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Israel sentences former Palestinian hunger striker to one year in prison

Monday, 05 February 2018 5:54 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 05 February 2018 7:27 PM ]

This file picture shows former Palestinian hunger striker Mohammad Allan at his home with his two daughters.

Israeli authorities have sentenced prominent Palestinian activist Mohammad Allan, who has gone on hunger strike on a number of occasions after being arrested by Israeli forces and being jailed without trial, to 12 months in prison.

The Israeli military tribunal in the northern West Bank town of Salim, located six kilometers east of Nablus, passed the verdict on the 33-year-old campaigner on Monday, and also ordered him to pay a fine of 2,000 Israeli shekels ($579).

Allan was arrested on June 8 last year after Israeli troops raided his home in the northern West Bank village of Einabus, located 12 kilometers (7 miles) south of Nablus.

He immediately staged a hunger strike in Israeli jail to protest against his administrative detention – a controversial form of imprisonment that allows Israeli authorities to detain individuals indefinitely without charge, trial or access to legal counsel.

In November 2015, Allan was released from a year in jail without trial.

In June that year, he began a two-month hunger strike which twice left him in coma and also triggered protests across the occupied territories.

Maazouze, the mother of Mohammed Allan, a Palestinian prisoner who was on a long-term hunger strike, holds a portrait of her son during a rally calling for his release on August 9, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

Allan, who is believed to be a member of the Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad and a lawyer by training, had been on hunger strike for 65 days to protest Israel’s practice of administrative detention.

He ended his hunger strike on August 20 after an Israeli court suspended his detention.

In mid-September, Allan once again went on an open-ended hunger strike after being re-arrested by Israeli forces following an improvement in his general health condition and discharge from hospital.

He was previously imprisoned from 2006 to 2009 for aiding Palestinians wanted by Israel.

An Israeli police officer clashes with a protester at a demonstration for the release of Palestinian hunger striker Mohammad Allan, outside of Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon, Israel, on August 16, 2015.

More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held at Israeli jails. Hundreds of the inmates have apparently been incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention.

Some Palestinian prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to eleven years.

Palestinian inmates regularly stage hunger strikes in protest at the administrative detention policy and their harsh prison conditions in Israeli jails.

According to reports, at least 13 Palestinian lawmakers are currently imprisoned in Israeli detention facilities. Nine of them are being held without trial under administrative detention.

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