Hunger Strikes and "Administrative" Detention

News of the death of Sheikh Khader Adnan, after 86 days on a hunger strike protesting his administrative detention, has shocked the entire Palestinian population. His passing is being marked with nationwide strikes, protests, and a renewed determination for resistance.

The logic of a hunger strike is firmly founded in the theory and philosophy of nonviolence. It is an important tactic in a moral and spiritual battle, where an activist asserts the truth, legitimacy, and moral righteousness of one’s case, not by attacking one’s tormentors, but by voluntarily taking upon oneself the punishment and suffering. It is an eloquent and impressive assertion that draws widespread attention to a particular issue. It challenges one and all (including one’s enemies) to support one’s claims and, in the case of one’s enemies, to change their course of action. It represents a sort of “moral jiu jitsu” whereby the weaker party allows the full strength of their powerful opponent to fall on them, and rather than resist their opponent head-on, to let the weight of the opponent cause them to fall.

In this case, the injustice against which Sheikh Khader Adnan was protesting is that of administrative detention. Why should he have been jailed, without charges or trial? If Israel is accusing him of anything, they have all the machinery of an unjust military court system to try and convict him. Yet, they could not do that, because they had no proof that he had done anything wrong. Instead, they arrogantly and repeatedly jailed him for extended periods of “administrative detention.” This is an evil tool that represents the utter arrogance and unrestrained power that the Israelis hold over Palestinians, and which they have been using with increasing frequency. Any Palestinian, certainly anyone politically or socially active, is subject to the use or threat of this unjust measure. Currently more than 1,000 Palestinians are detained under administrative detention, without charge or trial. Merely a determination by the commander, or whoever he has delegated this power, that a certain individual should be kept in detention—for up to six months, renewable indefinitely. This device has been used during interrogations. After a prisoner refuses to “confess,” he is simply told that he can just be held indefinitely under administrative detention. Other prisoners who have served their sentence in full are often not released but continue to be incarcerated under administrative detention. The power over Palestinian lives that this device grants to Israeli authorities must be intoxicating, as it is almost unlimited.

To be sure, in typical Israeli fashion, a pseudo-legal procedure does exist, allowing one “to object” to their administrative detention before an Objections Committee. Anyone, however, who attempts to make such an objection will quickly realize it is a sham. This committee hears arguments and evidence in secret and in the absence of both the detainee making the objection as well as his or her attorney. It routinely rejects the objections it receives and “confirms” the decision of the military commanders. The whole process can be seen as a cross between a charade and a kangaroo court.

Khader, who had attempted the “objections” route, realized that going on a hunger strike as a nonviolent tactic was the only route open to him. He had become quite a warrior in this nonviolent battle. He fought several bouts, with lengthy hunger strikes five separate times. In 2012, he went on a hunger strike for 66 days; in 2015 for 56 days; in 2018 for 59 days; and in 2021 for 25 days, before his last strike. At one time, after a lengthy hunger strike, the Israeli authorities relented and promised not to renew his administrative detention so long as he suspended his hunger strike. He did so, and the army released him following the end of his period of detention. He was allowed to go to a Palestinian hospital, where he stayed long enough to gather his strength. Then, they reneged on their promise and issued a new administrative detention order.

When a prisoner goes on hunger strike, he does not wish to die but to live as a free person. He is reclaiming his agency and humanity, willing to pay a heavy price for his beliefs. When Khader’s health declined, he refused to accept medical attention in an Israeli jail until they agreed to a visit by an independent doctor, with a promise not to share his medical information with his jailors. The Israeli authorities refused and sent him back to his prison cell, where he was later found dead.

In his famous, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, who was an inmate of the Nazi concentration camps, wrote that your oppressors can sometimes hold total power over you, but the one thing they cannot control, and which is totally within your power, is how you react to that oppression. Israelis can use all the power at their disposal, but they cannot control how one reacts. Khader Adnan chose to react nonviolently using the tactic of a hunger strike.

In a final, pathetic attempt to assert their power in this matter, the Israel authorities refused to release his body to his family for a decent burial. And, against his express wishes not to have an autopsy, they sent his body to the pathology institute of Abu Kabir.

