The Prime Minister’s Office reported on Tuesday that Khader Adnan, now on the 66th day of his hunger strike, will call off his protest in a deal that will see him released on April 17. The report was confirmed on Tuesday evening by Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, which has been overseeing the case.
Announcing the deal, Ofir Gendelman from the PMO tweeted, “#khaderadnan announced that he is ending his hunger strike. If there’s no new evidence against him, he will be released from custody on 17.4.”
Israel’s High Court of Justice had been set on Tuesday afternoon to hear a petition against Adnan’s administrative detention, but the hearing was canceled and the petition withdrawn in the wake of the deal. The court clarified that the deal is incumbent upon the military court’s agreement not to extend Adnan’s detention past April 17, as long as new substantial evidence against him does not come to light. The court’s announcement can be read here, in Hebrew.
An Addameer press release explained that the terms of the agreement met the conditions outlined by Adnan to call off his strike: that his detention would not be extended, and would be counted from the date of his arrest and not from January 8, the date the detention order was issued. The press release also calls into question the danger to security that Israeli authorities claim Adnan poses:
Addameer maintains that the fact that Israeli officials negotiated the duration of his detention, in addition to agreeing to an early release, reveals that there were no grounds for his administrative detention in the first place. His administrative detention order, as is the case with all other administrative detainees, is based on the alleged threat he poses to the “security of the State of Israel.” However, if Israeli officials agree that he will not be a threat on 17 April, as clear from today’s deal, he surely does not pose any threat today and his case provides further proof of Israel’s policy of arbitrary detention. Addameer reiterates its call for his immediate and unconditional release and the release of the 308 other administrative detainees.
Adnan, who is affiliated with Islamic Jihad, was arrested on December 17, after which he immediately launched his hunger strike in protest of his administrative detention. He is presently hospitalized at Ziv Medical Center in Safed, and has not been charged or notified of the suspicions against him.
Ahead of the hearing, which was originally set for Thursday but moved up last minute, hundreds demonstrated in front of the Ofer Prison in the West Bank. According to Omar Rahman, Israeli forces sprayed demonstrators with teargas and “skunk” water. Injuries and arrests were reported.
Rumors that Adnan would be released abounded on Twitter ahead of the planned hearing. Addameer, the Palestinian prisoner support organization, tweeted that they could not confirm these rumors, and activists called for caution.
On the rumors, the organization tweeted, “We know that Israelis are trying to negotiate a deal & we cannot confirm until we know the details of the deal and #KhaderAdnan‘s position,” later adding that, in order to protect his family, additional information would not be released without confirmation.
For more +972 coverage on Khader Adnan and his hunger strike, click here.
Mairav Zonszein contributed to this report.
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Handala
Hope he makes it ok…any idea why the release date is so far off?
AYLA
Thank you for this news! if there’s no evidence against him, he will be released… imagine that… it took a 64 day hunger strike to come to the most basic kind of justice. 🙁 I pray he recovers full health, and that his hunger strike shines a light on the “justice” system that won’t be extinguished.
amir.bk
Well played, Dear leader. Quite brilliant really.
Richard Witty
Best to continue non-violent efforts to oppose administrative detention at all. 5 months is too long. Even two weeks is too long.
But, congratulations.
1000 publicly fasting for a week (uncomfortable but doable), would make headlines, to the extent of making change.
Sinjim
They’ve had more than 2 months to find evidence and charge him, but they haven’t been able to. Why should they be given another two? And the practice of violating Palestinian rights will continue unabated? There’s a lot of bad news mixed up with the good here.
Steve
This guy is affiliated with Islamic Jihad, yet wins people’s sympathy because he manages to make himself look like an underdog against Israel. Strange stuff.
…
Neo-nazis are “the underdog” in Europe now, but if one of them got detained a bit longer than usual and then went on a hunger strike, everyone would wish the guy the worst.
…
But Islamic Jihad members/supporters, if one of them goes on a strike, everyone cheers the guy on and roots for him. Because even if he’s a terrible person who supports jihad terrorist organizations, he hates Israel and is therefore worthy of attention. Amazing to see.
Jazzy
A practically meaningless victory except to those who live for the sake of meaningless victories.
aristeides
On the contrary, Jazzy. We now see that Netanyahu will cave in the face of negative publicity, even when it’s on behalf of an “unsympathetic” victim.
