RAMALLAH, January 25, 2016 (WAFA) – The health condition of Hunger striking Palestinian detainee in Israeli jails, journalist Mohammad al-Qiq has reached a life-threatening stage, Minister Issa Qaraqe, Chairman of the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Commission said on Monday.
Qaraqe said that the health status of al-Qiq, who is currently being hospitalized in Afula hospital, has reached a very critical stage, noting that he has lost consciousness and his ability to speak.
Al-Qiq, a 33-year-old Palestinian journalist, started a hunger strike on November 25, 2015, in protest of being held in jail under administrative detention, without charge or trial. Since then, al-Qiq has been refusing to take nutritional supplements and undergo medical checkups.
On January 16, 2016, the Israeli military court of Ofer rejected an appeal to release al-Qiq and ordered that he continue to be placed under administrative detention regardless of his health deterioration.
Israeli Supreme Court has initially scheduled a hearing on February 25 before rescheduling it to January 27 following a request submitted by the Palestinian Prisoner‘s Society (PPS).
Al-Qiq is the first Palestinian hunger striker to be force-fed by Israeli authorities since the enactment of the force-feeding law by the Israeli Knesset in July 2015.
In July 2015, Israel‘s parliament enacted the force-feeding law of prisoners on hunger strike, a move that was met by vehement opposition from the country‘s medical association.
There are more than 500 Palestinian prisoners being held under administrative detention, a controversial Israeli practice that allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for up to sex-month intervals that can be renewed indefinitely.
Israeli officials claim the practice is an essential tool in preventing attacks and protecting sensitive intelligence, but it has been strongly criticized by the international community as well as by both Israeli and Palestinian rights groups.
The Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem, said international law stipulates that administrative detention may be exercised only in very exceptional cases. Nevertheless, Israeli authorities routinely employ administrative detention on thousands of Palestinians.
Israel uses administrative detention regularly as a form of collective punishment and mass detention of Palestinians, and frequently uses administrative detention when it fails to obtain confessions in interrogations of Palestinian detainees.
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/T.R
