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News Release Archive | Palestine | Accuracy.Org

U.S. Attacks Church of Nativity Designation by UNESCO

June 29, 2012

Sites added today by UNESCO to its “List of World Heritage in Danger” include the Church of the Nativity, believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus. UNESCO statement can be found here.

The U.S. and Israeli governments attacked the move.

Rev. MITRI RAHEB, mraheb at diyar.ps
Currently at Yale University, Raheb is senior pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem; he is also president of Diyar Consortium and of Dar al-Kalima University College in Bethlehem. He said today: “Today is a historic day for the Palestinian Christian Community with UNESCO voting the Church of the Nativity as a World Heritage Site. This is long overdue for a church used without any interruption for over 16 centuries, a church that is the home church for Palestinian Christian community. This will hopefully open the eyes of the world community to see that Bethlehem is in Palestine, and that the Christians in the Holy Land are Palestinian. We hope that doing justice to the church will be another step towards justice to our people. That is long overdue too.” Raheb is author of I Am a Palestinian Christian and the forthcoming God, the Middle East and the people of Palestine.

Rev. DONALD WAGNER, dwag42 at gmail.com
Wagner is program director of Friends of Sabeel–North America and a Presbyterian clergyperson, He said today: “We in Friends of Sabeel–North America and myself personally applaud the UNESCO decision as it affirms the historic continuity of Palestinian Christians dating back to the early 4th century, and by extension to Pentecost. Yes, Palestinian Christians predate the state of Israel by at least 17 centuries and the coming of Islam, and they still remain in the Holy Land. However, the Israeli occupation is now strangling Palestinian Christians and Muslims throughout the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, causing many to leave — not due to religious tensions but the oppressive policies of the Israeli military occupation. I returned from Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories in May of this year as I led a church group to see the situation in Israel and Palestine. We were struck by the fact that Bethlehem has become an isolated ghetto, surrounded by a 25-foot wall, and the majority of the local Palestinians are unable to visit Jerusalem for medical treatment or to visit the Christian and Muslim holy sites that are just six miles away. We watched Christian tour groups from Korea, Taiwan, and the U.S. get off their buses and do a quick tour of the church of the Nativity, but fail to meet local Christians and Muslims to hear their stories of hope and loss, and enjoy their warm hospitality. Let us hope that this decision by UNESCO will not only preserve this historic church, but become a place where all the children of Abraham can come and see the truth of the occupation and make up their own minds about ‘the things that make for peace’ among Jews, Christians, and Muslims in that land. Let the emphasis be not so much upon these ancient stones but on the ‘living stones,’ the people who yearn for a normal life without war, impoverishment, and military occupation. We urge people across the globe to go and see the situation for themselves and discover the truth about the occupation, the illegal separation wall, and then work for true peace based on justice and eventual reconciliation.”

Video of Desmond Tutu is available at the Friends of Sabeel–North America webpage.

Tagged With: Donald Wagner, Middle East, Mitri Raheb, Palestine,

Roots of the Rise of Fundamentalist Islam: The 1967 War

June 4, 2012

NASEER ARURI, naruri at aol.com
Aruri is chancellor professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and author of the books Dishonest Broker: The U.S. Role in Israel and Palestine and Obstruction of Peace. He also contributed to the anthology The June 1967 War, which took place 45 years ago.

He said today: “The 1967 Middle East war, sometimes referred to as the June War, is also called ‘al-Naksa,’ or ‘the setback,’ whereas the debacle of 1948 — which cost the Arabs more than two-thirds of Palestine and resulted in the expulsion/exodus of 78 percent of the Palestinian people — is increasingly referred to as ‘al-Nakba,’ i.e., ‘the catastrophe.’ While one might recover from a setback, it is probably a very daunting task to recover from a catastrophe.

