By Kaamil Ahmed

JERUSALEM 

A group of Israeli doctors called Sunday on colleagues both in Israel and internationally to reject plans to force-feed Palestinian prisoners on a mass hunger strike.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I) said Israeli plans to force-feed hunger strikers “violate medical ethics and threaten to undermine the medical community in Israel”, in a letter to the World Medical Association.

The letter, signed by several senior Israeli doctors, criticized alleged Israeli Prison Service plans to compel doctors to force-feed prisoners and to potentially “import” foreign doctors to replace Israeli medics refusing to cooperate.

It said the plans would violate medical ethics related to coercion of protesting detainees.

Around 1,500 Palestinian prisoners are on the 21st day of a mass hunger strike for better conditions in Israeli prisons, led by senior Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti.

The strike has also prompted protests in wider Palestinian society and the organizing committee behind the strike has called for a series of protests in the coming week, including clearing all shops of Israeli goods on Wednesday as an act of boycott and a general strike the following day.