FIFA
calls upon Israel to free Palestinian football player on hunger strike
13 June 2012
Almost three years ago Mahmud Sarsak, a football player of the
Palestinian national team, could not imagine he would be detained because of
football. He was detained on his way from Rafah, his native town (in the south
of the Gaza Strip), to the West Bank through the Erez crossing, which borders
Israel.
Sarsak, who is now 25 years old, and spent his last three years in an
Israeli jail, had received a travel permit from the Civil Administration of the
Israeli Ministry of Defense and therefore he believed he could travel to join
the football team of Balata refugee camp (in the vicinity of the town of
Nablus, north of West Bank). Palestinian football players often face problems
when travelling, including across the West Bank, and football matches are
suspended as teams are prevented from getting to their destinations because of
the route controls enforced by the Israeli army. FIFA is not used to comment on
this. However, this time the life of a football player is at serious risk and
the world football management committee has asked his release.
International appeals from FIFA president, Joseph Blatter, and the UN
Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, Richard Falk, have
seemingly produced positive results and so this Thursday Sarsak should end his
hunger strike. According to his lawyer, Mohamed Yabarin, the football player
would have agreed on accepting milk and other liquids in exchange for a
possible judicial review of his case.
Sarsak was a computing student, had no criminal records and did not have
any known political affiliation. Despite this, he was arrested on the base of
the “Unlawful Combatants Act” and held under administrative detention, a legal
formula inherited from the British Mandate which allows the indefinite holding
of a suspected individual for renewable periods of six months. As a further
feature of such legal type, the office of the military prosecutor does not
produce evidences against the suspected and no trial takes place. For this
reason, following the previous cases of prisoners Jader Adnan, Hana Shalabi y
Thaer Halahleh (although in these cases
there was a political link, as these prisoners were linked to the Islamic Jihad
party), Sarsak went on hunger strike 92 days ago, without doubts a record of
endurance.
On 10 June, due to Sarsak’s deteriorating health, Israeli authorities of
the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) agreed on transferring him to a hospital for
medical care, as the prison clinic of Ramla, where he was held, lacked adequate
means to treat him. According to his lawyer, he lost more than one third of his
weight, and frequently lost consciousness and memory. And, according to the
Israeli human rights organization Physicians for Human Rights, his life is at risk, similarly to another
detainee who is on hunger strike since 67 days, Akram Rijawi. In this case,
diabetes has aggravated his health, though he has been on hunger strike for
fewer days.
All indicates, as in the case of Jader Adnan, that the coming 22 July
the military judges will decide to put an end to Sarsak’s detention, three
years since his start. This would explain why Sarsak would accept to continue
to be held until that date, while he would be able to recover before being released.
Despite this, and as a result of the loss of muscle fibers, it will likely take
him several months before setting foot on a pitch, and probably never as a
professional.