“And yet, the 1967 War was a transforming event of epochal dimensions involving huge stakes: Who will emerge as the hegemon of the Middle East? Conservative monarchies with influence and power based on petroleum products and pro-west affiliations — or Arab socialism, non-alignment, Arab unity and secularism? Would revolutionary Arab nationalism or right-wing monarchies emerge as the order of the day?

“Today, almost a half a century later, as the Arab uprisings proceed, we ask whether these questions have been answered. Can we say with certainty, that political Islam has emerged triumphant while secularism has been dealt another setback? Did fundamentalist Islam score high particularly in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere? Did right-wing Arabs such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, etc. score better than did others on the left?

“The single most important outcome of the June War was the defeat of Arab nationalism, known as Nasserism, the antithesis of reactionary Arab politics. Correspondingly, Israel emerged as America’s surrogate in the Middle East. The shifting realignments which can be traced to the 1967 war reveals a new geo-political map, which pits the big powers against each other Cold War style — the U.S., NATO, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Israel versus Syria, Iran, Hizbullah, Lebanon. Such shifting realignments are rooted in the June War and the Cold War, both significant eras which will have a geo-political impact on the region for some time to come.”

Tagged With: 1967 War, Gamal Abdul Nasser, Israel, Middle East, Naseer Aruri, Nasserism, Palestine, Rise of Fundamentalist Islam,

Palestinian Hunger Strikers: “Fighting Ingrained Duplicity”

May 15, 2012

Reuters is reporting: “Standing up to Israel through non-violent resistance can produce encouraging results, Palestinians said on Tuesday, after a prisoner hunger strike produced some Israeli concessions.

“The deal under which some 1,600 Palestinian prisoners agreed on Monday to end a month-long fast against Israel’s prison policy was struck on the eve of Nakba (catastrophe) Day…”

ALLAM JARRAR, via Ryme Katkhouda, rymepmc at gmail.com; Kinda Mohamadieh, kinda.mohamadieh at annd.org
Jarrar is with the Palestinian NGO Network. He is in Washington, D.C. with a delegation of the Arab NGO Network for Development, which also includes representatives from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Tunisia, Yemen and other Arab countries. The delegation just released a paper, “Overview and Suggestions for Improving Key Areas in U.S. Foreign Policy Towards the Arab Region.” Point one is “The centrality of recognizing the Palestinian rights to democratic and development processes.”

NOURA ERAKAT, nourae at mac.com; RICHARD FALK, rfalk at princeton.edu
Erakat is an adjunct professor of international human rights law in the Middle East at Georgetown University and the U.S.-based legal advocacy consultant for the Badil Center for Palestinian Refugee and Residency Rights. She is also a contributing editor to Jadaliyya.com.

Available for a limited number of interviews, Falk is professor of international law emeritus, Princeton University and Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territories for the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Erakat said today: “It is empowering that on the day of the 64th commemoration of the Nakba, or the day that marks the initial displacement and dispossession of Palestinians, that Thaer Halahleh and Bilal Diab will be ending their hunger strike in exchange for their freedom. As a result of an Egyptian-brokered deal between Israelis and Palestinians, all the hunger strikers will end their strike upon Israel’s vow to not renew their arbitrary detention without charge or trial upon its expiration. This marks a significant milestone in the struggle against colonial violence in Palestine. It does not however, signal an end to the struggle as demonstrated by the case of Hana al-Shalabi who spent two years in administrative detention before obtaining her release as part of the Hamas-brokered prisoner exchange only to be re-arreseted two months later. A definitive end to these punitive and racist practices necessitates the political will of international governments and agencies who have the ability to exert the requisite pressure upon Israel to comply with international law and human rights norms.”

