Palestinian hunger striker: Resolve my case or I’ll step up fast

Mohammed Allaan threatens to refuse water, end medical treatment if Israel does not stop holding him without charges within 24 hours

By AFP 18 August 2015, 5:10 pm

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Palestinian protesters shout slogans during a demonstration in front of the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa compound in the old city of Jerusalem, on August 14, 2015. (AFP PHOTO/AHMAD GHARABLI)

A Palestinian security prisoner on a two-month hunger strike emerged from a coma Tuesday and warned he will step up his fast if Israel does not resolve his case within 24 hours, a Palestinian group said.

The detainee, 31-year-old Mohammed Allaan, “declared in front of his doctors that if there is not any solution to his case within 24 hours he will ask for all treatment to stop and will stop drinking water,” the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said in a statement.

A lawyer by profession, Allaan has been held in administrative detention — a preventative security measure when intelligence suggests suspects may be involved in terror activities — since last November over his alleged membership in the Islamic Jihad terror group. He has been on hunger strike since June 18, taking only water, and lost consciousness Friday morning at the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, where he is being treated.

Allaan was awakened from his coma and his condition has stabilized, doctors at Barzilai said Tuesday. Doctors had been giving Allaan water and salts intravenously, and he had also been connected to a respirator.

Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Allaan (AFP)

Following an appeal for Allaan’s release on medical grounds, the High Court found Monday that “there is no change in the justification for holding [Allaan] in administrative detention,” and said it would reconvene Wednesday for a further hearing on his possible release.

At a High Court hearing Monday, one of the doctors treating Allaan said that if he were to continue his hunger strike he was likely to go into a fatal decline.

The Justice Ministry released a statement ahead of Monday’s hearing that included an offer to free Allaan “if he agrees to go abroad for a period of four years.” His lawyer immediately dismissed the proposal.

Several demonstrations in support of Allaan have been held since his condition began to deteriorate over the past two weeks, with pro-Palestinian protesters facing off against right-wing Israeli counter-protesters and Israeli police in sometimes violent confrontations.