In the
article, Israeli Decision to Release Palestinian Detainee in April"Insufficient", a thirty three year old Palestinian baker and father
of two named Khader Adnan has agreed to end his hunger strike after sixty six
days. Khader Adnan has been on a sixty six day hunger strike in protest to his
arrest on December 17 of last year at his home in the village of Arrabe, in
occupied West Bank. His hunger strike was initially started against what he
felt was a wrongful treatment regarding his detainment. Israeli military allow
Israeli authorities to detain Palestinian's without a trial if they feel that
they are a security threat in his alleged affiliation with the Islamic Jihad
movement. They are allowed to detain them from the occupied West Bank. On
January 10, Khader Adnan was given a four month detention order. He has been
held there since on the verge of death due to his hunger strike. Along with
Adnan, there are around 309 Palestinians being detained with more than 20 of
them from the Palestinian Legislative Council. One has been detained for over
five years.
Israeli authorities have made a deal
to release Khader Adnan on April. Since Adnan is very weak and unhealthy from
his hunger strike, which he has agreed to end, he may not live to be released
on that date. Amnesty International is urging Israeli authorities to release
Khader Adnan before April in hopes to get him the urgent medical attention he
needs to stay alive. Amnesty International is arguing that he does not cause a
security threat in the condition that he is in and to let him be released. They
are also urging Israeli authorities to release other detainees. They have asked
Israel to end these administrative detentions in what it feels to be a violation
of internationally recognized right to a fair trial. Human rights physicians
have reported that as of February 19, Khader Adnan had still been shackled to a
hospital bed despite Israeli authorities saying that they had been removed. A
hearing set for Tuesday in the Israeli Supreme Court was cancelled due to an
agreement made by Adnan's lawyer and the Israeli authorities.
According to Joseph Dana in an
article written for the National, he asks the question of why Israel has not
released any evidence against Khader Adnan. Adnan is a spokesmen for a radical
Islamic movement who has been arrested several times yet Israel keeps quiet
despite "harsh international criticism". According to another article
by Richard Falk, Adnan is being called a "terrorist" without charges
or proof. His role as a spokesman for Islamic Jihad have been more neutral and
no links to his past of violence or advocating violence. The author goes on to
point out that even though Jihad had used violence in its past, it has
abandoned that practice some years ago.
The author of the original article, Israeli
Decision to Release Palestinian Detainee in April "Insufficient",
seems to be showing the reader the urgency of Khader Adnan's medical need. They
are showing you a humanitarian picture and are showing Khader Adnan as a victim
of being in a detention, regardless of it being his own self inflicting protest
that has him on the brink of death. The author is showing us the Amnesty
International side of this argument. Mainly referencing or sighting only quotes
from Amnesty International and no other side. Then again, it is difficult to
give the viewpoint of the Israeli authorities when they are tight lipped about
the situation. The failure of this article is that it gave
no in depth back story on Khader Adnan. It gave the reader a line or two
mentioning his 'alleged' affiliation with Jihad and that authorities came to his
home to detain him. I needed to go to outside sources to find more in depth
detail about his background and the character of this man. I felt the article
was specifically giving you a "shock" read telling the reader how he
is on the brink of death, which may be true, but not much else about how he got
there in the first place.
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