Falk and Erakat recently wrote the piece “Palestinian Hunger Strikers: Fighting Ingrained Duplicity,” which states: “On his seventy-third day of hunger strike, Thaer Halahleh was vomiting blood, bleeding from his lips and gums, while his body weighs in at 121 pounds—a fraction of its pre-hunger strike size. The thirty-three-year-old Palestinian follows the still-palpable footsteps of Adnan Khader and Hana Shalabi whose hunger strikes resulted in release. He also stands alongside Bilal Diab who is also entering his seventy-third day of visceral protest. Together, they inspired nearly 2,500 Palestinian political prisoners to go on hunger strike in protest of Israel’s policy of indefinite detention without charge or trial.

“Administrative detention has constituted a core of Israel’s 1,500 occupation laws that apply to Palestinians only, and which are not subject to any type of civilian or public review. Derived from British Mandate laws, administrative detention permits Israeli Forces to arrest Palestinians for up to six months without charge or trial, and without any show of incriminating evidence. Such detention orders can be renewed indefinitely, each time for another six-month term.

“Ayed Dudeen is one of the longest-serving detainees in Israeli captivity. First arrested in October 2007, Israeli officials renewed his detention thirty times without charge or trial. After languishing in a prison cell for nearly four years without due process, prison authorities released him in August 2011 only to re-arrest him two weeks later. His wife Amal no longer tells their six children that their father is coming home, because, in her words, ‘I do not want to give them false hope anymore, I just hope that this nightmare will go away.’”

See recent New York Times report: “Palestinians Go Hungry to Make Their Voices Heard”

Tagged With: Allam Jarrar, Bilal Diab, Israel, Middle East, Nakba, Noura Erakat, Palestine, Palestinian Hunger Strike, Palestinian Prisoners, Richard Falk, Thaer Halahleh,

Gaza “More Dire Than Ever”

April 11, 2012
Dr. Mads Gilbert in Gaza

Dr. Mads Gilbert in Gaza

Dr. MADS GILBERT, mads.gilbert at gmail.com, also via Jennifer Loewenstein, amadea311 at earthlink.net
During the Israeli “Operation Cast Lead” in Dec. 2008 – Jan. 2009, Dr. Gilbert was one of only two outside doctors in Gaza. Last week the International Criminal Court, to the protests of Amnesty International and other groups, stated it would not issue prosecutions for the Israeli Operation. Recently Gilbert, co-author of “Eyes in Gaza,” returned to Gaza and is now on a 10-day speaking tour in the U.S.

Gilbert said today: “The Israeli Operation Cast Lead killed 1.400 people in Gaza, struck 58 mosques and 280 schools. I’m sad to say from my visit to Gaza earlier this year, the situation is now more dire than ever. The Israeli siege effectively prohibits the rebuilding of Gaza — the import of concrete, of window panes, the availability of travel for medical care for the population. I’ve worked in other desperate situations in other places and Gaza is unique in a number of respects. It’s a captive population — usually if civilians are being attacked, there’s a safe place they can take refuge and then come back to their homes when the fighting has stopped. That doesn’t exist for the people in Gaza since they are effectively imprisoned by the Israeli siege. It’s an incredibly young population and a very poor population with nearly 80 percent unemployment, largely because of the Israeli siege, which is an illegal form of collective punishment. Anemia and protein deficiency are widespread.

“During the Israeli attack, I saw the effects of new weapons including drones, phosphorous and also DIME [Dense Inert Metal Explosives], which leave no shrapnel, but I witnessed their capacity to cut a child in two; they also leave radioactive traces. The Palestinian population is very resilient but this is being undermined in a number of ways that are not obvious. Israel is finding ways of getting more and more informants and traitors, including by blackmailing people who need medical care.

“Politically, the Palestinians have fundamentally abided by truces. The truce before Cast Lead was broken by the Israelis on Nov. 4, 2008, just as many in the U.S. were celebrating the election of Barack Obama and was planned for two years.

“When I asked a wise man in Gaza what I should say to people in the U.S., he said: ‘Tell them your tax dollars are killing us, the Palestinians.’ Indeed, all this could change if there were a shift in U.S. policy. Imagine if Obama had acted in a courageous manner — if he’d flown his Marine One helicopter into Gaza when he was in Egypt and addressed the people there, like Kennedy did in Berlin, saying to the people ‘I am a Palestinian.’”

