He Survived a 141-day Hunger Strike in Israeli Custody. He Vows to Do It Again if Arrested

He Survived a 141-day Hunger Strike in Israeli Custody. He Vows to Do It Again if Arrested After conducting the longest hunger strike of any Palestinian administrative detainee ever, Hisham Abu

Hawash was held by Israel for more than another month until his release from prison last weekend

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A recuperating Hisham Abu Hawash and his wife, Aishe, at home this week. He was furious when she told him a doctor had tried 9erting n e r o Bod viLamins to nis water. uredt Alex Levac

G d e o n Levy and Alex Levac Mar. 4, 2022944 PM

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This is what Israeli evil looks like: Even after a deathly ill Hisham

Abu Hawash ended his hunger strike, which had gone on for 141 days in protest of his administrative detention, Israel insisted on returning him to his cell until the termination of the period of his arrest without trial. Last weekend, he was finally released.

But despite the happiness at home, he is still far from the person he once was. His physicians in Shamir Medical Center, near

Rishon Letzion, where he spent the final days of his hunger

strike, told him that it would take a year and a half for his body to recover. For now, his speech is faint, his walk hesitant and the food he eats is measured. His weight has already shot up to 60 kilograms (132 pounds), whereas at the height of the hunger strike, the longest of any Palestinian detainee in Israel's history, he was down to 38 kilos (84 pounds). Abu Hawash was on the brink of death. But he did not tilinch for a moment. He says he was determined to be released from administrative detention -

or to die.

He's 40 years old, married to Aisha, the couple have five children, the youngest of whom, a daughter, was born about a month before his arrest. The family lives in Tabaqa, a suburb of the town of Dura, south of Hebron. When we arrived there, on Monday, the lean-to for guests had just been dismantled and the posters that were hung up to mark his release had been takern down. Abu Hawash was wearing a new black tracksuit that had

been bought for him on the occasion of his release, to fit his new measurements, and sandals. He was clearly exhausted not only

from his detention but also from the hundreds of guests who visited him during his first few days at home. The hunger strike

made him a local hero. His death might well have ignited the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, so Egypt, too, was involved in the efforts to save him.

Abu Hawash is a construction foreman anda veteran of

administrative detention. He was arrested for the first time in 2004, during the second intifada, and sentenced to a three-year

prison term, after his conviction on security offenses. Until then, the authorities did not claim he belonged to any illegal organization. That was his last trial. Since then Israel has throvwn him into jail three more times, without bringing him to trial,

claiming he is active in Islamic Jihad, without offering proof and without an indictment. In 2008 he served a year in administrative detention, in 2012 he was again placed in

administrative detention, which was extended repeatedly, al told for 26 consecutive months, during which he vowed that if he were ever arrested again without a trial, he would launeh a hunger strike.

Several of Abu Hawash's ehildren set out a meal for him. Even now, however, he can eat onty light Toods. Credit: Alex Levac

On October 26, 2020, an Israeli military force arrived at his homne in the dead of night and took him into custody. This time he

wasn't even interrogated. In short order he found out that he was being placed in administrative detention yet again. Initially

the term was set at six months, and already then he made the decision to embark on a hunger strike at a certain stage. Abu

Hawash was apprehensive that his prison term would be extended time and again, arbitrarily, as had happened the previous time. Indeed, at the end of the six-month term he was sentenced to another six months in prison.

It was on August 17, 2021, about nine months after he was first

arrested, that he began his hunger strike. A few days prior to that, he had returned some of the meals he was served in prison,

an offense for which he was punished by being placed in solitary

for a weelk; he was also fined 450 shekels (about $135) and prohibited from making purchases in the prison canteen. He waited for the day on which his second term had 70 days left to

run, and then launched his strike. He was certain he could hold out for 70 days and thus avert the seeming endlessness of his detention.

He told a few of his prison friends about his plan; some tried to talk him out of it, others encouraged him. His wife, who visited him two days before he began his fast, also implored him not to take the extreme step. He replied that he could not do as she asked, and she said she respected his decision. Abu Hawash also sent a message to the Shin Bet security service through the

prison authorities, in which he demanded to be released from administrative detention and stated that if he wasn't, he had decided to launch a hunger strike of indefinite duration.

The prison authorities immediately confiscated all his personal

equipment, including his toothbrush, soap, towel and clothing He was placed in total solitary confinement, with the windows in

the cell covered. Helay on a thin plastic mattress, withouta pillow and with one thin blanket. The cell was illuminated 24 hours a day. After 24 hours, the guards tried to persuade him to desist, amid vague promises that they would help get him

released. Abu Hawash never considered complying. The guards forbade him to clean his cell and refused to give him a broom. A stench began to emerge from the cell.

Hisham Abu Hawash with his wife during his hunger strike. Credit: Amira Hass

The world united for sanctions on Russia. Why can't it do the

same for Palestinians?

