RAMALLAH, Sunday, January 03, 2021 (WAFA) – Palestinian detainee in Israeli jails Jibril Zubaidi has been on hunger strike for the 21st day in a row in protest of his unfair detention without charge or trial, yesterday said Qadri Abu Bakr, Chairman of the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Commission.
Zubaidi, a resident of Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, was detained by the Israeli occupation army on February 25, 2020, and was sentenced to 10 months in prison and a fine of 2,000 shekels ($550). He was supposed to be released on December 12, 2020, but was astonished that an Israeli court had given him a six-month administrative detention sentence on the day of his expected release.
After 21 days of hunger-strike, Zubaidi is reportedly suffering pains in the joins and bones and a breathing difficulty. He has also lost six kilograms of weight so far.
He is a former prisoner in Israeli jails, and has served a total of 12 years in intermittent detention sentences for resisting the Israeli occupation of his homeland.
Israel’s widely condemned practice of administrative detention that allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from viewing.
Amnesty International has described Israel’s use of administrative detention as a “bankrupt tactic” and has long called on Israel to bring its use to an end.
Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes as a way to protest their illegal administrative detention and to demand an end to this policy, which violates international law.
M.N
