Israel bans independent medical examination for hunger strikers

The Israeli Ministry of Health has placed strict restrictions on visits to prisoners on hunger strike by private doctors, in a move that adopts the recommendations of Shin Bet, Israel’s security service, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According Haaretz, the Israeli ministry has rejected requests from Doctors for Human Rights, an Israeli NGO, and the prisoners’ lawyers to visit the hospitalised hunger strikers inside Israeli hospitals.

The NGO said the ministry has always put restrictions on independent doctors who try to examine Palestinian prisoners. Doctors for Human Rights obtained a court order before independent dohunger ctors were able to visit strikers in 2012.

The organisation said that Talia Agmon, who is responsible for medical ethics at the ministry, sent letters including directions to managers of Israeli hospitals denying access to the prisoners by the NGO or the Red Cross.

According to Haaretz, Agmon wrote in her letter that any access to hospitalised hunger strikers “must be the responsibility of the Israeli Prison Service” or should be coordinated with her ministry.

“Doctors for Human Rights or any other NGO have no authority to monitor treatment in our hospitals or give directions to our staffs,” she wrote.

She added: “If an external doctor was allowed to visit hospitalised prisoners, he must not accesses information about them.”

The Israeli NGO protested against the health conditions of several hunger strikers being treated in Israeli hospitals as they are being isolated, handcuffed and have their legs-chained. The NGO also said that their privacy and secret medical records are violated by jailors.

Doctors for Human Rights stressed that the prisoners’ health conditions could become more dangerous should a state of no cooperation continue and called for the restrictions on visits by independent doctors to be lifted.