Israel takes punitive measures against Jerusalemite hunger striker

The Israeli Prison Service has subjected French-Palestinian human rights defender Salah Al-Hammouri to a series of punitive measures after he started a hunger strike on 25 September, his lawyer has claimed. According to Quds Press, Hammouri’s lawyer was able to visit him on Sunday in the Hadarim Prison in the northern West Bank, where he is held in solitary confinement under an administrative detention order.

Hammouri is on an open-ended hunger strike in protest at his detention with neither charge nor trial, along with 29 other administrative detainees. He drinks water and refuses any medical examination.

His lawyer pointed out that three days after he started his hunger strike the prison authorities transferred Hammouri to solitary confinement. He is now isolated in a 2 x 2 square metre cell that lacks ventilation. The cell has one iron bed fixed to the wall with a thin 2cm mattress.

Other punitive measures imposed on Hammouri by the authorities are alleged to include depriving him of outdoor time or activity and family visits and the right to purchase supplies; sending him to the bathroom in double hand and foot cuffs; and other humiliating conditions. Hammouri is suffering from back, joint and head pains.

The Israeli occupation forces arrested Hammouri on 7 March based on a three-month administrative detention order that has been renewed twice. He has been detained on a renewable basis ever since, based on “secret evidence”.

READ: French-Palestinian lawyer sues Israel’s spyware maker in French courts