Palestinian journalist nears death on hunger strike
This posting has these items:
1) Ma’an: Israeli forces raid hospital where hunger-striker al-Qiq is detained, Israeli security beginning to panic;
2) PNN: International journalist syndicates send a message to Netanyahu: release al-Qiq immediately, focus on sources of support;
3) AFP: Israel holds more than 700 Palestinians without charge: NGO;
4) JPost: Palestinian hunger striker invites scrutiny of Israel’s detention policies;
5) Youtube: Video by Fayha Shalash, wife of hunger striker Muhammad al-Qiq includes some shocking images;
6) Mondoweiss: Israeli interrogators threatened to rape al-Qiq and his family – so he launched hunger strike, lawyer says, a particularly horrifying account;
Palestinians call for the release of Mohammed al-Qiq, a Palestinian journalist held on administrative detention, on hunger strike for almost three months, outside the Red Cross building in Jerusalem on February 18, 2016. Photo by Ahmad Gharabli /AFP
Israeli forces raid hospital where hunger-striker al-Qiq is detained
By Ma’an news
February 21, 2016
JERUSALEM — Israeli special forces accompanied by police dogs raided the Afula hospital where Palestinian hunger-striker Muhammad al-Qiq is currently being detained on Saturday, a Palestinian Authority official said.
Hanan al-Khatib, a lawyer for the PA Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs said the sudden raid came after al-Qiq suffered from spasms and seizures several hours earlier, causing panic among doctors who rushed to al-Qiq’s room and evacuated it.
The purpose of the raid remained unclear on Saturday evening, but al-Khatib said the raid sent out the message that Israeli authorities were aware that “Muhammad could die at any moment.”
Earlier on Saturday, Palestinian Prisoners Society leader Qadura Fares told Ma’an that Palestinian officials were involved in talks to reach a compromise with Israeli authorities regarding al-Qiq that would be accepted by the Palestinian journalist and his family by Sunday.
The raid comes a day after the Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs said Israeli intelligence services had refused to allow al-Qiq’s family to visit him during his hunger strike, in contradiction with an earlier ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court.
Al-Qiq, a 33-year-old father of two, went on hunger strike in late November to protest his administrative detention — internment without trial or charge. He has since gone without food for 88 days, and has been in critical condition for weeks.
Israel has negotiated in cases of hunger strikes launched by Palestinian prisoners in the past out of fear that prisoners’ death could spark unrest in the occupied Palestinian territory, but the territory has already seen months of unrest.
Palestinian Prisoners’ Society head Qadura Fares said earlier this month that the Israeli security establishment now believes it has “nothing to lose” by failing to release al-Qiq before his death.
Al-Qiq has vowed to maintain his strike until transferred a Palestinian hospital in Ramallah and released from Israeli custody, requests that were most recently denied by Israel’s High Court of Justice earlier this week.
International journalist syndicates send a message to Netanyahu: release al-Qiq immediately
By PNN/Ramallah
February 20, 2016
In an exclusive interview for PNN, Nasser Abu Baker, the chairman of the Palestinian journalists’ syndicate, stated that their local campaign to release the 3 months hunger-striking Palestinian journalist Mohammad al-Qiq gained an international voice in the past few weeks due to his worsening health conditions.
According to Abu Baker, the journalist syndicates from Greece, Turkey, Ireland, the United Kingdom and France, on Thursday sent a direct message to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding him and his administration to immediately release al-Qiq.
For Abu Baker, this letter was a joint effort by foreign journalists to support the Palestinian journalism syndicate campaigning to release al-Qiq.
He thanked all the journalists and activists involved for their support and concern with al-Qiq case, specially with his health conditions.
Nasser Abu Baker expects that this action will add great pressure on the Israeli government to release Mohammad al-Qiq immediately. He stated thatthese syndicates are under the umbrella of the international journalism union association, which can put some great pressure on the Israeli government.
Al-Qiq was arrested on 21 November 2015 when Israeli soldiers blew up the front door of his house and took him in for interrogation at Israel’s Kishon (Jalame) detention centre.
His hunger-strike, that was started on 24 November 2015, came as a protest against administrative detention in Israeli prisons for six months without any charges or court.
He is one of 6,800 Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel, including 660 administrative detainees and 18 journalists. Nearly all are tortured during interrogations by Israeli occupation forces.
Under international law, administrative detention is only permissible as a last resort and in cases of an immediate threat.
