Arab League calls for release of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan

The Arab League has demanded the release of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan, who has been on hunger strike since 5 May, along with all other Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, Anadolu agency has reported.

The League issued a statement on Wednesday calling for the release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, “including those who have not been charged, do not know the reason for their arrest, did not find an opportunity to defend themselves, and have been held for a long time, suffering from torture and solitary confinement.”

The statement, which was made available to Anadolu, considered Khader Adnan “to be the best proof of [Palestinian] resilience vis-à-vis the policy of administrative detention.”

The League called on all organisations working on human rights and international law to intervene immediately in order to stop this “ongoing crime” to which Adnan and his companions are being subjected.

Adnan, 36, is the official spokesman of the Islamic Jihad movement in the West Bank and one of its leaders. He lives in the town of Arraba, near Jenin.

This is the tenth time he had been arrested by Israeli authorities. Adnan has become a symbol for Palestinian resistance to administrative detention since his 2012 hunger strike that lasted for 67 days and ended with his release by virtue of an agreement with the Israelis.

He was arrested again on 8 July, 2014 at a military checkpoint on the main street in Jenin, before he announced on 5 May that he would go on a hunger strike in protest against the extension of his administrative detention.

According to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s department for prisoners and released prisoners, there are 6,500 Palestinian prisoners currently in Israeli prisons, including 478 sentenced to life; 21 female prisoners, including two female minors; 205 minors aged under 18; 480 administrative detainees; 13 parliamentarians; and two former ministers.