These Israeli settlers are only 'here for rainbows and

moonrises During the first four days, he recalls, he felt intense hunger. He drank as much water as he could, about four liters a day, while refusing to accept any additives such as minerals and vitamins, which would have improved his condition. On day 16, he was sent to the prison infirmary for the first time, to be examined and weighed. At the time of his arrest, he had weighed 78 kilos, and he had put on weight deliberately, reaching 89 kilos, in

order to prepare his body to fast. By day 16, he was down to 68 kilos, and at the very end he weighed 38.6 kilos. That was two days after he called off the strike, though he had not yet been able to resume eating

Day 60 was the most difficult of all: The strain was too much for his heart, his pulse was wildly unstable, oscillating from 15 to 250 beats a minute. He was hospitalized in the prison service's medical center, at the Ramle incarceration facility. Aftera month there, with his condition worsening, he was taken to nearby Shamir Medical Center, but when he refused to take any

medication, he was transferred back to Ramle three days later.

After that he was brought back to the hospital every day, but he

stood firm. The journeys were extremely stressful. According to Abu Hawash, the director of the Ramle facility told him, "You will die here."

On day 85, he was readmitted to Shamir Medical Center. On day

90, he began losing the feeling in his legs. That happened after a few days during which he had been unable to stand. After day 100, he lapsed into a daze. He remembers very little of what happened at this time and says he felt alive only about five minutes a day. Every half hour a nurse entered his room and gave him water to sip. Even that was difficult by now. He refused adamantly to receive a blood transfusion.

Hisham Abu Hawash. Credit Alex Levac

On day 120, an Israel Prison Service officer arrived and told him

that it had been decided to freeze his detention, meaning that many of the restrictions were lifted until he had begun to

recover. "Either you end the strike or you will die," the officer

said. The three guards who that entire time had never budged

from his bedside left, his handcuffs were removed and his wife was allowed to be by his side. The photographs published of Anu Hawash at that time did not make for easy viewing. He looked as though he were dying. He was in a coma most of the time. He

didn't recognize his younger brother, Imad, 37, a human rights activist, when he came to visit. A physician told Imad that he "Smells the reek of death."

Abu Hawash's body was shrunken, his face wizened, his eyes

glazed over. One of the physicians tried to persuade his wife to add vitamins to the water he drank, and she told him about it, He was furious with her, he thought she was collaborating against

him. After that he drank only from sealed bottles of water. In a short video from day 130, he is heard groaning faintly, in a state ot total collapse

Before embarking on his hunger strike, Abu Hawash had read up on notable, similar instances in the past. He read about an

American who lost his way in the desert and didn't eat for 89 days, and of course about the IRA hunger strikers in a Northern Ireland prison who died at a relatively early stage, after efforts were made by the authorities to force-feed them. In Israel, too,

several Palestinian prisoners died in similar circumstances in the 1970S, 1980S and 1990. The Irish prisoners didn't drink

water, but Abu Hawash decided that he would drink in order to

prolong the strike and not die. "No one goes on a hunger strike in order to die," he says. "A person launches a hunger strike in

order to go free." He also heard about the Palestinian prisoner Shadi Abu Aker, who lost his sight as a result of his hunger strike, which ended last November. Abu Hawash expected to

hold out for 70 days; he never imagined his protest would last twice that long.

Nevertheless, he was determined, he says, to die or to be released. The suffering of his family did not affect his decision.

At a certain stage, he began to feel that he was slipping away. In the meantime, his administrative detention was extended for six

more months. Following an appeal by his attorney, the court

reduced it to four months. He refused to desist from the hunger strike until he received a promise that once his term was completed, his imprisonment would not be extended again.

From day 100, he says, he was certain that every day would be his last.

Decorations in honor of Hisham Abu Hawasti's returm. Credit: Alex Levac

One day, he says now, he opened his eyes and saw his lawyer

Jawad Boulos in his room. He informed Abu Hawash that in the wake of EgVptian intervention, an agreement had been reached

with the Shin Bet: His administrative detention would not be extended again. He relates now that, because his mind was so fogsy, it took Boulos about an hour to explain this to him. Israel

undertook to release him on February 26, 2022. He was set free two days earlier than that, on the 24th, last Thursday, because of the weekend. He spent 49 more days in prison after endinghis hunger strike.

He remained in the hospital for the first 15 days after the strike ended, sipping a few teaspoonfuls ofcold tea every day, served to him by his wife. After 12 days he graduated to a few spoons of yogurt. His nonworking digestive tract very slowly resumed functioning. Even now he can eat only light foods, though he Started to smoke again; his body still hurts intensely and he has

a hard time sleeping. He was transferred to Ramle Prison even

before he could stand up. Another prisoner was placed in his cell, to assist him.

Would he do it all again? "Ifl am arrested again without being brought to trial," he declares, "I will launch another hunger

strike" Last Thursday, he was dropped off at the Meitar checkpoint, Hebron. About a hundred people were waiting for him on the other side. First to hug him were the children.