Students for Justice in Palestine members at American University protested the administrative detention of Khader Adnan, who was arrested last December by Israeli police forces, by going on their own hunger strike for five days. Israel believes he is an Islamic Jihad terrorist, but has been unable to produce any evidence.
Authorities never formally charged Adnan, making him one of over 300 prisoners held in Israel without charges filed against them. AU students decided to hold a hunger strike in solidarity with Adnan, who went 66 days without food before the Israeli government announced on Feb. 21 that he would be released. Some did not eat at all, and others severely limited their caloric intake.
AU’s student newspaper, The Eagle (which I also work for) reported that one student who participated in the hunger strike said:
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…. We wanted to support his initiative by taking up a hunger strike of our own.
Read the full story about the AU hunger strike at The Eagle, written by contributing writer Emma Jackson. The video was created by Diana Bowen, The Eagle’s multimedia editor.