Regarding last week’s ICC decision, Glibert noted “the ICC is in effect telling Israel that it can do what it wants to the Palestinians without legal accountability. Unfortunately the Norwegian legal system similarly dismissed a case form Norwegian lawyers.” He continued, “I do see positive changes coming from the grassroots. My own country of Norway used to be very pro-Israeli, but because of the reality of Israeli polices and because Norwegians became aware of them — through our soldiers serving as peacekeepers in the region and solidarity workers like myself — the Palestinian narrative took hold. It took decades, but it took hold.”

Gilbert is a professor and head of the department of emergency services at the University of North Norway and did medical research at the University of Iowa. See Gilbert’s piece “Inside Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital” in the noted medical journal The Lancet.

Gilbert is also available for interviews via Jennifer Loewenstein, who is faculty associate in Middle East Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and board member of the Chomsky Fund, which is organizing Gilbert’s tour.

Tagged With: Gaza, ICC, Israel, Mads Gilbert, Middle East, Palestine, war,

International Criminal Court Rejects Israeli War Crimes Probe, Court Called “Hoax”

April 4, 2012

The International Criminal Court refused on Tuesday to consider a war crimes tribunal against Israel for its military assault on the Gaza Strip in 2009 or for other possible criminal acts in occupied Palestine. Israel welcomed the news. Amnesty International called the ICC’s move “dangerous.”

MICHAEL MANDEL, MMandel at osgoode.yorku.ca
Author of “How America Gets Away With Murder, Illegal Wars, Collateral Damage and Crimes Against Humanity,” Mandel said today: “It’s disgraceful but not surprising that the ICC has dismissed Palestine’s complaint against Israel. It sat on the complaint for over three years, always proudly announcing that it was investigating it to give the appearance of impartiality. Meanwhile the ICC jumped to attention in less than three weeks when the U.S. government, which is not a signatory to the treaty, wanted to go to war against Libya, justifying Western aggression with bogus charges against the Libyan regime.”

Mandel added that prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno “Ocampo and company have been busy putting Africa on trial for crimes aided, abetted and exploited by the rich countries, while the U.S. government killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and tens of thousands of Afghans, and Israel has been committing Nuremberg’s ‘supreme international crime’ of aggression against the Palestinians for 45 years.

“Good riddance to Ocampo [who is stepping down], but I doubt his replacement will be any better. The ICC was a hoax from the start.”

Also, see: “ICC Prosecutor Courts Hollywood With Invisible Children” regarding Kony2012.

Filed Under: Tagged With: ICC, Israel, Michael Mandel, Middle East, Palestine, war,

* Pope in Cuba * Silence as Female Palestinian Hunger Striker Goes Beyond 40 Days

March 27, 2012

SAMUEL FARBER, samuelfarber at hotmail.com
Farber is author of Cuba Since the Revolution of 1959: A Critical Assessment. He said today: “While masses of Cubans turned out to greet the Pope, appearances can be misleading. This visit will serve neither democracy nor popular interests. In exchange for the international legitimacy that the Cuban government is obtaining from the Pope, the Catholic Church expects to gain further advantages such as the teaching of religion in Catholic and even public schools.” Farber recently wrote the piece “The Second Coming of El Papa to Cuba: Pope Benedict XVI makes common cause with the Castro brothers.”