Al-Qiq is now in the Israeli HaEmek hospital, and Israeli Occupation Authorities refuse to move him to Ramallah hospitals.
Human Rights organizations, including International Solidarity Movement, have called on the immediate release of Al-Qiq, saying that he is facing death any minute now.
Amnesty International on Thursday said that the journalist’s strike “reflected what former Palestinian administrative detainees held by Israel said in the past: that faced with “detention without charges for an unknown — and potentially unlimited — duration, they saw refusing food as their only way of demanding their rights under international law.”
The rights group said it feared that that the Israeli authorities were using administrative detention as a “method of punishing” al-Qiq without prosecuting him, amounting to arbitrary detention.
Israel holds more than 700 Palestinians without charge: NGO
By AFP
February 19, 2016
Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) – More than 700 Palestinians are currently being held by Israel without being charged or put on trial, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said on Friday.
The number of prisoners held under Israel’s controversial administrative detention law has spiked because of a series of arrests since a new wave of violence began in October, the prisoners club said in a statement.
Under the administrative detention law, Israel can hold suspects without trial for periods of six months renewable indefinitely.
The system is again under the spotlight because of a hunger strike by journalist Mohammed al-Qiq, who has gone without food for 87 days in protest at being detained without trial.
The system has been criticised by Palestinians, human rights groups and the international community.
The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, raised the issue of administrative detention on Thursday in a speech to the UN Security Council.
He said that anyone held under the system should “be either charged or released immediately”.
He also said he was “deeply concerned about the deteriorating condition” of Qiq.
Israel says administrative detention, a policy it inherited from the British rule in Mandatory Palestine, is an essential tool for preventing attacks while allowing to keep sensitive information secret.
More than 7,000 Palestinians are currently in Israeli jails, including those under administrative detention, according to the prisoners club.
Among them are around 30 people who have been in jail since before the signature of the 1993 Oslo Accords.
The Palestinian Authority has made their release a condition of the resumption of frozen peace talks with Israel.
A demonstration in Hebron on February 16, 2016, calls for the release of Mohammed al-Qiq. Photo by Hazem Bader/ AFP
Palestinian hunger striker invites scrutiny of Israel’s detention policies
Mohammad al-Qiq is accused of being a member of Islamist group Hamas.
By Reuters /JPost
February 20, 2016
A three-month hunger strike by a Palestinian journalist accused of militancy on behalf of Hamas has prompted stern questions from the United Nations and European Union over Israel’s policy of keeping prisoners in detention without charge.
Mohammad al-Qiq, who was detained by Israeli forces in November, is on the 86th day of a hunger strike in a hospital in northern Israel. Doctors say he is becoming weaker by the day, his speech slow and labored and that he is in pain.
Israel placed him in what it calls “administrative detention”, a practice that has roots in British mandate Palestine. It allows a prisoner to be held for up to 60 days without charge and without viewing evidence against him and can be extended with court approval.
The United Nations, EU and rights groups have expressed concern about Qiq, who is refusing any food or medical treatment, and denounced administrative detention.
On Thursday UN envoy on Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking Nickolay Mladenov briefed the UN Security Council. “I … call for all persons subject to administrative detention to be either charged or released immediately,” he said.
That echoed criticism from the EU in a January statement: “Detainees have the right to be informed about the charges underlying any detention, must be granted access to legal assistance, and be subject to a fair trial.”
Screenshot of Mohammad al-Qiq in his state of extreme emaciation
Israel says detention without trial is essential in preventing further violence in cases where there is insufficient evidence to prosecute, or where going to court would risk exposing the identity of secret informants.
Qiq is accused of being a member of Islamist group Hamas. The Supreme Court on Wednesday said he is suspected of involvement in militant activity and contacts with Hamas operatives in Gaza.
“He is, in short, clearly a Hamas activist involved in militant terrorism,” the court said after reviewing classified information.
Palestinian officials say the 33-year-old father of two, employed by Saudi-owned Al-Majd Television, is being hounded for political reasons.
“If Israel has charges against him, bring him before a fair trial. Otherwise free him immediately,” said Qadoura Fares, chairman of the Palestinian prisoner club which advocates for Palestinians jailed by Israel.
There are currently 600 Palestinians held in administrative detention, according to the Israeli Prison Service.
