No to force feeding prisoners

The Israeli parliament’s approval of a law allowing prisoners on hunger strike to be forced fed breaks all human rights standards. 

The controversial legislation was passed by a small margin with 46 Knesset members voting for and 40 against. This shows that even Israeli lawmakers are deeply divided on the issue. 

Even the Israeli Medical Association voiced alarm at the adoption of this law, calling it “damaging and unnecessary” and said its members would “continue to act according to medical ethics, which prohibit doctors from participating in torturing prisoners”. 

It said force feeding was “tantamount to torture”.

And torture it is, since it is a form of inhuman treatment and a cruel and degrading punishment.

The Israeli government, which sponsored the law, should release the prisoners in question instead of force feeding them, especially since most of them are administrative detainees and have not been found guilty of any felony or crime. 

No doubt the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike have been driven into desperation and decided to end their lives by not eating rather than languish in Israeli jails on questionable grounds. 

It behoves the UN Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to speak up on behalf of the Palestinian detainees who could be forcibly fed and demand an immediate end to this atrocious Israeli practice.

This is the time for all UN human rights machineries to take up the cause of Palestinian prisoners and condemn in the strongest possible terms the inhuman and cruel treatment meted out to them. 

Above all, the Palestinian Authority — supported by the Arab League — is also called upon to campaign against the practice of force feeding, not only in Israel but anywhere in the world. 

There must be a law specifically against this degrading and inhuman treatment in international human rights treaties and the sooner this is done the better it would be for prisoners all over the globe.