.
If people had taken your advice, Adnan would have been abandoned to die alone, while we all waited for a virgin choirboy to show up.
Danny
This worries me a little bit. Sure, he’ll be released in a couple of months, but what will prevent Israel from arresting him again? If I know Israel (and I’m sure that I do), these guys are already plotting how they’ll pick him again and throw him into the system for a few months more. What will he do then – go on hunger strike again?
.
The world must demand that Israel CEASE AND DESIST from putting Palestinians into administrative detention. Only then will real change take place.
Jennifer Thomas
Okay, I want to go to Palestine and wait in the line to shake his hand next summer. I’ve never touched such greatness. I want to see him with my own eyes. He’s the reason for the new compassion for the Palestinian cause. I want to shower his new baby with hearts and presents. Want to smile at his wife. Want to hear his daughters laugh.
aristeides
Israel has already re-arrested several of the hostages released in exchange for the innocent choirboy Gilad Shalit.
Steve
Wow, here is video of Khader Adnan at an Islamic Jihad rally PROMOTING SUICIDE BOMBING against Israel:
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/02/video-of-famous-baker-khader-adnan.html
Why are countless “activists” around the internet all cheering this guy on? Do they think he’s a peace activist who was unfairly detained? He’s a friggin terrorist-supporter SCREAMING IN FAVOR of suicide bombing against Jews!
noam
jennifer thomas, you present the essence of everything that’s fetishized and twisted about so many of the “pro-palestine”/”pro-israel” internationals.
when you want to think of adnan’s daughters’ laughter, do you think of them as real life people, or as stand-ins in a drama film playing out in your head? (a rhetorical question)
and you may very well disagree with everything steve says, as i usually do – but you should view the clip he linked to.
do you realize that your idol, whom you long to shake hands with, thinks that the noble cause of suicide bombing civilians is more important than his own daughters having a father? and his wife having a husband?
do you understand his ideal is not solely gaining freedom for palestine, but to brutally oppress others, “infidels”, when he has his way?
if idolizing this guy is your way of protesting the concept of administrative detention, then something in your judgement and analytical capabilities is wrong.
unless you were being sarcastic. in that case, you were spot-on.
Steve
Wow, the anti-Israel cult is really scary stuff. Look at the comments of JENNIFER THOMAS above. Watch the video of Khader Adnan I posted where he’s screaming in favor of suicide-bombing the Jews. But the anti-Israel hate around the internet is so great, the Israel-haters work so hard, that they are successfully fooling people to spew stuff like what she said, that she cannot wait to shake the hand of an Islamic Jihad terrorist who wants to blow up Jews in schoolbuses, all because the extreme-left antisemites have successfully presented this terrorist maniac as some sort of “activist” worthy of support because he starved himself for a while.
Really scary stuff. I know that Nazi Germany is gone, but I’m starting to see similaries between how people were reportedly brainwashed back then and how they’re being brainwashed to hate Jews/Israel now. Really alarming. I used to laugh at this stuff, except it’s growing
bobbyb
While I am a steadfast supporter I also think that it is impossible for him to go 66 days without any food. That is unheard of. He must be eating something or drinking a protein shake WTF. Am I crazy?
Jazzy
Since +972 has made such great efforts to ignore challenges to Adnan’s character, despite clear YouTube evidence that he is very much a devoted pro-Jew-murder individual, I wonder: are there any circumstances under which Israel would be justified in detaining a Palestinian terrorist without admissible evidence? What about intelligence? Where does your human rights cynicism stop? When they’re strapping the bomb on?
aristeides
I’d say you’re the one who’s cynical about human rights, Jazzy. Suprised you didn’t put it in scare quotes.
Piotr Berman
I am not sure if “elderofziyon” site is authentic: why they would propagate the anti-semitic myth of “Elders of Zion” conspiracy? And suggest that Jews are capable of inhuman comments like suggesting sodomizing prisoners (“Someone should stuff a baguette up his arse.”)
In short, I do not trust any info from that site. But it changes the situation by roughly one year: Khader was a “spokesman” of Islamic Jihand 6 or 5 years ago. Since then, he was in arrested a ton of times. If he were note a mere “leader” or “dangerous terrorist” (a very low grade accusation, there are thousands of “worst of the worst”, “masterminds”, “blood on their hands” and apparently none of these applies here) he would probably get a multiyear sentence. Instead Khader was in a pool of “usual suspects” who can be discovered using Google (a.k.a. “secret evidence that cannot be disclosed without compromising the security of the State”), and perennially detained, tortured and released after few months.
