Lent 5 - Hebrews: Obedience through suffering

Hebrews 5.5-10

He learned obedience through what he suffered…. (Heb 5.8)

Arguments about Israel and Palestine often degenerate into questions of who has suffered most. This gets us nowhere. There is plenty of suffering on both sides; it is not a contest anyone wants to win.

Lent requires us to examine suffering. Lent’s 40 days are preparation for a suffering Holy Week Jesus—whipped, mocked, beaten, bones broken, nails driven through his hands and feet.

So, when I read yesterday the report of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel about the effects of Hana Shalabi’s hunger strike on her health—her suffering was what drew my attention. She is in the 34^th day of her hunger strike in opposition to Israel’s policy of administrative detention—imprisonment without being charged with a crime. She began her hunger strike to call the world’s attention to her own imprisonment and the more than 300 other Palestinian prisoners who are being held without being charged with a crime—no trial, no evidence, no clue as to the crime they are alleged to have committed. She is also protesting the degrading and violent conditions of her arrest, interrogation and imprisonment. [Photo-Aljazeera: Despite many in Palestine committing to nonviolence, little attention is paid by Israel or the international community to those starving for justice (EPA)]

Because of her fast, Hana’s life is now threatened. The report from Physicians for Human Rights reports that "she suffers from a low heartbeat rate, low blood sugar, loss of weight, weakness in muscles, yellowing of the eyes and high levels of salt in the blood which [has] affected her kidneys, causing her pain in her sides, especially the left side, as well as pain in chest bones." [Photo-Aljazeera: Despite many in Palestine committing to nonviolence, little attention is paid by Israel or the international community to those starving for justice (EPA)]

UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk writes in Al Jazeera, “Physicians for Human Rights said that Shalabi cannot sleep because of pain; she also suffers dizziness and blurred and occasional loss of vision. Ms Shalabi told Mahameed that she took salt last week, but refused to take any more and is living on two litres of water a day.”

He continues, “The sad yet noble situation of Hana Shalabi is also well expressed by Yael Maron, a spokesperson for the NGO, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel: ‘The story of Hana Shalabi, like that of Khader Adnan before, is, in my opinion, a remarkable example of a struggle that's completely nonviolent towards one's surroundings. It is the last protest a prisoner can make, and I find it brave and inspiring.’"

Some suffering to ponder in this season.

Write in support of Hana: http://freehana.org/

God of the widow and the prisoner, be with Hana and all the Palestinians detained without charges. Help us to follow your words and find ways to minister to prisoners, wherever we are. Amen.

Ash Wednesday - No Palestinian Gandhi?

Ash Wednesday - the Fast that I choose
Isaiah 58.1-12

Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice
to undo the thongs of the yoke
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke. (Is 58.6)

OK, I know that Ash Wednesday is NEXT week, but by then it may be too late.

Westerners often lament that there is no Palestinian Gandhi. I wonder if they know about Khader Adnan, who has been held in an Israeli prison without being charged with any crime, since December 17. During that time he has been beaten, forced to sit shackled to a chair in painful positions, humiliated by his guards, his religion insulted. But still there are no charges against him.

Incarceration without trial is called “Administrative Detention.” Other countries also practice this, including the United States, but human rights groups protest the practice--being held without charges and trial is a denial of human rights. International law allows for administrative detention only in the most extreme cases, for people who pose a threat, when there is no other way to prevent danger. Over the years Israel has held thousands of Palestinians in Administrative Detention, for periods of several months, to several years. At the end of 2011, there were more than 300 Palestinians being held in Administrative Detention, including 21 elected members of the Palestinian legislative council and one child (age 16-18) (B’Tselem).

Adnan has been on a hunger strike--now for more than 58 days--to protest the violence he is experiencing in detention and the failure of the Israelis to charge him and other detainees. Doctors from Physicians for Human Rights have examined him and warned him and the Israeli prison system of the risk of death. They explained in graphic terms that the body cannot survive without water and that a hunger strike lasting more than 45 days causes damage to the body’s organs.

Anat Litvin, director of PHR Israel’s Prisoners & Detainees Department, states: “The fact that a person does not know when his detention will end nor the nature of the accusations brought against him, makes administrative detention unbearable, and similar to torture. Adnan’s hunger strike is clearly endangering his life, but should be also seen as a legitimate protest of a man trying to keep his dignity in face of gross abuse of his basic rights as a human being.”

Amnesty International has called on the Israeli government to charge him or release him.

Adnan has written, "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.” More….

Read more about Adnan’s struggle for his human rights...

Is not this the fast that I choose…..to loose the bonds of injustice…..?

Gracious God, as we reflect on our mortality this Ash Wednesday, we remember Khader Adnan. You have given us abundant riches of freedom and opportunity. Help us use these gifts to loose the bonds of injustice for those who live in bondage.. Amen.

Email President Obama to protest his imprisonment: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Email Prime MInister Benjamin Netanyahu: http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Public+Applications/PublicApplications/
Email Secretary of State HIllary Rodham Clinton: http://contact-us.state.gov/app/ask/session/L3RpbWUvMTMyOTMyMDI0MC9zaWQvbnQzZGlNUWs%3D

A sample message: Please release Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan, or charge him with a crime. He is protesting his imprisonment with a hunger strike and he is near death. Torturing Palestinians will not bring peace.