Cantona, FIFA join pressure on Israel, as hunger striker Mahmoud Sarsak determined to reach freedom or death

Ali Abunimah Rights and Accountability 12 June 2012

Palestinian footballer Mahmoud Sarsak is still on hunger strike and is determined to continue until he dies or Israel agrees to free him, his lawyer Mahmoud Jabarin said today.

The news came as football legend Eric Cantona and other major public figures, and FIFA President Sepp Blatter, joined the growing international calls on Israel to free Sarsak and end its abuses of human rights.

After coming close to death on Sunday, Sarsak has agreed to take milk only until Thursday when the Israeli Supreme Court is due to review his case.

Hafez Omar

Last chance to save him

Ma’an News Agency reports today:

Mahmoud al-Sarsak is on his 86th day of hunger strike but is drinking milk to prolong his life until his court hearing Thursday, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Mohammad Jabarein told Ma’an that Israeli prison officials called him to visit al-Sarsak urgently Sunday because he was in danger of dying. Al-Sarsak was briefly hospitalized that afternoon.

Jabarein met with 15 doctors at the hospital, who said al-Sarsak was at immediate danger of paralysis and losing consciousness.

“I decided that al-Sarsak must drink milk,” Jabarein said.

Al-Sarsak was reluctant, but the lawyer said he persuaded him to accept some nutrients so he would survive until his judicial review, which is scheduled for Thursday.

Al-Sarsak agreed to drink milk but would only be fed by his lawyer.

The 25-year-old prisoner has decided that if the Supreme Court does not agree to release him he will refuse all supplements until his death, Jabarein said.

The judicial review Thursday is the “last chance” to save al-Sarsak’s life, Jabarein said.

Life still in danger

Despite his decision to take milk, Sarsak’s life is still in danger, as Ma’an notes:

The prisoner rights group Addameer notes that consuming milk does not break a hunger strike.

A representative of Physicians for Human Rights - Israel told Ma’an that milk is less nutritious than other supplements consumed during a hunger strike, which include vitamins, minerals, salts and glucose.

Drinking milk will not reduce the danger to al-Sarsak’s life, PHRI added.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter urges Israel to act to save Sarsak

FIFA president Sepp Blatter called on the Israeli Football Association (IFA) to urge the Israeli government to act to save Sarsak, whom Blatter said, “is in a very delicate state due to the fact that he has been undergoing a hunger strike for approximately 90 days in protest of his alleged illegal detention.” Blatter’s official statement added:

FIFA urgently calls on IFA to draw the attention of the Israeli competent authorities to the present matter, with the aim of ensuring the physical integrity of the concerned players as well as their right for due process. The matter came to FIFA’s attention following correspondence with the Palestine Football Association, several international media reports concerning the football player Mahmoud Sarsak and a FIFPro media release.

On Friday, FIFPro, the international association of 50,000 professional football players called on Israel to free Sarsak.

Football legend Eric Cantona, other public figures join campaign for Sarsak

Football legend Eric Cantona has co-signed a letter with other international figures including Noam Chomksy, filmmaker Ken Loach, international law expert John Dugard to UK Sports Minister Hugh Robertson, UEFA President Michel Platini and other European government and sporting bodies to protest Israel’s actions and the complicity of international sporting bodies.

The letter, the text of which was provided to The Electronic Intifada by bdsmovement.net in an email release states:

We are all shocked at the racist chanting at football matches in Poland and Ukraine where Euro 2012 is being played. Footballing bodies and politicians have been outspoken in their condemnation. Indeed some government officials are boycotting group stage matches in Ukraine because of perceived human rights abuses in that country.

So why are these same groups silent when Israel is to host the U.E.F.A. Under 21s competition in 2013? Racism, human rights abuses and gross violations of international law are daily occurrences in that country.

Israeli government ministers respond to mob attacks on black refugees by denouncing them as ‘infiltrators’ and calling for them to be imprisoned in military camps.

Israeli jails house around 4,000 Palestinian political prisoners, more than 300 of them “administrative detainees” held without charge or trial. One of these is a footballer from Gaza, Mahmoud Sarsak, aged 25. He has been imprisoned for nearly three years. No charge, no trial. In desperation, he has been on hunger strike for more than 80 days and is now close to death. He, and all victims of abuse by the Israeli state, need our support.

It is time to end Israel’s impunity and to insist on the same standards of equality, justice and respect for international law that we demand of other states.’

FULL LIST OF SIGNATORIES, SIGNING IN PERSONAL CAPACITY:

  • Eric Cantona, actor and former footballer
  • Noam Chomsky, Professor MIT, USA
  • John Dugard, Former Special Rapporteur of UN on Palestine, South Africa
  • Trevor Griffiths, Writer, UK
  • Paul Laverty, Screenwriter, UK
  • Ken Loach, Filmmaker, UK
  • Michael Mansfield, QC, UK
  • Miriam Margolyes OBE, Actor, UK
  • John Pilger, Journalist, author, film maker, Australia
  • Show Racism the Red Card
  • Ahdaf Soueif, Writer, UK

42 Gazan football clubs wrote a letter to UEFA President Michel Platini over a year ago to protest the awarding of the 2013 Under 21 tournament to Israel. They have received no reply.

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Comments

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Arie replied on

I hope that my comment will be published, even then I am Israeli.
We all know, if looking at the problem sincerely, that the whole situation is very complicated - based on deep hatred and unwilling to communicate.
I don't know of what Mahmoud Sarsak is accused with, and I hate the un-democratic tool of administrative detention. Never the less, he is using (and being able to use) the possibility approach the Israeli Supreme Court - which is widely known to be impartial. Neither Gilad Shalit, or any other Israeli in the same situation did not have this chance. I don't know of what Mahmoud Sarsak is accused with - and you don't know as well. I suggest to wait and see.
I the meanwhile, from the low-point of our mutual "deaf people dialog" - lets give peace a chance. We (Israel) will be here for a long long time, and the Palestinian people will have their state. I hope that the irrational time-wasting until then will get shorter.

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Ali Abunimah replied on

It defies belief when we are told that Israel is a model democracy. The treatment of Mahmoud Sarsak belies these propaganda claims. Contrary to propaganda, Sarsak has had no access to any judicial process. Israel’s supposed “democracy” has utterly failed to protect his most basic rights. Indeed it is under cover of this supposed democracy that he has been held for three years, with no family visits, and no opportunity to challenge or even learn what alleged evidence or accusations there are against him. Were it not for Sarsak’s courageous and desperate hunger strike, no one would be talking about him. Thank goodness people are waking up to the ugly reality behind the facade of Israeli “democracy.”

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zahraa replied on

Israel won't be here for long, don't get your hopes up or get too comftable.
is what your suggesting that he must of done something wrong to be there. No one should deserve a punishment like that whether they’re Israeli or Palestinian..

Ali Abunimah

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.

Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.