From California to Palestine: Prisoner dignity is human dignity

The common struggle is often overlooked and complicated with nationalism or other forms of sectarianism. Solidarity is communicated often but sometimes supporters do not immediately decipher the relationship between these struggles, overlooking human dignity as the main relation between all struggles of justice. The conditions of prisons in various societies are indicators of that society's values. And when it comes to those locations where who you are can be enough to get you into prison, the identity of the oppressor whether American, British, or Israeli  is merely the same, just dressed up a little differently in each location. The accent may be different, but prisons in most societies speak the language of dehumanization.

In a report by Reuters from Oakland, California, hunger striking prisoner, 27 year old Christian Alexander Gomez, died yesterday, February 20th. Within the institution he was imprisoned, dozens of others continue their hunger strike while penitentiaries throughout California are joining in on the action. The hunger strikes began in July and gathered momentum with over 10,000 participating, as California institutions became overly crowded and services in the prison were cut. Gomez was advocating for better health care, education programs, and time outside of the cell. Solitary confinement was perhaps, the most pressing issue, as Gomez and others were transferred to segregation units.

For those who did participate in the initial hunger strike in July, they were in fact punished with solitary confinement as a leaked document from a California prison facility revealed.

Media has poorly covered these hunger strikes in California, and news of Gomez's death has not been very widely spread. What is concerning about the California industrial prison complex is the obvious concentration of lower socio-economic class members in these prisons, overcrowded with especially African American and Chicano/Latino prisoners. Without delving into the industry of prisons in the US, the profiteering off of prisons, and the impact this has on communities and schools, the remedial aspect of the prisons is not only poor but purposefully designed to continue an industry of prisons. And as police increasingly target lower socio-economic communities, and laws seem to protect those who can afford legitimate legal teams, the institutionalized discrimination of the US legal system and its prisons is a giant monster in the face of many minorities in California and throughout the US. Just ask Troy Davis.

While institutionalized imprisonment of citizens may be difficult to compare to prisoners of war in national causes thwarting invasions by another entity, the basic link between these movements is that all are disenfranchised and dehumanized at lengths in an industry that serves an oppressive agenda. While hunger strikes have been practiced by civil rights leaders, and usually serve as a media grabber, there is significance in that prisoners from within the confines of these facilities are organizing despite their isolation from the rest of civil society. The most iconic of these was during the Fast of Death, when the IRA protested political targeting of Irish activists by the British occupation, who in turn treated these prisoners of war as high degree criminals. 

For one's identity to be a marker of one's criminality, whether it is a Chicano growing up in South Central and sadly presupposed as a "criminal," or being an Irish fighter for self autonomy and being called a "criminal" and "punished" like a criminal, gives no meaning to the laws of these oppressors except that they  are elitist. The labeling of oppressors to dehumanize and de-legitimize the individual leaves a general feeling to disregard these laws as merely tools of dehumanization. Hence Gomez's refusal to be in solitary confinement. 

Despite the charges, the lengths of "punishment" and their implications do impact identity, autonomy, and participation in civil society, not just for the individual but for their community as well. 19 year old Irish Kieran Nugent famously stated, "If you want me to wear a convicts uniform, you're going to have to nail it to my back," rejecting the imposition of the oppressor's labeling, and instead remaining owner of his own label and self image.

Hunger strikes are a public proclamation of ownership of one's body, refusing the food of the oppressor so that harm to the prisoner is not prolonged so long as the prison administration feeds the individual. The dehumanization in being fed by prison is obvious; taking in the food of the very entity that is targeting your people is not only a test of allegiance to the cause, but it gives the oppressor the opportunity to manipulate this food, monitor it, designate it, and limit it. It is another means for more oppression. And it is a creation of dependency to the oppressor.

The daughter of Khader Adnan stands next to the portrait of her father

While Gomez passed away this week in California, another hunger striking prisoner across the Atlantic is also facing death. For 64 days Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan has refused any food from Israelis and remains chained to his death bed in a hospital. His organs have reportedly collapsed and his wife has only been able to visit him a couple of times. 

Adnan was arrested in the early AM hours from his home, without crime or charges by the military of Zionist colonizers. Just as Gomez and the Irish did, Adnan is refusing food to maintain his honor despite the inhumane treatment of Israeli military. As he was transferred from prison to hospital, other Palestinians joined the hunger strike, only to face what Gomez did in California: punishment through solitary confinement at Ofer military prison.

Indeed issues of solitary confinement have been the corner stone to prisoner rights advocacy groups in Palestine, where the population faces oppression by Israel on a daily basis because of their gross military occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine. And in the case of Khader Adnan, the issue of administrative detention has been manipulated by Israel to extend his imprisonment despite no charges being pressed against him. 309 Palestinian prisoners also face administrative detention, criminalized without knowing why and for how long.

Like the IRA members, Adnan was arrested simply for being who he is. While thousands of Palestinians remain as political prisoners in Israeli run prisons, including women and children, they do not go unforgotten as they all struggle for their dignity, a message emphasized by former IRA hunger striker, Raymond McCartney: 

 

It is this that unites the common people, whether from the fields of California, the train tracks of India, the shores of Ireland, or the terraces of Palestine: it is the fight for human dignity that compels prisoners and civilians alike to refute the imposed terminology of oppression and to strive for self autonomy.