ALI ABUNIMAH, aliabunimah at mac.com, @avinunu
Abunimah is co-founder of the Electronic Intifada website and recently wrote the piece “Why the Silence? Hana Shalabi on Day 40 of Hunger Strike as Israel Rejects Appeal,” which states: “As Israeli officials defame and malign her on Twitter, Hana al-Shalabi lies critically ill and at risk of immediate death in Israeli detention on day 40 of her hunger strike. On Sunday, Ma’an News Agency reported today, an Israeli military judge – an officer of the Israeli occupation forces who kidnapped her from her home on 16 February – rejected an appeal against al-Shalabi’s “administrative detention” without charge or trial. …

“What is the ‘threat’ presented by Hana? Why won’t Israel charge her with any recognizable crime? Why did it previously hold her for two years, two years of harsh abuse, without ever charging her? The fact is that Hana al-Shalabi is a victim of Israel’s Orwellian “administrative detention” – a routinely abused “emergency” provision which dates from British colonial days. …

“Rather than an exceptional measure, as Israel claims, detention without charge or trial is on the rise. In its latest call on Israel to release Hana al-Shalabi, Amnesty International points out that she is one of more than 300 Palestinians currently in Israeli ‘administrative detention’ including more than 20 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council whose only ‘crime’ is to have been elected.

“What will it take to get the media pundits – who constantly demand that Palestinians produce Gandhis – to pay heed to Hana al-Shalabi’s struggle? Over these 40 long, agonizing days for her and her family, attention from international media has been sparse. International officials – including the European Union’s ‘Foreign Minister’ Catherine Ashton – have remained silent. Even some prominent human rights groups, including B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch have totally ignored Hana al-Shalabi.”

Abunimah is author of the book One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.

Tagged With: Ali Abunimah, Cuba, Israel, Palestine, Pope, Samuel Farber,

Self-Defense for Iran?

March 13, 2012

JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN, amadea311 at earthlink.net
Loewenstein is faculty associate in Middle East Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She said today: “News reports on the recent spate of cross-border violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip depicted Israel’s extra-judicial assassination of Popular Resistance Committee leader, Zuhir al-Qaisi, as consistent with its ‘right to defend itself’ by claiming that al-Qaisi and his accomplice were planning an attack on Israel. Israeli justification of the targeted killing caused no raised eyebrows in mainstream commentary on the worst violence against Gazans since Israel’s Dec. 2008 to Jan. 2009 invasion, or ‘Operation Cast Lead.’ It is difficult to second guess what really motivated this assassination, especially given the prevailing — if somber — calm between the two areas; nobody questioned the rationale — that the PRC was planning a terror attack — as if IDF officials have only to make the claim in order to line up support for state-sanctioned murder. Journalists typically parroted back the information without seeking to verify it, standard fare where Israel is involved. It is understood that some sources are not to be questioned: That the IDF is revising and polishing its own war plans, against a variety of countries, territories, and ‘non-state actors’ daily has not yet been justification for Hizbullah, Iran, Hamas, or any other ‘enemy’ to strike at Israel preemptively, in ‘self-defense’, though the same logic prevails. What we do is acceptable, right, and good — and the principle of universality was deep-sixed as long ago as the Nuremburg Trials when the ‘supreme war crime’, aggression, was also to have instructed nations on the unacceptability of force for resolving international disputes.

“Some have speculated that Israel used the occasion to stir up a response in Gaza that would allow it to test out its Iron Dome Missile Defense system — a system whose reliability could be paramount if a strike on Iran prompted a similar response from the Islamic Republic, Hizbullah in Lebanon, or a minor faction such as Islamic Jihad in Gaza. (It should be noted, in fact, that Hamas stayed out of the latest round of violence which pitted the IDF against the tiny factions Islamic Jihad and the PRCs.) Perhaps Israel’s ratcheting up of violence – which killed 26 people and wounded more than 70 — was intended to wreck ongoing efforts at unity among the Palestinian political parties and factions, or to send another belligerent signal to Iran now that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has returned less than satisfied from his mission to seek a green light for a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities from the United States. We may never know. What will remain true is that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will go on to condemn ‘pre-meditated actions’ of the military services of a state (Syria) against people it doesn’t speak for (the popular resistance) but over whom it rules, but that where Israel and the Palestinians are concerned such a view is anathema to our national interests and the client states who help maintain their supremacy — especially in the Middle East.”

