Khader Adnan, 45, of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, died while on a hunger strike in an Israeli prison.
He started the hunger strike on February 5, when he was arrested and sentenced in an Israeli military court and placed into "administrative detention", which means detention without charges in abhorrent prison conditions.
It was the Israeli common practice of administrative detention that prompted the hunger strike.
Held without charges or trial, this marked the third time Adnan had been on a hunger strike in an Israeli prison, having been arrested by Israel 12 times, spending around eight years in prison and mostly under administrative detention.
Adnan died in his prison cell without any medical treatment, even though Israeli officials were repeatedly urged to transfer Adnan to a hospital, but they refused. It appears, the Israeli prison system was waiting for him to die, while they make room for another prisoner to take his place. It took only 87 days to stop him from his protest.
Adnan was a member of the Islamic Jihad, which is very powerful in Gaza, and they swore revenge for his killing.
"We demanded he is moved into a civilian hospital where he could be properly followed up (on). Unfortunately, such a demand was met by intransigence and rejection by the Israeli prison authorities," said Adnan's lawyer Jamil Al-Khatib.
UN experts declared yesterday in Geneva that Israel must be held accountable for the death of Khader Adnan, and deemed the administrative detention of Palestinians as "cruel" and "inhumane."
"The death of Khader Adnan is a tragic testament to Israel's cruel and inhumane detention policy and practices, as well as the international community's failure to hold Israel accountable in the face of callous illegalities perpetrated against Palestinians," the UN experts said.
Israel holds approximately 4,900 Palestinians in its prisons, including 1,016 administrative detainees who are held for an indefinite period without trial or charge, representing the highest number since 2008, despite repeated condemnation from international human rights groups.
"We cannot separate Israel's policies from the colonial nature of its occupation, intended to control and subjugate all Palestinians in the territory Israel wants to control," the UN experts said. "The systematic practice of administrative detention is tantamount to a war crime of willfully depriving protected persons of the rights of fair and regular trial."
The UN experts called on the international community to hold Israel accountable for war crimes against the Palestinian people who have suffered under a brutal military occupation since 1948. However, we must all face the reality, that the international community, headed by the United States of America, is committed to defending Israel and its apartheid state, including its war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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