The Battle of Empty Stomachs; This Is How the Palestinian Prisoners Gained Their Freedom From Israeli Prisons

On January 4, 2022, the Palestinian Commission for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs announced that the prisoner Hisham Abu Hawash (40 years) had suspended his hunger strike after more than 141 days had passed, as a result of reaching a settlement with the Israeli occupation authorities.

Abu Hawash's victory in the Battle of Empty Stomachs comes as a continuation of previous victories achieved by other prisoners in the face of the arbitrary policy of administrative detention pursued by the Israeli occupation authorities, and the extortion of precious freedom and return to life again.

A number of Palestinian prisoners, in their previous series of hunger strikes, had previously fulfilled their demands for their release.

Unfortunately, these hunger strikes had a number of victims who did not reach their goals of liberation from the prisons of the Israeli occupation.

 

The Battle of Empty Stomachs

The Commission for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs confirmed in a statement on 4 January that the prisoner Hisham Abu Hawash won his battle, and suspended his hunger strike after reaching an agreement under which he would be released on February 26, 2022.

The prisoner, Abu Hawash, recently suffered from a critical health condition, as he was in an intermittent coma. He also suffered from poor eyesight and inability to speak, in addition to problems with the heart muscle and muscle atrophy.

Currently, Abu Hawash, who has been on hunger strike for more than five months in protest of his administrative detention, is battling death in Israel's Assaf Harofeh Hospital.

The Israeli occupation accuses Abu Hawash of belonging to the Islamic Jihad movement, on suspicion that he was planning attacks against it, and he has been detained since October 27, 2020.

Abu Hawash is a father of five children and had been arrested several times previously.

With the beginning of the prisoner's confrontation with arrest in 2003 between sentences and administrative detention, the total years of his detention in the prisons of the Israeli occupation amounted to 8 years, 52 months of which were under administrative detention.

On January 3, dozens of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank organized a sit-down in front of the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the city of al-Bireh, calling for urgent international intervention to save the life of prisoner Hisham Abu Hawash.

In turn, a member of the National Democratic Movement, Omar Assaf, confirmed on the sidelines of the protest that “the Israeli authorities are seeking to kill Abu Hawash, in an attempt to deter individual strikes.”

As for the prisoner's brother, Saeed Abu Hawash, he said on the sidelines of the protest that his brother is in a very critical health condition.

“Hisham lost the ability to speak, hear and see; medical reports indicate that there are real fears of damage to his internal organs, those organs cannot recover even if he ends his hunger strike,” Saeed Abu Hawash said.

The administrative detention represents an Israeli military decision to imprison for a period of up to 6 months, subject to extension, under the allegations of a security threat, where this takes place without trial or indictment of the detainee.

The number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in the prisons of the occupation until the end of December reached about 4,500, including 170 minors, according to the Addameer organization, which deals with prisoners' affairs.

On his part, Palestinian journalist Mohamed al-Zanin said in a statement to Al-Estiklal: “Over the past tens of years, hunger strike has been the only effective weapon owned by the Palestinian prisoner and with which he challenges the Israeli jailer to achieve his freedom or improve his prison conditions. The weapon of the hunger strike proved its effectiveness in the occupation prisons and was not broken. It also fulfilled most of the demands of the prisoners who used it.”

“The Empty Stomachs battles have recently increased within the framework of confronting the administrative detention pursued by the Israeli occupation which amounts to arbitrary detention and has no international legal basis,” he added.

“The victory of a number of Palestinian prisoners in the Battle of the Empty Stomachs once again proves the ability of the Palestinian to obtain his legitimate rights over the Israeli occupation, even in the darkest of circumstances, and the occupation was unable to defeat him, even under the weight of arrest and imprisonment,” al-Zanin also noted.

“The Israeli occupation tried to subdue the prisoners and break their hunger strike by force, and even force-feeding them or giving them medical solutions or nutrients in order to stop their strike, but there was strong resistance from the prisoners and their insistence on their hunger strike until they were freed,” the Palestinian journalist pointed out.

“The victory of the prisoner Hisham Abu Hawash paves the way for new battles in which dozens of Palestinian prisoners will start their hunger strike in Israeli prisons to end their difficult conditions of detention,” al-Zanin concluded.

 

Wide Solidarity

The ordeal of prisoner Hisham Abu Hawash sparked popular protests and international calls to put an end to the inhumane Israeli administrative detentions.

In a brief statement on January 3, the European Union expressed its concern about the health condition of the prisoner Hisham Abu Hawash, who has been on hunger strike for 141 days, in refusal to arrest him unjustly.

