THE LONGEST hunger strike by a Palestinian prisoner has ended after lawyers representing Khader Adnan struck a deal with the Israeli authorities under which the detainee will be released in April.
Mr Adnan (33), an Islamic Jihad member from a village near the West Bank city of Jenin, immediately ended his 66-day hunger strike, which doctors said had put him close to death.
He started his protest in mid-December, the day after he was seized by Israeli forces and placed under administrative detention, which allowed him to be kept for an initial six-month period without charges being brought, with the possibility of repeated extensions.
Legal rights groups have criticised the use of administrative detention, which Israel inherited from the British mandate in Palestine. According to Israel the measure is used in extreme cases, such as “ticking bombs”, or to protect the identity of Palestinian informants.
About 310 Palestinians are currently being held in administrative detention. Critics claim the procedure deprives the prisoners of the right to legal defence.
Israel accused Mr Adnan of activities that “threaten regional security”, but no details were provided. Military officials described him as a leading member of the Islamic Jihad in the northern West Bank.
His hunger strike prompted Palestinian protests, while Palestinian security prisoners had refused meals in an act of solidarity.
Mr Adnan was recently transferred to a hospital in the northern Israeli city of Safed. After a medical examination, representatives from Physicians for Human Rights warned he was close to death after he lost 60 lb (30kg) in weight.
EU foreign policy chief Cath-erine Ashton said at the weekend she was following Mr Adnan’s case with “great concern”. She reiterated “the EU’s long-standing concern about the extensive use by Israel of administrative detention without formal charge”.
Israel’s attorney general Yehuda Weinstein welcomed the deal to release Mr Adnan as “fair and balanced”. He will leave prison on April 17th if “no new additional substantial evidence” against him emerges.
His lawyers welcomed the decision and said the case set a precedent. They urged other prisoners held under administrative detention to campaign for their release.
Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman criticised the decision. “It was a wrong decision to release the Jihad activist. But it is our duty to respect and honour every legal decision even when we don’t agree with it,” he said.
Israeli-Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi welcomed the deal. “The whole world supported him. If Khader Adnan would have died, chaos would have broken out in all the territories. It’s good things ended this way.”
Mr Adnan had gone on hunger strike twice in the past. In 2005 he went without food for 28 days to protest his solitary confinement, and in 2010 he did so again after being arrested by the Palestinian security forces. The Palestinian Authority said Mr Adnan will be transferred to a West Bank hospital after his release.