ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/DEMO Pro-Palestinian activists in Paris protest detention of Palestinian hunger-striker

Record ID: 143399

  • Title: ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS/DEMO Pro-Palestinian activists in Paris protest detention of Palestinian hunger-striker
  • Date: 19th August 2015
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (AUGUST 19, 2015) (REUTERS) EIFFEL TOWER / PRO-PALESTINIAN ACTIVISTS PUTTING UP BANNER READING (English/French): 'JUSTICE FOR PALESTINIANS'
  • Embargoed: 3rd September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAXLDJX3XLFES5N3DC2KOY799X
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A group of pro-Palestinian activists gathered in Paris in support of Mohammed Allan, a Palestinian who is on a 65-day-old hunger strike against his detention without trial in Israel.
    The 31-year-old Islamic Jihad activist's case is being monitored closely by opposing sides in an Israeli-Palestinian conflict that could boil over in new violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and from the Gaza Strip if he dies.
    "He is on hunger strike and he is about to die and he said it was about justice and human dignity, that he was fighting not only for himself but for the rest of the Palestinian prisoners so that the whole world is aware of their fate and I think he is about to succeed," said Pro-Palestinian activist Olivia Zemor, at a gathering outside the French Foreign ministry in Paris.
    Israel set new terms on Wednesday that might hasten the release of Allan. A Supreme Court ruling on Allan's petition to be freed was anticipated later in the day and could hinge on an assessment of his mental capacities by doctors in an Israeli hospital where he is in critical condition.
    Before Wednesday's court session got under way, Allan's lawyers said that in return for an end to the strike, Israel had pledged not to renew his six-month detention period, meaning he would go free on Nov. 3.
    The hospital said Allan's condition had deteriorated since he was brought out of sedation on Tuesday. His attorneys said he did not respond to the proposal, in which Israel dropped a demand that he agree to be exiled for four years in exchange for his release, an offer he had previously rejected.
    In court, a government lawyer said Israel was prepared to free Allan immediately if a scan carried out while court was in session showed that he had suffered irreversible brain damage and subsequently no longer posed a security threat.
    On Tuesday Allan instructed medical staff to halt intravenous treatment, but then agreed vitamins could be administered in the run-up to the court hearing.
    Allan had told doctors that unless a solution was found to his plight within 24 hours "he would stop taking anything including vitamins and water," one of his lawyers said.
    The Israeli government sees his hunger strike as a powerful challenge against "administrative detention", a practice that has drawn criticism from Palestinians and human rights groups but which Israel calls necessary for its national security.
    It fears his unconditional release would only encourage some 370 other Palestinian detainees held without charge to refuse food.
    "It's a thorn in Israel's side, a state which is presented as modern and democratic but which at the same time votes for the force feeding of Palestinian prisoners, which arbitrarily and illegally detain people, which has since 1967 has jailed 800,000 Palestinians, men, women and children, in a form of hostage taking in order to try and pressure their families, make their lives impossible and make sure that the Palestinians give up their land and leave their territory," Zemor said at the Paris demonstration.
    Allan's case was originally seen as a possible test of Israel's new force-feeding law, which the country's medical association has condemned as a violation of ethics and international conventions. But doctors have said that option is no longer viable due to his grave condition.
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