Focus activism on individuals as part of the wider struggle to be really effective

Triumphs for Palestinian political prisoners placed under administrative detention by Israel are generally short-lived. Operation Brother’s Keeper last year provided the Zionist state with an excuse to re-arrest former hunger striker Samer Issawi under the pretext of maintaining security following the deaths of three Israeli-settler teenagers.

On Wednesday, the Israeli authorities confirmed that Mohammad Allan, a lawyer whose administrative detention sentence was suspended following a hunger strike that threatened his life, was rearrested shortly after leaving Barzilai Medical Centre. According to Palestinian prisoner support NGO Addameer, “Allan was arrested by an administrative detention order under which he will continue the remainder of the original administrative detention order issued against him and which ends on 4 November 2015.” Allan, whose health had deteriorated following a 64 day hunger strike, resumed his chosen form of protest immediately.

Like Issawi, Allan’s situation garnered international attention and activists worldwide clamoured for his release. However, while the global hype is proving effective at shifting focus, the effect is temporary and replete with severe repercussions that result from the cycle of alienation. The phenomenon can be observed with every tragedy or injustice unfurling; the immediate output of indignation and support dwindles to nothing once an objective is achieved. Awareness of this trend at a political level makes it easy for human rights violators to persist with additional forms of violence in the aftermath of an alleged victory.

In the case of Palestinian prisoners, activism might be doing history and memory an unintentional disservice. Issawi’s lengthy hunger strike was enough to raise his protest to symbolic level. On the other hand, Allan’s protest coincided with Netanyahu’s accelerated demands to pass the force-feeding bill, which raised the possibility of the lawyer becoming the first victim of such violations.

Away from the issues that Issawi and Allan brought into the perverse limelight, other Palestinian political prisoners were embarking upon hunger strikes to protest against other inhumane conditions in Israeli jails. While administrative detention remains one of the most contentious issues, in particular due to the ambiguity of international law, which does not completely prohibit the practice, other serious violations are being ignored, which restricts the dynamics of activism and risks it becoming prone to sensationalism. Solitary confinement, medical neglect, torture, suspicious circumstances leading to death and disappearances are all components of Israel’s colonial violence. Yet, phenomenal hunger strikes and the circumstances generated by Israel’s premeditated schemes have so far elicited a higher outpouring of sympathy and solidarity with the individual, rather than the individual as a representation of a much wider struggle.

Activism is a collective struggle. By limiting expression and defence to individual cases, though, it is possible that despite good intentions, a lot of damage is being done to Palestinian memory. Resistance strategies have not been isolated by Palestinians into separate actions. If activism is to help the Palestinian cause, it should rethink both its agenda and dissemination. Isolating hunger strikers into individual symbolism does nothing but create a form of temporary exalted status which crumbles once Israel predictably reverses its decision made under public pressure. It is rare that activism reasserts its solidarity with the individual once the initial euphoria has worn off; second time resistance strategies do not attract the same attention.

However, if individual struggles are highlighted as part of the collective struggle, it is possible that more can be achieved, in particular with regard to combating oblivion as well as embarking upon strategies that reflect the Palestinian struggle, rather than impose an external vision that has nothing to do with decades of anti-colonial resistance. Thus, if we want activism to be really effective, it should focus on individuals as part of the wider struggle, not deal with them in isolation.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.