Major General Avi Mizrahi						2012-03-24
OC Central Command Nehemia Base
Neveh Yaacov, Jerusalem
Fax No.  00972 2 530 5741

Subject:  Release Hanaa Shalabi, from Borkin, Jenin district, being held in administrative detention, on hunger strike for 38 days 
Hanaa Shalabi, who has been on a hunger strike for 38 days, is being held in administrative detention and is now close to death.   She began her hunger strike in protest against ill treatment during her arrest on 16 February and is continuing it in protest against her detention without charge or trial.  She has been transferred to Meir Hosapital in the Israeli town of Kfar Saba but remains under Israeli custody and armed guard.
We  request that  Hanaa Shalabi be released or charged with internationally recognizable criminal offences and tried.  
Hanaa Shalabi, 30 years of age, was one of the 1,027 Palestinian prisoners and detainees released in October 2011 in the prisoner exchange as part of a deal made by the Israeli Government for Gilad Shalit.  Prior to her release in October 2011 she had been held in HaSharon Prison for 25 months in administrative detention, without charges or trial.   Hanaa Shalabi  had planned to study nursing at al-Rawda College in Nablus.    
As reported by Amnesty International Hanaa Shalabi has been treated violently by the officers of the Israeli Prison Service.  There are reports that Israeli authorities are considering force-feeding, which constitutes cruel treatment as hunger strikers should not be forcibly fed.   In addition, her family has not received permits to visit her despite repeated requests by international and local organizations.  They have not seen her since her arrest on 16 February.    
More than 20 other Palestinian detainees and prisoners held in several Israeli prisons have declared open-ended hunger strikes against the policy of administrative detention, some for more than three weeks.  They have not been allowed access to independent doctors and some may also have been denied access to lawyers, isolated or punished in other ways following their decision to go on hunger strike, according to Amnesty International.  No detainees should be punished in any way for their decision to go on hunger strike.  Israeli authorities should ensure that detainees on hunger strike are treated humanely and allowed access to lawyers and independent medical professionals, said the official from Amnesty International.  
We are fully aware of the terms of administrative detention: the detainee can be held without charge or trial and the detention can be arbitrarily and endlessly extended.  These laws have been carried over since the British mandate and were copied from British colonial regulations.  Israel has been using these laws since its foundation in 1948.  Currently,  more than 300 Palestinians, including more than 20 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, are being held in administrative detention.  
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We hope that our request will be received positively.  Every human being deserves and has the right to be treated with full respect, regardless of ethnicity.
Do the Israeli authorities ever ponder what the effect of the many injustices being carried out under Israel’s occupation will have on future generations, both in Israel and in the territories it occupies?

Yours faithfully,
Women in Black (Vienna)
fraueninschwarzwien@gmail.com 

cc:  
The International Committee of the Red Cross in Tel Aviv
Fax No. 00972 35 27 03 70

The International Committee of the Red Cross in Jerusalem
Fax No. 00972 2 5917920