Tagged With: Iran, Israel, Jennifer Loewenstein, Middle East, Palestine,

Obama, Netanyahu and AIPAC: Critical Analysis

March 5, 2012

U.S. Military Aid to IsraelJOHN J. MEARSHEIMER, j-mearsheimer at uchicago.edu
Available for a limited number of interviews, Mearsheimer is co-author of “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” and distinguished professor of political science and co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago. He just co-wrote the piece “Mr. Obama must take a stand against Israel over Iran.”

Mearsheimer is author of several other books, including most recently “Why Leaders Lie: The Truth about Lying in International Politics.” See his original essay, “The Israel Lobby.”

Rabbi YISROEL DOVID WEISS, info at nkusa.org
Rabbi Weiss is with the group Neturei Karta International. He said today: “AIPAC and Israel claim to speak in the name of Judaism, but they are defaming Judaism by waging wars and being oppressive. Jews and Muslims get along, I visit Jewish communities in predominantly Muslim countries and they can worship freely. What creates much of the ill will is that Israel is doing immoral actions in the name of Judaism.”

LIZA BEHRENDT, ljbehrendt at gmail.com
RAE ABILEAH, rae at codepinkalert.org
Behrendt is with Young Jewish Proud and disrupted an AIPAC panel yesterday. See: “Young Jewish activist disrupts AIPAC panel about ‘Israel on Campus’: Stop Silencing Dissent and Supporting Settlement Expansion.”

Abileah is an organizer with Occupy AIPAC — a counter-conference that is taking place across the street from the AIPAC conference. She is also co-director of CODEPINK.

JOSH RUEBNER, congress at endtheoccupation.org
In his address to AIPAC yesterday, Obama said: “Despite a tough budget environment, our security assistance has increased every single year.” National advocacy director of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Ruebner is author of a newly-released policy paper, entitled “U.S. Military Aid to Israel: Policy Implications & Options.” He said today: “President Obama’s speech yesterday at the AIPAC policy conference exposed the contradictory and self-defeating nature of his administration’s policy toward Israel/Palestine. On the one hand, he spoke of the need for Israel to make peace with the Palestinian people and of their need to exercise self-determination; on the other hand, he bragged about his administration providing Israel with ever-greater amounts of U.S. taxpayer-financed weapons, which enable Israel to maintain its illegal military occupation of Palestinian territories and to commit its human rights abuses of Palestinians, making peace impossible. It’s little wonder then that Obama’s first term in office likely will end with Israeli-Palestinian peace an ever remoter goal than four years ago.”

The report finds “From 1949 to 2008, the U.S. government provided Israel more than $103.6 billion of total official aid, making it the largest recipient of U.S. foreign assistance in the post-World War II era. In 2007, the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding providing for $30 billion of U.S. military aid from 2009 to 2018.” See PDF:

ANN WRIGHT, microann at yahoo.com
Wright is a former State Department diplomat and retired Army colonel. She will be speaking today at a news conference at 11 a.m. at the National Press Club. She said this morning: “As much as Obama calls the Iranian government a Holocaust ‘denier,’ I would say that President Obama is a denier of the incredible Israeli violence that violates international law. I find particularly remarkable and offensive his comment that ‘When the Goldstone report unfairly singled out Israel for criticism, we challenged it. When Israel was isolated in the aftermath of the flotilla incident, we supported them. When the Durban conference was commemorated, we boycotted it, and we will always reject the notion that Zionism is racism.’

