{"id":6511,"date":"2023-05-22T15:36:10","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T15:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/?p=6511"},"modified":"2023-05-22T15:36:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T15:36:11","slug":"khader-adnan-is-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/khader-adnan-is-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Khader Adnan is free"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


Mariam Barghouti<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 2, Khader Adnan was found dead<\/a> in his cell inside the Ramleh Prison Clinic. He is the first Palestinian prisoner to die on hunger strike in Israeli jail since 1967. He is also the veteran of seven other hunger strikes, which he underwent over the course of two decades, but his more recent hunger strikes (from 2011 onwards) are what launched him into national and international prominence as a symbol of Palestinian defiance and steadfastness. He is almost single-handedly credited with starting subsequent waves of Palestinian hunger strikes in Israeli prisons, becoming a central figure in what became known as \u201cthe battle of empty stomachs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hailing from the town of Arrabeh outside of Jenin, the 44-year-old was married to Randa, and together they had nine children \u2014 five boys and four girls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man who demanded freedom<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFreedom means that he left the body that they destroyed,\u201d Ashira Darwish, a researcher and mother who was one of the first people to greet Khader Adnan as he ran out of Ofer Prison following the success of his first long-term hunger strike in 2011-2012, told\u00a0Mondoweiss.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before becoming a target of Israeli abuses, Adnan studied economics at Birzeit University, graduating in 2001. He would return to the university to pursue his graduate studies, but he was arrested before completing his degree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An
(CARTOON: CARLOS LATUFF)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first time Adnan declared an individual long-term hunger strike in Israeli prison was in 2011-2012, lasting 66 days. Adnan was just entering his 30s, and the revolutionary fervor of the Arab revolts against totalitarianism was bubbling over into Palestine. Adnan\u2019s hunger strike was a spark that signaled the resurgence of the Palestinian prisoners\u2019 movement in Israeli prisons, garnering the attention and solidarity of the Palestinian public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKhader Adnan is a name and personality that have become a staple in our household,\u201d Dana Bulous, a lawyer and daughter of Jawad Bulous, Adnan\u2019s legal representative during his first hunger strikes, told Mondoweiss<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI first heard of Khader Adnan in 2012, when my father was appointed to represent him,\u201d she told Mondoweiss<\/em> in the wake of <\/em>Adnan\u2019s death. \u201cI remember when my father said that there was an administrative detainee who had gone on hunger strike, and that I should accompany him on this case whenever possible,\u201d Bulous said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, Adnan had been arrested by Israeli forces and put under administrative detention, the practice of being imprisoned without charge or trial, and for reasons that Israeli intelligence does not need to disclose to the detainee or their lawyer, as they are instead relegated to a \u201csecret file.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAdministrative detention is a cruel system which Israel routinely uses against Palestinians, especially in the West Bank,\u201d Bulous explained to Mondoweiss.<\/em> \u201cFrom the beginning, it is an impossible situation for the prisoners, their families, and their lawyers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This process, designed and implemented by the Israeli military courts and judicial system, operates separately from Israel\u2019s civil administrative and judicial framework, and effectively denies any detainee the chance to challenge, contradict, or even admit guilt of the crimes being fabricated against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI saw how my father used to come back from visiting Khader, full of admiration and amazement, saying how over the 30 plus years of working with prisoners, he had hardly met anyone with the mind and conviction of Khader,\u201d Bulous said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I used to ask Khader, \u2018how did you do it?\u2019\u201d Darwish recalled to Mondoweiss<\/em>. <\/em>\u201cHe said, \u2018I have yaqeen<\/em> [faith] in God,\u2019\u201d referencing the Islamic belief in the certainty that God will protect you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adnan was arrested a total of 13 times, which added up to nine years in prison, or nearly a quarter of his life. Khader Adnan became the testament to a new mode of resistance with two weapons in its arsenal \u2014 empty stomachs and solidarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKhader would not accept anything other than his freedom. No amount of pressure could make him negotiate for anything less,\u201d Bulous said. \u201cIt was either freedom or freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freedom or freedom: a lifetime of hunger strikes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen he first ended his hunger strike and was released, Adnan came to [al-Manara Square] where youth were protesting and on hunger strike, in solidarity [with other hunger strikers and detainees],\u201d Darwish said, recalling the first time she met Adnan. \u201cHe was just the sweetest person.