To summarize info and ethical advise from Steve and Jazzy, once we establish that X is a bad person, then every year we can detain X for couple of months, torture for a while and release, and then have another round of fun next year. For that Administrative Detention is invaluable, because even in kangaroo courts of Military Justice System you cannot sentence a person again and again using the same top secret You-Tube clip.
aristeides
It explains a lot about Steve that he gets his information from sites like that.
.
Agreeing with Piotr. It’s very likely that Adnan’s arrest is part of the ongoing IDF program of arresting and torturing people so they will “name names” of others who can in turn be arrested and tortured for more names. None of this evidence, obtained by torture, could be used in any proper court, which is why the IDF can’t disclose it. This time around, his name probably came up.
.
When people live for decades under a system like this, with no end in sight, it’s no wonder they turn to resistance.
Steve
The “Eldar of ziyon” site is a regular blogger who is making fun of the antisemitic protocals stuff.
Anyway, here is a video of Khader Adnan screaming in support of the suicide bombing of Israeli Jews:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FupY1qT99TY
Piotr Berman
Steve: since “Eldar of Ziyon” site is devoted to making heavy-handed jokes, I thought that I can make jokes about them. More seriously, translations provided on satirical sites are not reliable. For example, I have seen an authentic video of events in a Knesset commission with this (translated) dialogue:
MK from Labor: Anastasia, you should do something about those red lapels, they are really tacky.
MK from Israeli Beitenu: Shut up! My mother bought me that blouse.
MK from Labor: I do not care, even if the Prophet (peace be upon Him) bought that blouse, it would still be tacky.
MK from Israeli Beitenu: pours water on MK from Labor.
Piotr Berman
Aresteides: my theory is a bit different.
First of all, evidence obtained by torture can be offered in a military court, as the court does not have to be informed how the evidence was obtained. Perhaps the defense can raise an objection and be duly overruled.
The system is such that if Shin Beth wanted to incarcerate Adnan Khader for several years, they would. That basically pegs how “dangerous” a terrorist he was. “Terrorist” is someone like Haneen Zoabi or Mohammad Bakri. “Dangerous terrorist” is someone that you can Google and find a “bad video”. A “mastermind” would be either sentenced or detained with charges, like Abu Sisi (who represent a rare category, hitherto known to me only from movies of a “mad evil scientist”).
As Shin Beth has to stay productive and perform some number of detentions and forceful interrogation each quarter, it stands to reason to prioritize known “bad guys”, better to beat up someone who you know is bad than one you only guess is bad. And who knows? perhaps one of these years Adnan Khader will know something interesting.
Steve
PIOTR BERMAN: Uh, the video I posted is not “satire.” It is real. And it was not made by the Eldar of Ziyon blog (which is not a satire site either, other than its silly name). That blog just happened to be one of many blogs to find the video.
Piotr Berman
With all due respect, I need a “second opinion” about the translation.
Having a silly name is not the best recommendation for the quality of translation. But this is secondary issue: how many times can you detain and beat up a person because of a video? Judging on the number of times Khader was RELEASED, Shin Beth (or whoever decides) did not find him dangerous. No “ticking bomb” here.
I mention a “ticking bomb” because some cite the “ticking bomb” scenario as “moral” grounds to suspend or totally abrogate normal rules of justice. One can dispute that, but this is not the case here. What you propose is that the rules of justice should not hold for bad people. Are you a good person?
Passerby
I got a second opinion for Piotr and he is proven right. According to my copy of “The Jihadist’s English Dictionary For Influencing Tender American Hearts,” Khader was inviting his listeners to enjoy ice cream at his new Dairy Queen franchise.
Piotr Berman
I do not know Arabic, but the video with English subtitles surfaced in the last days on the hunger strike on an openly racist web site, and then it was copied French/Jewish racist web site which should according to Steve and Passerby remove by doubts. The origin of the video was not explained.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125088
According to my copy of “The Jewish Jihadist Dictionary” Avraham Stern tried to collaborate with Nazi Germany to promote distribution of German style strudels in Palestine. Therefore all strudel loving Israeli flock to his grave.