The least we can do, as we mourn the death of this hero,is to work for an end to the brutal practice of administrative detention he died protesting. The battle after all is a moral and spiritual battle. Israel and its friends should be put to shame and pressured into ending this immoral practice. Even in South Africa under apartheid, such a practice was not permitted. We may not be able in the near future to end all injustice, or resolve all outstanding issues, but at the very least, we should work to end the inhuman practice of indefinite imprisonment without charges or trial.

Hunger strikes are documented in Nonviolence International's database of nonviolent tactics. Hunger strikes that lead to suicide are also discussed in NVI Director Michael Beer's book on Civil Resistance Tactics in the 21st Century which you can download for free.

Jonathan is happy to talk with book groups or congregations about his book, Beyond the Two-State Solution. (Available as a free download or paper copy for purchase online)

Latest posts

Activists discuss global nonviolent movement for Palestinians April 8th

Don't miss this important event!

https://youtube.com/live/BaLaRo73BLU

Join us on our youtube live channel, Youtube/nonviolence to watch this discussion of activist leaders on global solidarity and resistance for justice in Palestine.

(Please see this page for background information, resources, and action steps on Palestine / Israel)

NVI fiscally sponsors groups that work to help Gazans. Please support them.

If you want to hear news and views directly from Gaza, please check the website and social media sites of We Are Not Numbers.

US Boats to Gaza is a member of the global Freedom Flotilla Coalition. They seek to bring humanitarian aid by sea to Gaza and break the siege. Learn more about their important work below.

Here are some photos from the big recent Washington, DC event for Palestinian humanity that was part of much larger global effort.

In this time of enormous unnecessary suffering, it is vitally important that people of good will everywhere raise up the humanity of Palestinian people.

NVI is grateful to the co-founder of our wonderful fiscally sponsored partner, We Are Not Numbers, Ahmed Alnaouq, who brought this short moving video clip to our attention.

Don’t miss US Representative Rashida Tlaib saying the name and last words of WANN writer, Yousef Dawas.

Then take a moment to watch her powerful video here.

We Are Not Numbers is featured in this moving piece in "In These Times."

“I yearn for our voices to echo across the globe with the truth, reaching out to those who seek it.”

SHERELL BARBEE FEBRUARY 7, 2024

https://inthesetimes.com/article/letters-from-gaza-genocide-palestine-culture-

We are thrilled that Ahmed's powerful voice was included in the Washington Post.

Here is his excerpt and a link (behind a paywall) to the full article, which includes other perspectives - several not rooted in personal experience or basic human compassion for the suffering of others. When militarists are welcomed into the mainstream press, the media doesn't feel a need to provide "balance." But, for some reason, the few times that Palestinian voices are heard, they present another perspective that often negates Palestinian humanity.

The slaughter must end

Ahmed Alnaouq: Last week, Israel bombed my family home in Gaza, killing my father, as well as two brothers, three sisters and all of their children, in an instant. One friend described their bodies as “bags of meat” — an arm here, a leg there.

I write to you in mourning. Even now, we Palestinians are not granted the luxury to grieve. Instead, we are burdened with the responsibility to talk, to communicate the extent of our suffering and the injustice wielded against us.

So, first, I must say this: We demand an immediate cease-fire. We demand a lifting of the Israeli siege of Gaza and the restoration of electricity, fuel, water and food. And we demand unimpeded humanitarian access in line with international law.

Today, the word “genocide” is being widely used. I can’t think of another word that captures the magnitude of what Israel, a nuclear-armed military power, continues to unleash on a captive population of children and refugees. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said the quiet part out loud: “Gaza won’t return to what it was before,” he said. “We will eliminate everything.”

But we Palestinians already knew what Gallant had in mind. Corralled in Gaza for the past 17 years, burdened with mass unemployment and poverty — even before white phosphorus filled the skies, or before we lay crushed beneath the rubble — we could not breathe. We were held captive like prisoners who had never committed a crime or shot down when we attempted to peacefully protest our incarceration.

Our 1 million children have never traveled outside Israel’s militarized cage and know nothing but the buzz of drones in the sky tracking their every move.

In the past week, I have lost everything. But I do not seek revenge. There is no “military solution” here, only a collective responsibility to finally grant Palestinians what they have demanded for decades, what they are owed: justice, freedom and their very basic rights as human beings.

Ahmed Alnaouq is the head of We Are Not Numbers, which pairs Palestinian writers with mentors overseas.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/02/gaza-ceasefire-civilian-military-humanitarian/

Click here to donate to support NVI's fiscally sponsored partner WANN.

