ICSPR WARNS THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION FROM FORCE-FEEDING TO HUNGER STRIKERS PRISONERS
The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (I.C.S.P.R) warned, on Saturday, the Israeli Occupation from implementing force-feeding law on hunger strikers prisoners through bringing (Doctors form abroad) to implement that. ICSPR has held the Israeli Occupation the full responsibility of the striker’s lives, as it calls upon to take action at the international level to put pressure on Israeli government in order to achieve the prisoner’s demands.
Almost 1500 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Israeli jails are continuing their open hunger strike for the twentieth day in a row, as a protest step against Israeli policies and violations of their basic rights, which is recognized internationally.
ICSPR stressed that force-feeding considered a full-fledged torture crime, according to the second article in the second paragraph at the Convention against Torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of punishment, which states “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture”.
ICSPR reaffirms that forced, compulsory and industrial feeding is a clear derogate from the international standards; which clearly states that “industrial feeding should not be used in case a prisoner rejects food; whereas the doctor could be capable of taking rational actions with regard to all consequences of prisoners refusal to eat voluntarily, at least another independent doctor should reinforce the decision of the prisoner’s ability to issue such a refusal; taking into consideration that the doctor must demonstrate to the prisoner the consequences of his abstinence”.
ICSPR considered that force-feeding and all the other Israeli policies and measures of ill-treatment against Palestinian prisoners and detainees in general; and hunger strikers in particular are classified as serious violations of international humanitarian law, amounting to crimes against humanity and war crimes in accordance with Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute.
ICSPR called upon the International Community and its various organizations, especially the World Health Organization (WHO) to urgently intervene and prevent the use of force by the occupying state, especially since 1980; in which the Israeli criminal record lists the use of this method, which resulted in both Rasim Halawa and Ali al-Jaafari’s death during their hunger strike.
ICSPR called upon the Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfil their legal obligations and to pressure on the Israeli Occupation to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations and responsibilities under international law and international humanitarian law.
It’s worth to mention that the Israeli Knesset has approved on force-feeding law on 30 May 2015, with by 46 votes to 40, after the approval of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday 18 May 2014 to force striking prisoners on feeding and providing medical treatment for them forcibly against their will.
