Palestinian prisoner now refusing water, 62 days into hunger strike

It’s been 62 days since 28-year-old Ghadanfar Abu Atwan began his hunger strike in protest of his administrative detention by Israel. For the past two months Abu Atwan has refused all forms of food and vitamins, except for water.

Now, he’s refusing water as well, and his family is worried that he could die at any moment.

“Ghadanfar was forced to come to this decision because the Israeli occupation has so far refused any negotiations, and have rejected his demands,” Warda Abu Atwan, 22, Gahdanfar’s younger sister told Mondoweiss.

“He has been trying to raise his voice, and send a message that he rejects the wrongful imprisonment of himself and other prisoners under administrative detention,” Warda said.

Warda told Mondoweiss that Ghadanfar had notified his lawyers and the Israeli authorities that if no decision in regards to his case had been made by Sunday, he would begin refusing water.

“But the occupation, neither the authorities nor the courts, care about Gahdanfar’s life,” she said.

Photos of a malnourished and weak Ghadanfar holding up a sign from his hospital bed on Sunday went viral on social media, as Palestinians urged people to share his message, and pressure Israel to release him.

The poster reads:

“To the free people in the world. To the entire Palestinian people, the young and the old. To the Palestinian president and leadership. To the human rights and international organizations. To the national and Islamic bodies.

My life is fading away before my eyes. I lost my health, and my body is betraying me.

This occupier is imposing a slow death on me in the Kaplan medical center.

Save my life! I hereby announce my water strike in addition to my hunger strike.

I entrust my affairs to Allah.”

-Your brother and son, the hunger strike, the martyr-to-be

Ghadanfar Abu Atwan

Years spent in administrative detention

Ghadanfar, an officer with the Palestinian customs police, was arrested from his home in August, 2020, and put under administrative detention — a widely-condemned policy that allows for Israel to jail Palestinians without charge or trial, based on secret evidence.

Since August, Ghadanfar’s administrative detention order has been renewed twice by an Israeli military court, which has a 99% conviction rate against Palestinians.

Administrative detention orders are often open-ended, with prisoners having little to no knowledge about when they can expect to be released. According to Palestinian prisoners rights group Addameer, the longest consecutive stint spent by a Palestinian prisoner under administrative detention to be recorded was eight years.

Ghadanfar’s current imprisonment is his fourth time in Israeli prison over the past 10 years, and the third time he has been jailed under administrative detention. According to his family, out of the seven years he’s spent in Israel prison, almost 5 years of that has been in administrative detention.

Ghadanfar’s current strike is also the third time he has undergone a hunger strike in protest of his imprisonment by Israel.

Out of all the times she has seen her brother go on strike, Warda says this time is different.

“I can’t describe how difficult it’s been for our family.”

Warda Abu Atwan

“I can’t describe how difficult it’s been for our family,” she said, adding that neither her nor her siblings and parents can bring themselves to eat a proper meal.

“At first we were staying strong, but when we saw the first photos and videos of Ghadanfar and how frail he looks, we couldn’t believe our eyes,” she said. “It was shocking. Absolutely devastating.”

Psychological ‘torture’

Since he began his hunger strike, Ghadanfar’s family says that Israeli authorities have been employing a number of tactics to “psychologically torture” him, and pressure him to end his strike.

“The Israeli authorities are trying to do everything they can to make him end his strike,” Warda said. “They are resorting to all sorts of intimidation tactics.”

According to the family, over the course of his hunger strike, Israel Prison Service (IPS) authorities put Ghadanfar in solitary confinement, subjected him to long interrogations, and even physically beat him on multiple occasions.

Even after he was transferred to the hospital, the family says he was put into a closet-sized room where the windows remain locked, and was under constant surveillance by armed Israeli soldiers who were stationed in and outside of his room.

Warda added that Ghadanfar is being held in the section of the hospital for terminally ill patients.

“My sister Banazeer who is there with Ghadanfar says that everyday they see several dead bodies being pushed past the room,” she said. “It’s all part of their efforts to physiologically torture Ghadanfar.”

Warda highlighted that her sister had to enter Israel and the hospital “illegally”, due to the fact that Israeli authorities have denied every request by the family to visit Ghadanfar in prison and in the hospital.

“She is scared to leave the room out of fear that the Israeli authorities will arrest her, and then they will use that as leverage to pressure Ghadanfar into ending his strike,” Warda said.

That fear, Warda said, stems from the fact that Israeli intelligence officials have already used such threats against Ghadanfar during his strike.

“Last month, my little brother got into a car accident. It wasn’t that bad, but the Israelis told Ghadanfar that he was in critical condition in an effort to exert more pressure on him,” Warda said. “After that, they told Ghadanfar that if he didn’t end his strike, they would put my uncle, who is also in prison, in solitary confinement.”

“People think that because he is in the hospital, he is somehow getting better treatment than if he was inside jail,” Warda said. “But the treatment is still horrible.”

‘He could die at any moment’

On the 40th day of his hunger strike, Ghadanfar was transferred to the Kaplan Medical Center in Israel, where he is being held by Israeli authorities. His family says that he won’t end his strike until he is officially released from administrative detention, and transferred to a Palestinian hospital for treatment.

But the clock is ticking, and every passing moment is one moment closer that Ghadanfar’s life could end. The latest medical report from doctors at the hospital warned that due to severe dehydration, he could suffer failure of his vital organs at any moment.

Since he began his strike, Ghadanfar has also lost more than 15 kilograms of weight. He is currently suffering from tachycardia, and has largely lost the ability to speak or move.

“His health situation is dire,” Warda said. “We are scared that he could die at any moment.”

On top of that, the family is now concerned that doctors might take measures to force-feed Ghadanfar — a move that is illegal under international law, and is considered as a form of torture.

“We have seen in the past that hunger striking prisoners who have been force fed by the Israelis have died, because their bodies cannot handle it,” she said. “And we are scared the same thing could happen to Ghadanfar.”

“The Israeli doctors are just as complicit in the torture and mistreatment of Ghadanfar as the security and prison authorities are,” she said.

“At the end of the day, we the Palestinian people are living under occupation. We are all under occupation. And they will do anything to deter us,” she continued. “All we can ask is for people to pray for Ghadanfar and raise his voice, and put pressure on Israel to end his administrative detention.”

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