Israeli Shin Bet: Prisoners on hunger strike should be force-fed

Israel’s security agency Shin Bet has demanded that all Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike be force-fed; Israel’s Haaretz newspaper said today.

The paper said Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line stance against Palestinian administrative detainees on hunger strike is based on recommendations provided by Shin Bet. The prime minister has been working to pass a new law in the Knesset which allows prisoners on hunger strike to be force-fed.

The newspaper added that during recent consultations, the director of the Shin Bet Yoram Cohen expressed his support to enact such a law saying it would be an “appropriate solution” to the hunger strike waged by Palestinian administrative prisoners in Israeli prisons.

According to the newspaper, after the ministerial committee for legislation endorse the law, the Israeli government is seeking to fast-track it in the Knesset within the coming weeks.

The newspaper said Israel is holding 189 administrative detainees, between 100 to 125 detainees began a hunger strike on April 24 where they ate only water, vitamins, salt and sugar in protest of their imprisonment. Nearly 70 detainees have been admitted to hospitals after their health deteriorated due to the hunger strikes.

The newspaper said the director of Shin Bet leads the Israeli talks with the detainees on hunger strike and believes that Israel has to adhere to a hard-line stance against them and it should not to conduct settlement negotiations with them.

Sources close to Cohen said he believes Israel can respond to this crisis, even if one of the detainees died, and that any compromise would allow prisoners to frequently blackmail Israel.

Lawyers representing leaders of administrative detainees said the suggestions they received from Shin Bet and the Israeli prison authorities in recent days reveal that there was no intention to conduct negotiations with the detainees because the demand to abolish administrative detentions requires modifying laws while Shin Bet and the prison authorities do not have the authority to do so.

The newspaper quoted the lawyers as saying that the detainees did not receive any proposal that could lead to stopping the hunger strike.

Shin Bet claims that administrative detention is “a necessary tool in the war against terrorism” and admits there is insufficient evidence to prove the charges against them.