The Israeli parliament passed into law a ruling allowing the force feeding of hunger strikers in prisons, despite opposition from medical associations. The law has passed with 46 MPs in favor and 40 against in the 120-seat Knesset. Israel said that officials are concerned that hunger strikes by Palestinians in Israeli jails could end in death and trigger waves of protests in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The bill permits the force-feeding of security prisoners, suspected or convicted of "terrorism"-related crimes, and prisoners who are thought to be in serious danger.Gilad Erdan, the Israeli public security minister, said that the goal of the bill was to "ultimately save lives." Also Gilad Erdan who led the legislation said that the law was necessary since hunger strikes of "terrorists" in prisons have become a means to threaten Israel.Israel's Medical Association has urged Israeli doctors to not apply the law. Also, the association said that force-feeding is a form of torture.The majority of prisoners who go on hunger strike are Palestinians in administrative detention, under which they are held for renewable six-month periods without charge, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said.Also Juan Mendez, a U.N. special rapporteur on torture, and Dainius Puras, a U.N. special rapporteur on the right to health, has called on Israel to halt the legislation. "Force-feeding or the use of physical restrictions of individuals is, even if intended for their benefit, tantamount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The way to end the hunger strikes is not to force-feed hunger strikers, but to address the underlying human rights violations against which they are protesting, namely, the practice of administrative detention," Mendez said in a statement.Opposition MPs decried the new legislation with the Arab Joint List of parties critical. According to the opposition MPs, the law is a way of torturing Palestinian prisoners and aims to annihilate their legitimate struggle. Issa Qaraqe, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Commission, has asked to take a stand against the law and demands that Israel not apply the law. "It's against the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, it legalizes the torture of prisoners who are demanding their rights in a non-violent way," Qaraqe said.A spokeswoman for the Israel Prison Service said that currently, there is one Palestinian held on administrative detention and four "security prisoners" who had been on hunger strike for over a week. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) reported that 1,226 Palestinian's under the age of 15 were taken into custody by Israeli forces. According to the PLO, 200 of them are still in prison. The number of arrests of children in Palestine grew 87 percent compared with 2011, the PLO said.Force-feeding is the practice of feeding a person against their will. It has been prohibited since 1975 by the Declaration of Tokyo of the World Medical Association. Force-feeding was used against hunger striking suffragettes (members of women's organization who fought for the right to vote) in the U.K. until 1913. The U.K. also used force-feeding against Irish Republicans during their struggle for independence. Force-feeding is also frequently used in the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. The U.N. Human Rights Commission said it regards force-feeding at Guantanamo as a form of torture. Over the violations of rights in Guantanamo, 250 doctors from the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia and Ireland, published an open letter in "The Lancet" (one of the oldest and most prestigious medical journals in the world) against the violations and expressed their concern. Another version of force-feeding was also used by U.S. forces in Iraq.Muslim prisoners in Abu Gharib prison under the U.S.-led coalition were forced to eat pork and drink alcohol, both of which are forbidden in Islam. Also in 2006, the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal approved the use of the force-feeding of Serbian politician Vojislav Seselj.