Palestinians continue to face a now-regularized tempo of Israeli attacks from settlers and the military, yet this has not done away with their capacity to resist.
Walid Daqqah’s health continues to deteriorate inside Ramleh prison’s death chambers. Yet “despite all the roughness and challenges of prison, Walid keeps saying, ‘I am still kind and loving'” says his brother, As’ad Daqqah.
Khader Adnan was not part of an armed resistance group, nor did he occupy central positions of power. But he provided a model for victory in an age of defeat. He was a symbol in a time without symbols.
When Irish political prisoner Bobby Sands died in 1981 after a hunger strike, his death galvanized American sympathy for the Republican movement. Sadly, Khader Adnan’s death this week has not moved the American establishment the same way.
Rights groups, experts, and Khader Adnan’s legal team say that Israel caused his death through deliberate medical negligence and cruel and inhumane treatment. In other words, Israel wanted him dead.
The world lost Khader Adnan after 86 days of hunger strike, and Palestine lost an icon. Yet, in the words of researcher Ashira Darwish, “Freedom means that he left the body that they destroyed.”
The Palestinian resistance in Gaza is responding to Israel’s killing of Khader Adnan while he was on hunger strike, launching 70 rockets into Israel. The Israeli response of bombardment has been swift, already killing a Palestinian in northern Gaza.
Khader Adnan died in Israeli custody as he neared his 90th day on a hunger strike protesting his imprisonment. The veteran of eight hunger strikes, Adnan was a symbol of Palestinian steadfastness and resistance.
Ron DeSantis and Hakeem Jeffries went to Israel this week to advance their political ambitions. And their horizons could not be more different than that of the imprisoned Palestinian political figure, Khader Adnan.
Khader Adnan’s hunger strike protesting his imprisonment by Israel has surpassed 80 days and his life is in danger. “This time is different, he is feeling the toll that previous hunger strikes have had on him,” says his wife Randa Moussa.