The European Union called for the need to find a solution immediately to the policy of arbitrary detention, followed by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinians.

“The detainees have the right to be informed of the charges underlying any detention, and to have a fair trial within a reasonable time or to be released,” the statement stressed.

 

 

On January 3, the Palestinian government held the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the life of Palestinian detainee Hisham Abu Hawash, and sent letters to international and human rights bodies and institutions to put pressure on the Israeli authorities to release him immediately.

Likewise, the general strike covered all aspects of life in the town of Dura in the south of the occupied West Bank (the hometown of the prisoner Abu Hawash) on January 4, in solidarity with the prisoner on hunger strike.

On her part, Rashida Tlaib, a member of the US House of Representatives (of Palestinian origin), held the Israeli occupation responsible for the safety of the prisoner Abu Hawash.

“Hisham Abu Hawash, a father of five children, has been detained by the government of Israel without any evidence, without trial or even a hearing (in violation of international law) since October 2020. Noting that he has been on hunger strike for 140 days or more,” Tlaib said in a tweet on Twitter on January 3.

 

 

British Member of Parliament, Claudia Webbe, had expressed her solidarity with Palestinian detainee Hisham Abu Hawash who is dying due to his hunger strike to protest his administrative detention without charge or trial.

Webbe appealed to the international community to act for his release through several tweets she posted on her Twitter account on December 29, 2021.

 

 

On its part, US-based Jewish Voice for Peace emphasized that “as long as this inhumane regime remains in place, there will be more hunger strikes and more pain. We need to fight to make sure all the administrative detainees are released and release all Palestinian prisoners from the shackles of this apartheid regime.”

 

 

 

Victory Over Occupation

The Palestinian prisoners continue in the Battle the Empty Stomachs against the occupation authorities, for their refusal to remain in administrative detention, which is extended continuously when the moment of their release comes, without charges against the detainees, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, there are 500 Palestinian detainees in administrative detention.

The Palestinian prisoners had used their stomachs—on hunger strike—as a weapon against their jailers, with the first beginnings of the Israeli occupation's dominance over the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967.

One of the first and most famous of these strikes was the December 28, 1969 strike, among the demands of the prisoners there was to improve food, increase its quantity, and allow family visits.

Since then, the hunger strike has become a tool used by Palestinian prisoners to draw attention to their struggle.

Strikes often start after the failure of the Israeli occupation authorities to reach an agreement with the prisoners' committees.

Usually in the strike, the prisoners refrain from eating food and drinks, except for water, and some stop drinking it for days.

Most of them also refuse to take any vitamins or nutritional supplements, although they do not break the strike, according to released prisoners.

The strikes had several victims, the first of whom was the prisoner Abd al-Qader Abu al-Fahm who died on July 11, 1970, during a strike in Ashkelon Prison in the center of the country.

Gradually, the strike transformed from collective battles to private individual strikes in the last two decades.

Among the most famous strikers were: Khader Adnan, Muhammad al-Qiq, Ayman Atbeish and Samer al-Issawi, and the latter’s strike in 2013 reached 265 days.

Over the past months and years, a number of Palestinian detainees have waged individual strikes to protest their administrative detention, a number of them succeeded in specifying the period of detention and not renewing it upon its expiry.

In addition to Hisham Abu Hawash, 6 other Palestinian prisoners who had gone on a hunger strike during the past two months are yet to attain their freedom from the occupation prisons, in refusal of their administrative detention.

That was after their faces turned into bones devoid of flesh, and their bodies became slender and unable to survive, but they insisted on fighting their battle with the number of breaths remaining between their ribs.

These prisoners are: Kayed al-Fasfous, who has been on hunger strike for 131 days; Miqdad al-Qawasmi, who has been on hunger strike for 113 days; Alaa al-Araj, who has been on hunger strike for 103 days; Shadi Abu Akar, who has been on hunger strike for 69 days; Ayyad al-Harimy, who has been on hunger strike for 62 days; and Luay al-Ashkar, who has been on hunger strike for 49 days.

In July 2021, the family of the Palestinian prisoner Ghadanfar Abu Atwan (28 years old) announced his victory in the Battle of Empty Stomachs against the Israeli occupation authorities, and the annulment of his administrative detention after 65 days of hunger strike.

Abu Atwan had reached a critical stage due to the repercussions of his hunger strike. He was severely underweight, had a weak heartbeat, severe chest and joint pain, and recurrent coma.

On June 28, the occupation authorities released Khader Adnan, who was nicknamed the bomber of the Battle of Empty Stomachs, because he had waged 6 hunger strikes in protest of his arbitrary administrative detention, and the last strike he waged lasted for 25 days.