by Nathan Stuckey
14 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement,
14 February 2012 | International Solidarity Movement,
Two months ago, few of us knew the name
Khader Adnan. Today, he is an inspiration to all of us. Two months ago
he was kidnapped from his home by Israel. He was charged with no
crime. He was abused by his captors and interrogators from the moment
he was arrested. None of this is unusual in Palestine, every day people
are kidnapped from their homes, abused, and held without charge.
Torture is a routine matter for prisoners of the occupation. None of
the abuse that Israel inflicted on Khader Adnan was new, it has happened
to thousands, really hundreds of thousands of Palestinians under the
occupation.
It was all so routine that no one would
bother to report on it, that is a specialty of the occupation, to make
crimes so routine that they are not news. Khader Adnan, a thirty three
year old Palestinian baker, stood up, he said no. He is willing to give
his life for dignity; a life without dignity is not life. Khader Adnan
has been on hunger strike for 59 days, he lies near death in an Israeli
hospital chained to his bed. He has still not been charged with any
crime.
Khader Adnan is not striking only for
himself, as he said, “I hereby assert that I am confronting the
occupiers not for my own sake as an individual, but for the sake of
thousands of prisoners who are being deprived of their simplest human
rights while the world and international community look on.”
He could die at any time.
Protests have been held to support him
around the world. Hundreds of Palestinians have joined hunger strikes
in solidarity with him. Today, in Beit Hanoun, we marched in solidarity
with him. We gathered by the half destroyed Beit Hanoun Agricultural
College, we passed out posters of Khader Adnan, we raised the
Palestinian flag, and we set off into the buffer zone. Above us were
three Israel Apaches, a drone, and an observation balloon, in front of
us was a giant concrete wall with towers full of soldiers, and a jeep
and a tank on a hill.
This did not deter us. Israel has a
history of shooting missiles into demonstrations and shooting live
ammunition into unarmed demonstrations is a regular occurrence,
especially in Gaza. We marched down the road into the no go zone.
The no go zone is a place of death.
Israel has forced out everyone who used to live there, it has destroyed
their houses, bulldozed their orchards, and now it claims the right to
shoot anyone who enters it. The land is scarred by the blades of
bulldozers, by the tracks of tanks. We marched across it, toward Erez,
toward the wall that surrounds Gaza, toward the wall that reminds us all
that Gaza is a giant prison. We walked until we were about 50 meters
from the wall.
Khader Adnan’s wife called us, she
thanked us for our support, and described her husband’s suffering, “He
is chained to a bed, he is in constant pain, he looks like a ghost.
Still he does not give up.”
Sabur Zaaneen from the Beit Hanoun Local
Initiative spoke, “Israel does not respect human rights, the crimes of
the occupation are unending, but so will be our resistance to the
occupation, the popular resistance will continue until the end of the
occupation.” We chanted our support for Khader, for a man willing to
die to live in honor, for a man willing to give his life for his
people’s right to live in honor, for a man willing to give his life in
his struggle against the occupation.
After the demonstration Sabur received a
call from the Palestinian police at the Erez crossing. The Israeli army
had called them threatening to fire on the demonstration unless we left
the area. They threatened to fire on an unarmed demonstration in
support of a man who has been on hunger strike for 59 days, a man who
could die at any moment, a man who has not even been charged with any
crime. Just as 800,000 Palestinians were forced from their land in 1948
today Israel threatens unarmed demonstrators on their land with death
unless they leave their land.
Just as Khader Adnan is steadfast in his
hunger strike, we will be steadfast in our resistance to the occupation,
like him, we struggle for a life of dignity, a dignity denied by the
occupation. Khader Adnan is our hero; his steadfastness is an
inspiration to all of us.
Thank you Khader Adnan.
Nathan Stuckey is a volunteer with International Solidarity Movement.