\r\n\tLegislation allowing prisoners on hunger strike to be force-fed violates the prisoners’ human rights, Arab MKs, the PLO and several NGOs said on Thursday, after the bill became law that morning.
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\r\n\tThe Public Security Ministry bill passed into law with 46 in favor and 40 opposed shortly after 6 a.m., after more than four hours of speeches as part of a filibuster that fizzled out almost 10 hours earlier than expected.
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\r\n\tKnesset Interior Committee chairman David Amsalem (Likud) argued that the bill “creates the correct balance between the state’s interest to defend the life of the prisoner and his right and sovereignty over his own body,” according to the PIC.<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\tThe law allows the prisons commissioner to ask the attorney- general and the president of a district court for authorization to have a doctor force-feed a prisoner on a hunger strike – if the doctor finds that the strike would cause irreparable damage or the prisoner is in immediate, mortal danger.
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\r\n\tThe request can only be made after trying to get the prisoner to agree to the treatment, and the court must hear the prisoner’s position on the matter.
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\r\n\tThe force-feeding would take place via a feeding tube or infusions, and a prison guard can use reasonable force if the prisoner resists.
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\r\n\tMK Basel Ghattas (Joint List) said a hunger strike is a prisoner’s last resort after all his rights are taken away.
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\r\n\tFellow Joint List MK and former physician Ahmad Tibi agreed: “A hunger strike is the last thing a prisoner feels he can do between the prison walls, certainly when it comes to someone under administrative detention,” he explained.
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\r\n\t“Using a feeding tube is very rough for the patient...I call on every doctor in Israel not to cooperate with this terrible law, which is meant to torture prisoners.”<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\tAfter the law passed, MK Haneen Zoabi (Joint List) said it tramples basic human rights and came from “cold, calculated political considerations.”<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\t“This is an apartheid state and I don’t understand those who insist on closing their eyes while barbaric laws are authorized that let the state treat humans, imprisoned for political reasons and held in inhumane conditions, like animals,” she continued.
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\r\n\t“The Israeli public sits in silence and lets its government fatten up people [like animals], choosing to be blind. This blindness will strike back at Israel like a boomerang.”<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\tThe force-feeding law is tantamount to a license to kill Palestinian prisoners, Issa Qaraqi, head of the Palestinian Authority’s Prisoners Commission, said on Thursday.
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\r\n\tThe legislation is also a form of “immoral torture” against the prisoners and a “very dangerous precedent,” he said.
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\r\n\tQaraqi warned that force-feeding could lead to death, as happened in 1980, when three inmates who were on hunger strike died after authorities tried to feed them by force.
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\r\n\tThe PA official said that this was the first law of its kind in the world.
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\r\n\tHe called on the international community to “assume its responsibilities toward the Palestinian prisoners,” adding that the legislation violates international laws and conventions.
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\r\n\tPLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi also condemned the law, saying it “affirms Israel’s racism and arrogance.”<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\tThe law will allow Israel to “continue committing its crimes” against Palestinian prisoners, Ashrawi said. <\/p>","content_source":null,"content_url":null,"content_columns":"0","content_date_start":"2015-07-31 19:21:17","content_date_finish":"2015-07-31 19:21:17","content_date_register":"2015-07-31 19:21:17","content_date_last_edit":"0000-00-00 00:00:00","content_show_img":"1","content_show_details":"1","content_show_related_img":"1","content_show_slider":"1","content_show_title_slider":"1","content_comment":"0","content_score":"0","content_recorded":"0","content_confirmed":"1","content_status":"1","content_kind":"0","old_id":"125300","tag_id":null,"tag_word":null,"tag_service":null,"tag_total":null,"tag_soundex":null,"attach_token":"3456480050","attach_date_register":"2015-07-31 19:21:26","attach_id":"128952","attach_file_ext":"jpg","attach_file_header":"image\/jpeg","attach_img_type":"2","attach_img_width":"620","attach_img_height":"420","attach_file_media":"1","attach_show_watermark":"0","score_average":null,"score_count":null,"score_date_last":null,"visit_count":"337","visit_date_last":"2025-05-10 16:03:32","attach_title":"Force-feeding law, license to kill captives","node_title":"Commentaries","ot_node_left_right":"[{\"node_id\":134, \"left\":25, \"right\":26}]"}]]