Ahmed was also featured in this recent New York Times piece.

After the Israeli military killed his older brother in an airstrike in Gaza in 2014, Ahmed Alnaouq says, he almost lost his will to live. “I sank into a deep depression,” he told me in a recent phone call. But an American friend convinced him to write about his brother and channel his grief into something productive. Together, they founded We Are Not Numbers, a project that trains young writers in Gaza and publishes their personal essays in English.

The name is a nod to how numbing numbers can be. The higher the death toll, the less we are inclined to care, since the scale of human suffering can feel overwhelming. Statistics don’t trigger empathy and action. Personal stories do.

“This project changed my life because for the first time, I thought that some people can care about us,” Mr. Alnaouq said, describing the response it got outside Gaza.

We Are Not Numbers began as a way to memorialize the dead, but it quickly turned into a lifeline for the living. For young people in Gaza, stuck in a political system with few rights and a blockaded economy with few jobs, it provides a vital outlet for self-expression...

“After losing my family, I did not stop believing in what I believe in,” he told me. “I don’t want other people to feel what I am feeling. Not the Israelis, not the Palestinians.”

These very painful, honest, meaningful videos feature WANN's co-founder.

Trigger / harsh reality warning.

Mubarak Awad speaks on KKFI radio about Palestine

Moussa Elbayoumy, Yara Salamed, and NVI President Mubarak Awad discuss calls for a ceasefire in the current Israel-Hamas war. Moussa is an MD and chair of the board of the Kansas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Kansas). Yara is studying Law at UMKC and is President of Students for Justice in Palestine there. Mubarak is a Palestinian born in Jerusalem in 1943, influenced by Mennonite and Quaker missionaries. He received bachelors, masters and PhD degrees from universities in the US. He became a US citizen in 1978 and returned to Jerusalem in 1983 to found the Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence. He was expelled from Palestine in 1988 during the First Intifada for organizing nonviolent protests against mistreatment of Palestinians by Israeli military and settlers. Back in the US, he founded Nonviolence International. Moussa, Yara and Mubarak are calling for a ceasefire in the current Israel-Gaza war. KKFI.ORG

Sadly, this short NVI video clip from two years ago is still relevant.

Refaat Alareer, WANN's co-founder, killing featured in major media outlets.

CNN

Al Jazeera

Time

In this episode of Mondoweiss’s podcast Culture Editor Mohammed El-Kurd

speaks with journalist and co-founder of We Are Not Numbers Ahmad Alnaouq.

Michael Beer quoted in LA Times article on effective activism.

Please see these articles:

Writing while expecting to die “Can you kindly publish the attached stories if I die?” This is what we have been hearing from the young writers we work with from Gaza in the We Are Not Numbers project.

7 steps to end the cycle of violence in Israel and Palestine:
The path to peace requires nonviolent action not just from Israelis and Palestinians, but also Americans, the media, aid organizations and others.
By NVI Founder, Mubarak Awad. We are pleased to announce this piece was selected as Waging Nonviolence's top story of the year! https://wagingnonviolence.org/2023/12/waging-nonviolence-top-stories-2023/

When will we learn that violence doesn’t lead to security?
To support Israelis and Palestinians is to insist on their right to equally live in peace and freedom — not help structures of state violence and cultures of militarization.
By NVI Board member, Mohammed Abu-Nimer

Solidarity with Palestinians and Jews Sign on Statement.

By Jonathan Kuttab, NVI co-founder. Cat Zavis, Jewish Civil/Women's Rights Lawyer, Mediator, and Rabbi: Beyt Tikkun. Michael Lerner, Rabbi and Editor of Tikkun magazine.
Esther Azar, Arab Jewish Trauma Activist, and Rabbi: Trauma Informed Rabbinics.

Recent attacks by Israel on Gaza and Hamas fighters on Israel are tragic and will not resolve bring peace and justice to all.

NVI believes that nonviolence is the only way to end the savagery, brutality and cycle of violence between Palestinians and Israelis.

NVI urges all parties to cease all military attacks and prevent further escalation of violence that will only harm innocent civilians on both sides.

Call for an immediate ceasefire and end to all violence, including an immediate halt to attacks towards Israel and Israeli military attacks on Gaza.

