RAMALLAH: On Wednesday, The Israeli Supreme Court postponed a hearing over the case of Ayman Al-Sharawneh, a Palestinian prisoner who has been on full and partial hunger strikes for a combined total of 236 days, until February 28 reports Middle East Monitor (MEM). Al-Sharawneh's brother related the news and revealed that he had been banned from attending the hearing that was originally scheduled for yesterday. Ayman Al-Sharawneh has been fasting since July but due to his diabetes he has periodically suspended the strike due to the instability of his blood sugar levels. A multiple month hunger strike is already an arduous event to put your body through but diabetes complicates the matter greatly. The body can either go into hypoglycemic or hyperglycemic episode at any time. Hypoglycemia occurs when the body is without enough sugar. It causes the body to tremble and lose feeling, speech becomes slurred and vision blurs. Within a few hours the body goes into a comatose state. Hyperglycemia occurs when the body has too much sugar. It causes the body to feel weighty, insatiable thirst, hunger, frequent urination and moodiness. While it takes much longer for the body to fall comatose, hyperglycemia does long lasting damage to the kidneys and heart. Al-Sharawneh's lawyer, who saw him recently in spite of Israeli restrictions barring visitation, commented that the prisoner was wheelchair bound and suffering from a “very serious health condition". The staggering hunger strikes of Ayman Al-Sharawneh and Samer Al-Issawi have drawn international media and political attention. Both men are being held without charge by Israel after it released over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for Gilad Shalit in 2011. After his release, the Israeli military issued a detention order for Al-Sharawneh citing, “secret evidence". His lawyer says he was told Wednesday to exhaust the appeals process with a military committee first, before petitioning the top court. On February 28, Al-Sharawneh will meet with a military committee that will decide whether or not to renew his administrative detention. BN
