JENIN, Palestine
Palestinian political activist and perennial prisoner Khader Adnan – who was released from Israeli custody on July 12 after waging a 56-day hunger strike – said he waged his hunger strike “to attain freedom.”
“I didn’t go on hunger strike because I wanted to die, but for the love of freedom,” Adnan told Anadolu Agency. “I wanted to be next to my children and my sick mother, like any human being would.”
Last month, Adnan, a member of Palestinian resistance group Islamic Jihad and a frequent inmate in Israeli prisons, ended a 56-day hunger strike after reaching agreement with the Israeli authorities for his release on July 12.
According to Adnan, the Israeli authorities began negotiating with him after he had been on hunger strike for a total of 42 days.
“The Israel authorities contacted a lawyer with the Palestinian Prisoners' Society [an NGO] and told him that they would release me once my period in administrative detention expired,” he said.
“I refused, however, and insisted on being released the night before Laylat al-Qadr,” he added, in reference to the Ramadan special night when the revelation of the Quran began.
When asked about conditions in Israeli detention, Adnan said that several Palestinian inmates suffered from serious health conditions, describing Israel’s Al-Ramleh Prison clinic, in particular, as “a cemetery.”
“It is crowded. And there’s much discontent among prisoners who are subject to daily aggression and violations,” he said.
On Monday, only days after his release, Israeli forces briefly detained Adnan as he tried to enter East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque complex.
Israeli police said Adnan had been held for questioning because he lacked a permit to enter the city, asserting that he would be released following an investigation.
Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri, for her part, described Adnan as a “terrorist” who, she said, continued to pose a “threat to Israel’s security.”
Adnan responded to the spokeswoman’s assertions, saying: “You [Israelis] and your army are the terrorists, who kill the children of Gaza and the West Bank, besiege our people, and steal our wealth.”
“I just wanted to visit Jerusalem, visit some acquaintances and pray at Al-Aqsa,” he added. “How is this terrorism?”
Adnan was arrested by Israel in July of last year at an Israeli army checkpoint near the northern West Bank city of Jenin. He began his latest hunger strike on May 5 of this year to protest his ongoing incarceration under Israel’s policy of “administrative detention.”
Under Israel’s administrative detention policy, Palestinian prisoners can be held for up to one year without trial.
Arrested several times earlier by Israel, Adnan had waged several hungers strikes while in detention.
Over 6,500 Palestinians are currently languishing in prisons throughout the self-proclaimed Jewish state, according to official Palestinian figures.