“Having been to Gaza within days after the 22-day Israeli attack on Gaza that killed 1440, wounded 5,000 and left 50,000 homeless (13 Israelis were killed — five by Israeli fire), I know the Goldstone Report is accurate. Having been on one of the ships of the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla, I know that Israeli commandos attacked all six ships in the flotilla and killed nine on the Mavi Marmara and wounded 50. One American citizen was killed and the Obama administration did not conduct its own investigation of the death, despite the repeated requests of the family of 19-year-old Furkan Dogan. Israel was isolated by the world after their criminal behavior — and for good reason!”

Tagged With: Ann Wright, Iran, Israel, John J. Mearshimer, Josh Ruebner, Liza Behrendt, Middle East, Palestine, Rae Abileah, Yisroel Dovid Weiss,

End of a Palestinian Hunger Strike Sheds Light on “Lawless Captivity”

February 22, 2012

AP reports: “A Palestinian prisoner agreed to end his 66-day hunger strike to protest his imprisonment without charge after reaching a deal with Israel that will free him in April, the Israeli Justice Ministry said Tuesday.”

RICHARD FALK, rfalk at princeton.edu
Just back in the U.S. from the Mideast, Falk is available for a limited number of interviews. He is the UN special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights and just wrote the piece “Saving Khader Adnan’s Life and Legacy,” which states: “It is a great relief to those millions around the world who were moved to prayer and action by Khader Adnan’s extraordinary hunger strike of 66 days that has ended due to Israel’s agreement to release him on April 17. …

“While it is appropriate to celebrate this ending of the strike as ‘a victory,’ there are several disturbing features that deserve comment. To call an arrangement that saved someone’s life a ‘deal,’ as the media consistently put it, is itself demeaning, and reveals at the very least a failure to appreciate the gravity and deep dedication of purpose that is bound up with such a nonviolent form of resistance.

“Similarly, the carelessness of the initial reactions was notable, often referring to Mr. Adnan’s ‘release’ when in fact he will be still held in administrative detention for several more weeks, and could conceivably be confined much longer, should Israeli military authorities unilaterally decide that “substantial evidence” against him emerges in this period immediately ahead. It should be noted that on matters of principle, Israel gave not an inch: even in relation to Mr. Adnan, he will remain in captivity and will be subject to the “legal” possibility that his period of imprisonment could be extended indefinitely; beyond this, Israeli authorities conceded no intention whatsoever to review the cases of the 309 other Palestinians who are presently being held under the administrative detention procedure. …

“What was entirely missing from the Israeli public discourse was some expression of compassion, even if only for the family of Mr. Adnan, which consists of two daughters of four years or younger and his articulate pregnant wife, Randa. There was not even the slightest show of respect for the dignity of Mr. Adnan’s long hunger strike or sympathy for the acute suffering that accompanies such a determined foregoing of food for an extended period.

“Instead, the Israeli commentary that was at all favorable to the arrangement stressed purely pragmatic factors. It was one more lost opportunity for Israelis of all shades of opinion to reach across the abyss of political conflict to affirm a common humanity. In contrast, the spokesperson for the Netanyahu government, Mark Regev, was only interested in deflecting criticism aimed at Israel. He parried criticism by cynically observing that other governments use administrative detention in the name of security, including the United States, and that the legality of Israel’s use of administrative detention should not be questioned as it depends on a 1946 law enacted when Britain was controlling Palestine, implying not inaccurately that Israel was the ‘colonial’ successor to the British! …

“A fitting tribute to Mr. Adnan’s hunger strike would be to put opposition to administrative detention on the top of the human rights agenda throughout the world. We should begin by refusing to use the phrase ‘administrative detention,’ rechristening it as ‘administrative torture’ or ‘lawless captivity.’”

Falk is Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and Visiting Distinguished Professor in Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has authored and edited numerous publications spanning a period of five decades, most recently editing the volume “International Law and the Third World: Reshaping Justice.”

See “Pundits Waiting for a Palestinian Gandhi? Meet Khader Adnan” by Peter Hart.

Tagged With: Israel, Middle East, Palestine, Palestinian Hunger Strike, Palestinian Prisoners, Richard Falk,