Israeli doctors are given conflicting advice on treating hunger strikers

Israel’s health ministry and the association that represents the country’s doctors have issued contradictory statements on whether prisoners who go on hunger strike should be hospitalised by force.

The ethics bureau of the Israel Medical Association declared that people who have been arrested or imprisoned and are holding a hunger strike—and able to voice their preferences—should not be hospitalised against their will. It also said that hunger strikers should not be tied up as a routine matter or forced to receive medical treatment against their will if they …