Earlier this month the Israeli Supreme court suspended Qiq’s detention order saying that due to his medical condition he posed no imminent threat. But Qiq has refused to end his strike until the order is canceled altogether.
Faihaa Shalash, Qiq’s wife, told Reuters she had received a midnight phone call in which her husband asked that she and their children come to the hospital.
Fayha Shalash, wife of hunger striker Muhammad al-Qiq
“There has been a dramatic change overnight and it was the first time Mohammad asked we come to him,” she said. “We are worried.” She said the authorities would not permit her entry into Israel.
Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said in a statement the Israeli government “bore full responsibility for Qiq’s life and for the consequences of their delaying his release.”
A law passed in Israel last year permits force-feeding hunger strikers. It has not been enacted and Israel’s medical association has ordered doctors not to abide by it, describing it as unethical and a violation of international conventions.
Fayha Shalash, the wife of hunger-striking journalist Muhammad al-Qiq, holds their daughter in front of a protest tent in the West Bank village of Dura on 27 January. Al-Qiq’s health deteriorated after weeks of hunger strike in protest of his detention without charge or trial after Israeli forces arrested him at his home in November. Photo by Wisam Hashlamoun APA images
Israeli interrogators threatened to rape al-Qiq and his family– so he launched hunger strike, lawyer says
By Dan Cohen, Mondoweiss
February 19, 2016
Israeli investigators threatened to rape Palestinian hunger striker Mohammed al-Qiq, his wife and children, according to his lawyer, Ashraf Abu Sneineh.
“In the beginning of the investigation of Mohammed they told him that they will keep him under administrative detention for seven years if he did not confess,” Abu Sneineh told Mondoweiss by telephone Wednesday morning. “He said ‘I have nothing to confess to and I don’t want to continue this investigation in this manner.’ So they threatened to rape him, his wife and his kids.”
After these threats, al-Qiq began his hunger strike, according to Abu Sneineh.
An Israeli high court refused to transfer the journalist from HaEmek Medical Center in Afula to receive treatment in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. After 86 days of hunger strike, Al-Qiq’s condition has continued to deteriorate and he could die at any time. “A thin line separates him from death. Mohammed is battling for his life. He is suffering from cramps in his arms and legs and irregular heartbeat,” Abu Sneineh said.
A video released earlier this week shows al-Qiq in his hospital bed in Afula, crying out in severe pain and asking for his three-year-old son, Islam.
According to Abu Sneineh, Israel has not officially charged al-Qiq because of insufficient evidence, and reliance on intelligence from informants. “They can’t give any proof against him, and even if they tried, he would be released the next day,” she said.
As the Jerusalem Post’s Jonah Jeremy Bob noted, incitement charges are typically insufficient for administrative detention.
Faiha’a Shalash, al-Qiq’s wife, said that when Israeli forces raided their home in the middle of the night in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, soldiers first knocked on the door with weapons, then blew off the door with explosives. “I didn’t even have time to put my clothes on before they blew off the door,” she told Mondoweiss. Soldiers then interrogated al-Qiq in his living room before taking him to Beit El settlement, where he was left outside handcuffed and blindfolded in the cold November weather for twenty hours, and finally transferred to al-Jalame prison, according to Shalash.
While her husband’s absence has been trying, she believes he is battling for a greater cause. “If Mohammed doesn’t do anything, it’s going to pave the way to put more Palestinians, especially journalists, under administrative detention,” Faiha’a Shalash said.
Al-Qiq’s nearly three-month hunger strike has received scant coverage in US media, and comes at a time of increased pressure on journalists. This week, Washington Post Jerusalem Bureau Chief William Booth and a colleague were detained by Israeli police at the Damascus Gate in occupied East Jerusalem. Like al-Qiq, police accused Booth of incitement. An initial police statement accused Booth of “disturbance of the peace” for “propaganda purposes,” and later explained that the original accusation was “without foundation.” Shortly after, the Israeli Government Press Office released a statement saying, “Freedom of the press is a supreme value in the Israeli democracy.” The Washington Post has barely covered the al-Qiq case, using wire reports.
Israeli interrogators wielding sexual violence is not uncommon. After interrogators beat bloody Palestinian prisoner Rasmea Odeh, her father Josef Odeh was brought in and pressured to have sex with her, according to Alfred Lilienthal’s “The Zionist Connection.” After he refused, interrogators beat both of them before they “spread her legs and shoved the stick into her.”