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout his activism, Khader Adnan, who was affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), often pushed for unity stances, insisting that Palestinians remain united in the face of a merciless colonial machine. When he was in chains and unable to join the movement on the streets, Adnan would resort to using his body as a tool of protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKhader came and stood on this square for all the other detainees and hunger strikers,\u201d Adnan\u2019s wife, Randa Moussa, told Mondoweiss<\/em>, referring to the countless times Adnan protested in al-Manara Square in downtown Ramallah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout those years of defiance, and after his many battles with his empty stomach, the 44-year-old was dubbed the \u201cknight of hunger strikes<\/a>,\u201d a testament to his insistence on laying claim to the last domain of control over his body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Khader
KHADER ADNAN IS GREETED BY HIS MOTHER AS HE ARRIVES IN HIS HOMETOWN OF ARRABEH NEAR JENIN AFTER HIS RELEASE FROM ISRAELI PRISON ON JULY 12, 2015 (PHOTO: AHMAD TALAT\/APA IMAGES)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/strong>Words are not enough to describe him, but generally we are speaking about someone with a history of struggle,\u201d Amany Sarahneh, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Prisoners Society, told Mondoweiss.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khader Adnan\u2019s first experience on hunger strike was in the prisons of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Jericho, more than 22 years ago. Adnan testified to undergoing torture and mistreatment<\/a> during that stint in the PA\u2019s jails, which he was spending under allegations of inciting others to throw stones at French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin during a visit to Birzeit University. That first hunger strike lasted for ten days<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second time he would starve his body was in 2004, when almost 4,000 Palestinian political detainees went on a 18-day hunger strike<\/a> protesting abuses inside Israeli prison, demanding basic rights like family visitation and access to cigarettes, books, and newspapers. This would be Adnan\u2019s third arrest by Israel, and he spent most of it in solitary confinement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His third hunger strike, and the one that launched him into prominence, was in 2011-2012. His strike coincided with new policies<\/a> enforced by the Israeli Prison Service that stripped prisoners\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time, Adnan\u2019s strike was a solo effort and would jump-start a trend of individual hunger strikes of Palestinian detainees protesting their individual conditions of imprisonment, especially pertaining to their administrative detention. After 66 days of starvation, Adnan was released from Ofer military detention camp on April 17, 2012. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khader Adnan entered another long hunger strike in May of 2015, where he refused food for 56 days following an earlier ten-day hunger strike in February of the same year, when he was first arrested and put under administrative detention for two consecutive six-month periods. Part of the deal between Israeli Prison Services and Khader Adnan was that he would end his hunger strike if Israeli authorities were to release him and pledge not to arrest him again under administrative detention<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet only two years later, he was arrested again by Israeli forces<\/a> in December 2017. He underwent a 58-day hunger strike into 2018, around the same time the Great March of Return<\/a> was mobilizing in Gaza, after which he was released. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Khader
KHADER ADNAN GREETED BY HIS DAUGHTER AS HE ARRIVES HIS HOMETOWN OF ARRABEH NEAR JENIN, AFTER HIS RELEASE FROM ISRAELI PRISON ON JULY 12, 2015. (PHOTO: SOCIAL MEDIA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the years, the Israeli state has cared less and less for the hunger strikers,\u201d Bulous explained to Mondoweiss.<\/em> \u201cIt has tried to \u2018milk\u2019 their lives to the very limit in order not to give into Palestinian hunger strikers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adnan\u2019s success that year did not end with his own release. A wave<\/a> of \u201cbattles of empty stomachs\u201d ensued among Palestinian political detainees. Hana Shalabi, Bilal Diab, Thaer Halahleh, Hasan Safadi, and Nizar Tamimi all entered hunger strikes, each extending for several months. Most of the hunger strikers successfully regained their freedom, even though some were deported or exiled to places like Gaza and Jordan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Unity Intifada peak in May and June of 2021, <\/a>Khader Adnan was arrested again by Israeli authorities and put under administrative detention. He went on a hunger strike for 25 days, after which he was released. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter the 2021 hunger strike, Khader was in the ICU for three days,\u201d Moussa recalled to Mondoweiss, <\/em>listing the surgeries Adnan had to undergo after every strike, further weakening his body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was clear to the Israeli authorities that Adnan would refuse to engage with them while in chains even for a single moment, and yet on May 2 of this year, Adnan\u2019s life was milked out of him. But his impact upon the community lives on beyond his victories in the battles of empty stomachs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond hunger strikes: defying injustice everywhere<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Adnan\u2019s successes in previous hunger strikes depended not only on his conviction and will to endure starvation but on the solidarity and external pressures generated by the Palestinian street and the international community. The prospect of a popular upheaval or uprising in response to violations against Palestinian prisoners has functioned as a kind of deterrent for the Israeli Prison Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI see Khader Adnan\u2019s purposeful killing as Israel\u2019s strategy to further repress Palestinians and any sort of resistance,\u201d Bulous explained to Mondoweiss. <\/em> \u201cWhether it is through peaceful tactics or non-peaceful ones,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Khader Adnan is mainly known for his advocacy for political detainees, Adnan\u2019s struggle against repression and injustice was not solely directed against the prison guards attempting to obtain coerced confessions from him \u2014 he also stood against the repression and authoritarianism of the PA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February<\/a> of last year, he was targeted in a drive-by shooting in Nablus<\/a>, which the late Adnan said was an assassination attempt by the PA to remove him from the Palestinian political and public arena. He also emphasized that the PA\u2019s assassination attempt aimed to eliminate Palestinian symbols of confrontation and deter Palestinians from resisting the occupation. According to his family, no one was held accountable for the attempted killing, and no investigation was opened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKhader was a community man, he knew how to mobilize,\u201d Randa Moussa told Mondoweiss<\/em> before his death, still praying and hoping her husband would make it out alive. \u201cHis strategy was the mobilization of the collective. He ensured that when we went to support detainees or hunger strikers or when we would attend vigils, that all of us would go, the whole family. It was a collective act,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Palestinian
PALESTINIANS PARTICIPATE IN A PROTEST AT AL-MANARAH SQUARE IN DOWNTOWN RAMALLAH FOLLOWING THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DEATH OF KHADER ADNAN IN ISRAELI CUSTODY AS HE NEARED HIS 90TH DAY ON HUNGER STRIKE PROTESTING HIS IMPRISONMENT, MAY 2, 2023. (PHOTO: AHMAD AROURI\/APA IMAGES)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the end, even when they killed him, we say they may think they killed him, but in reality his idea will never die,\u201d the Palestinian Prisoners Society\u2019s Sarahneh told Mondoweiss<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adnan\u2019s body was moved to the \u201cAbu Kabir\u201d facility<\/a>, the only institute in Israel allowed to perform autopsies on bodies with cases of unnatural death. Israeli authorities pushed this effort forward against Adnan\u2019s final written will. He did not want his body to be dissected after death but buried swiftly and without delay. According to his lawyers, this delay in his burial is another attempt at further targeting the symbolism and inspiration that Adnan has planted in his community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the world lost Khader Adnan, Palestine lost an icon and a symbol, while Randa and her nine children, Ma\u2019ale, Hamza, Mohammad, Ali, Abedlrahman, Omar, Zeinab, Maryam, and Bisan, were left without a husband and a father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Khader Adnan, and in the words of Ashira Darwish: \u201cNow, he is free.\u201d

(Source: Mondoweiss)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mariam Barghouti On May 2, Khader Adnan was found dead in his cell inside the Ramleh Prison Clinic. He is the first Palestinian prisoner to die on hunger strike in Israeli jail since 1967. He is also the veteran of seven other hunger strikes, which he underwent over the course of two decades, but his more recent …<\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-172"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6511"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6514,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6511\/revisions\/6514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}