Israeli court mulls over force-feeding two Palestinian inmates
An Israeli court is mulling over force-feeding two Palestinian prisoners who have been on hunger strike for nearly three months in protest against their so-called administrative detention.
The supreme court is likely to issue a decision on Tuesday morning to allow Israeli authorities to forcibly feed 20-year-old Anas Ibrahim Shadid and Ahmad Abu Farah, 29, both residents of the southern occupied West Bank city of Surif.
The court had ordered a medical report on the health status of the prisoners.
Israel passed the so-called Law for the Prevention of Harm Caused by Hunger Strikers in 2015 in violation of international codes of medical ethics and human rights. Israel’s Medical Association censured the legislation at the time as “torture” and filed a lawsuit against it with the supreme court.
The court, however, ruled in favor of the law in September, and allowed the force-feeding of prisoners as a constitutional practice.
Israeli doctors have so far refused to force-feed Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike via nasogastric tubes, but they have made use of intravenous tubes to nurture and treat the inmates.
Shadid and Abu Farah have gone without food for 85 and 86 days, respectively. The pair started refusing to consume water last week in reaction to the Israeli court’s decision to dismiss their release appeal.
More than 6,500 Palestinians are reportedly held at Israeli jails. Hundreds of the inmates have apparently been incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention, a policy under which Palestinian inmates are kept in Israeli detention facilities without trial or charge.
Some Palestinian prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to eleven years.
The Palestinian inmates regularly go on hunger strike in protest against the administrative detention policy and their harsh prison conditions.
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