Four AU students went on a hunger strike Feb. 17 in protest of the detainment of Khader Adnan, a Palestinian held by Israeli forces without formal charges.
The students, all members of Students for Justice in Palestine, said they began the strike with the intention of fasting until Adnan was either released or charged. The strike lasted five days, ending Feb. 21 when Israeli authorities announced Adnan would be released April 17.
The hunger strikers included:
• Valerie Kiebala, a freshman in the School of International Service,
• Brian McNeilly, a sophomore in SIS and the College of Arts and Sciences,
• Emily Floyd, a junior in CAS,
• And Damián Fontanez, a junior in the School of Public Affairs.
“Adnan is very adamant about taking opposition to this [Israeli] policy called administrative detention, where in issues of national security, they reserve the right to hold you with no charges indefinitely,” Fontanez said. “We wanted to support his initiative by taking up a hunger strike of our own.”
Israeli forces arrested Adnan in mid-December during a nighttime raid of his home in the West Bank. Adnan went on a hunger strike the following day in protest of his administrative detention, reaching a total of 66 days without food.
The spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted on Feb. 21 that there is “concrete evidence which came from intelligence information that [Adnan] is an Islamic Jihad terrorist.”
Administration detention is a common sentence used in Israeli law where a prisoner can be held without charge, according to a BBC article about Adnan.
Over 309 Palestinian political prisoners are being held under administrative detention this month, according to the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian political prisoner advocacy group.
The students decided to go on a hunger strike after learning that hundreds of other Palestinians were initiating protests and hunger strikes in solidarity with Adnan.
Floyd, who originally suggested the idea during a SJP meeting, said the strike was to raise awareness and show solidarity.
The students had varying degrees of hunger striking, ranging from absolutely no food to 300 calories a day. Due to personal health reasons, one member fasted “Ramadan-style,” eating only before sunrise or after sunset.
“It is a drastic action to take, but I think it calls attention to the drastic situation of Palestinian political prisoners because this situation is bigger than Adnan,” she said.
SJP created a Facebook event about the hunger strike, invited their friends to join and promoted the event to multiple other AU and D.C. student Facebook groups. They also sent a press release to different D.C. media outlets. The students said they did not notify the University directly.
On Feb. 21, the Israeli government announced that Adnan will be released April 17. The Israeli government said Feb. 27 that it will hear Adnan’s plea for immediate release on Feb. 28, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Kiebala was in her bed when she first read that a release date had been announced. She had been there for 12 hours due to a lack of physical energy.
“I was assuming ‘I’m not going to classes today,’” she said. “But then I read that and got a huge burst of energy and leapt out of bed … And then I ran to get food.”
The SJP club members celebrated the end of their hunger strike by attending a Black Student Alliance Soul Food Dinner.
“It is kind of disappointing on one sense knowing that he is still going to be held for two more months,” Fontanez said of Adnan’s original release date. “It’s still a win as far as our standpoint. But ultimately we want to see an end to this type of policy.”
