Free Mohammed Allaan Now - Opinion - Haaretz Daily Newspaper Israel News- Haaretz Editorial Aug 17, 2015 12:33 AM
►http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.671444
Israel must announce the immediate release of Mohammed Allaan, the Palestinian hunger-striker who is being held in Israel without trial and whose condition deteriorated drastically over the weekend.
The state did the right thing last month when it released Khader Adnan, whose life was at risk after a 54-day hunger strike, and it must do the same this time. Any delay could lead to a new cycle of bloodshed, the scope and consequences of which are difficult to predict.
The West Bank is already simmering with violence because of Allaan’s hunger strike. This will intensify if he dies.
Hunger strikers like Adnan and Allaan challenge Israel’s distorted justice system, which permits hundreds or even thousands of people, most of them Palestinians without civil rights, to be arrested and held without trial for months, or even years. Israel must stop using this unacceptable measure.
Administrative detention, which in a law-based society is meant to be an extreme, last-ditch measure, used only in order to stop a “ticking time bomb,” has become a routine procedure in Israel. This must stop, even without reference to the hunger strikes that have been launched recently by such prisoners and the risk of death faced by Allaan. Now, with the deterioration in Allaan’s condition, the state has an opportunity to mitigate the damage caused by the widespread use of this measure.
There are some 400 administrative detainees in Israeli prisoners now, after their number doubled over the past year in the wake of Operation Protective Edge last summer. Detainees against whom the state has evidence must be prosecuted; the remainder must be freed. The weapon of administrative detention must be reserved for use only in the rarest, most extreme cases, if at all.
Those who oppose Allaan’s release argue that it would set a dangerous precedent for other detainees. Their claim is irrelevant. The release of administrative detainees in favor of proper legal action against them, as is customary in democratic countries, is what will prevent additional precedents of hunger-striking to the brink of death.
Crises sometime lead to opportunities for positive change. This is one of those times; the release of administrative detainees will remove a malignancy from Israel’s reputation as a democratic state, governed by civil law. This is no time for power games or plays for prestige.
This is the time not only to save Allaan, whose struggle to be freed is justified, but also to prevent the eruption of a wave of violence and bloodshed. No one benefits from Allaan’s continued detention, and no one will lose from his release. He must be freed as soon as possible.
