prisoner without charge in brutal administrative detention, saying with his body and his blood: No to administrative detention!” he declared.
For its part, the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network called for protests to demand the immediate release of Khalil Awawdeh and all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails.
Israeli occupation military courts have already denied Awawdeh’s appeals on multiple occasions. Many Palestinian prisoners have resorted to hunger strikes to protest this policy in the past in order to force their release.