Urgent humanitarian action is needed, including the establishment of a humanitarian corridor inside and out of Gaza, for the safe movement of people and the delivery of essential supplies. This includes opening Erez and Kerem Shalom / Abu Salem crossings to allow for the movement of people and goods and remove the ban on access to the sea.

End violations of international law and impunity, including settlement expansions, forcible transfer, demolitions, settler violence, all part of ongoing and illegal de facto annexation of West Bank territory. Immediately lift all movement restrictions on Palestinian communities in the West Bank to allow the movements of goods and services.

Take action at the UN Security Council to reaffirm UN Security Council resolutions calling for a nonviolent resolution of disputes, the reversal of the annexation of Greater East Jerusalem and the preservation of the status quo at holy sites.

NVI supports nonviolent political resolution of the conflict by ending the systemic policies of oppression and discrimination of Palestinians, including the 16-year siege on Gaza and 56-year military occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including. East Jerusalem.

We hope you will find this helpful and will share it with others.

US Boats to Gaza is a fiscally sponsored partner of NVI and a member of the global Freedom Flotilla Coalition. They seek to bring humanitarian aid by sea to Gaza and break the siege. Learn more below.

In this video, Ann Wright, a leader of US Boats to Gaza, Veterans for Peace, and Code Pink interrupts the US Secretary of State to call for a Cease Fire Now. Timestamp 1:45

Check out this powerful video (from before the latest crisis), learn more about their important work, and please consider supporting this creative constructive nonviolent movement.

US Boats to Gaza helps Freedom Flotilla Effort to Break the Siege

Update from Ann Wright, April 15, 2024

Here is a beautiful Instagram that updates the world about the upcoming flotilla. Volunteers are coming from more than 30 countries!

Media Release
April 4, 2024

The international Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) will sail in mid April with multiple vessels, carrying 5500 tons of humanitarian aid and hundreds of international human rights observers to challenge the ongoing illegal Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. This is an emergency mission as the situation in Gaza is dire, with famine setting in in northern Gaza, and catastrophic hunger present throughout the Gaza Strip as the result of a deliberate policy by the Israeli government to starve the Palestinian people. Time is critical as experts predict that hunger and disease could claim more lives than have been killed in the bombing.

Getting humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza is urgent, but it is not sufficient. We must end Israel’s unlawful, deadly blockade as well as Israel’s overall control of Gaza. Allowing Israel to control what and how much humanitarian aid can get to Palestinians in Gaza is like letting the fox manage the henhouse. And yet, this is what the international community of states is allowing by refusing to sanction Israel and defy its genocidal policies in order to ensure that enough aid reaches the trapped, beleaguered and bombarded civilian population.

The Cyprus maritime corridor, the U.S. floating pier project, and symbolic air drops of food are all distractions from the fact that these methods of aid delivery are insufficient, and still leave Israel in control of what aid can get to the Palestinian people, all while Israel actively prevents thousands of aid trucks from entering Gaza through the land crossings.

On January 26 the International Court of Justice ruled that, ‘the State of Israel remains bound to fully comply with its obligations under the Genocide Convention and with the said Order, including by ensuring the safety and security of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.’ On March 28, the ICJ ordered additional preliminary measures, which included requiring the Israeli forces to stop “preventing, through any action, the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance” to Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel has long violated its responsibility as occupying power to ensure the health and wellbeing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Now, it is engaging in full scale genocidal conduct in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war. Israeli military and political leaders have repeatedly declared their intention to collectively punish the entire population of Gaza, including by denying them food, water and other life-sustaining aid. We therefore reject Israel’s control over the humanitarian aid that can enter Gaza and reject any Israeli inspection of our cargo.For everyone’s safety and to ensure aid is delivered to those who need it, the FFC is bringing hundreds of international humanitarian observers, from many countries and different backgrounds.

“The International Court of Justice’s preliminary measures ordered against Israel are very clear” comments Ismail Moola of South Africa’s Palestine Solidarity Alliance, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. “The court’s ruling requires the whole world to play their part to stop the genocide unfolding in Gaza, including unobstructed access to vital aid. While our governments fail to lead in these urgently required humanitarian responses, people of conscience and our grassroots organizations must act to take leadership. When governments fail, we sail!”

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Many supporters of Nonviolence International are joining this aid effort as volunteers.

If you want to donate, please donate here.