Muhammad Al-Qeeq

Personal Info

Country of residence: Palestine

Gender: Male

Born in: 1982

Information

Muhammad Al-Qeeq , a Palestinian journalist and correspondent for Al-Majd satellite channel , went on a hunger strike in Israeli occupation prisons for 94 consecutive days in the “Japanese style.” He is the first prisoner to be force-fed to break his strike. He was arrested by the Israeli occupation and by the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank several times. He was arrested from his home in the city of Ramallah on November 21, 2015 at 2:00 in the morning. An occupation army force raided his home before arresting him. After handcuffing his hands and blindfolding him, he was transferred to the Beit El settlement near Ramallah, and left. Then he was out in the open for about 20 hours, then he was transferred to the Al-Mascobiyah Investigation Center and then to the Al-Jalama Investigation Center. After the torture and ill-treatment to which Al-Qeeq was subjected, he decided to go on an open hunger strike.

Student and trade union activity

He chaired the Birzeit University Student Council in the 2006-2007 session with a distinguished union harvest. He was active in the Islamic Bloc - the student wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) , in addition to being a writer of opinion articles in a number of local and Arab websites that express the spirit of Palestinian resistance and the continuation of Jerusalem uprising.

In the prison of the Palestinian Authority (Fatah movement)

He was arrested several times by the Palestinian Authority security forces affiliated with the Fatah movement in the West Bank. One of them was when they arrested him during their suppression of the sit-in in front of the Grand Al-Bireh Mosque in Ramallah in 2013. The Preventive Security Service of the Palestinian Authority and the Fatah movement in the West Bank summoned the journalist Al-Qiq several times, one of which was after members of the “special police” attacked him after his participation in the “Nusra” march. Egyptian Legitimacy” (Support for President Mohamed Morsi ) in August 2013.

Also, when members of the Preventive Security Service of the Fatah movement raided the building on the evening of January 8 , 2014 . His home is in Ramallah. His family said that individuals in civilian clothing who identified themselves as members of the Preventive Forces stormed Al-Qiq’s house and began a search of his rooms, confiscating his computer, a collection of personal photos and CDs, indicating that he asked them for a warrant to search the house and after they made phone calls they informed him that they had obtained a warrant. An order from the prosecution to do so.
He was kidnapped for months by the Preventive Service, Intelligence, and Presidential Security in 2006, 2008, and 2009.

In occupation prisons

Al-Qiq was a freed prisoner who spent more than three years during three arrests in Israeli prisons, the last of which was in 2008, until he was arrested again in 2015, when the Israeli occupation arrested him at dawn on Saturday, November 21, 2015 , after raiding his home in the city of Ramallah in the West Bank. . His wife, journalist Fayhaa Shalash, said that large forces of occupation soldiers surrounded the residential building in which he lived, and stormed his house after blowing up the door and smashing the glass windows in it. They then began to spread throughout the house and superficially search its rooms before they arrested journalist Al-Qeeq and confiscated his mobile phone, his wife’s phone, and a personal computer. Then they took him to an unknown destination. She added: “During the raid, one of the officers interrogated Muhammad and wrote down information about his work and home. He asked me to bring the international press card he had, but the officer immediately said that it was not important to them. This indicates that the Palestinian journalistic body is being targeted as a whole, and the goal is to silence this voice that conveys the truth.”

Hunger strike in the occupation prison

He began an open hunger strike days after his arrest, in protest against his ill-treatment during investigation and his transfer to administrative detention . Al-Qiq is now suffering from difficult health conditions, especially after he was force-fed. He lost consciousness several times, and lost the ability to speak, hear, and see, in addition to being shackled. On the bed. Since the beginning of his strike, Al-Qiq has refused to take subsidies and undergo medical examinations, and he is currently in the Israeli Afula Hospital , after he was transferred to it due to the deterioration of his health condition, while the latest reports indicate that Al-Qiq has lost consciousness inside the Afula prison hospital, and that his health condition has entered a very critical condition. Several human rights organizations, as well as his family, warned of the possibility of his martyrdom in light of the occupation’s intransigence in responding to his demands and the deterioration of Al-Qiq’s health condition.

Freedom or death

On January 1 , 2016 , in an interview with Al Jazeera English , his wife said that he had signed a paper refusing medical treatment, and said: “His decision is clear: freedom or death, and nothing in between.” [5] While on January 19 , the hospital forcibly treated him for four days.

He lost a large part of his hearing

On January 2 , 2016 , Muhammad lost about 60% of his hearing, but he was still conscious and aware and refused treatment.

He was unable to speak or speak

On January 6 , 2016 (day 76 of the strike), Muhammad lost the ability to speak or speak, and began communicating with those around him by writing on a piece of paper. He said that he “will continue the strike until freedom or martyrdom.” [6]

The first prisoner to be force-fed to break his strike

On January 12, 2016, the Zionist occupation forces applied the force-feeding law to him by inserting solutions into his body against his will, a dangerous development that violates international conventions. The head of the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Authority, Issa Qaraqe, said that prisoner Al-Qeeq is the first prisoner on hunger strike against whom the “force-feeding” law was applied, which was approved by the occupation government in July 2015, with the aim of breaking the will of the hunger strikers. Whereas the “Ethics Committee” at Afula Hospital, consisting of 3 doctors, a psychiatrist, and a social worker, which has the authority to force the striking prisoner to feed under the pretext of danger to his life, tied up the prisoner Al-Qeeq, taking advantage of his state of physical weakness, and connected him to the “Monitor” devices. », and «infusia», to introduce fluids into his body through a vein . Despite the prohibition of force-feeding strikers and force-feeding them by all legal authorities, the International Medical Federation and the Israeli Medical Association, the occupation government did not take into account the international legal position on force-feeding. [7] Prisoner Muhammad Al-Qeeq ended his strike on 2/26/2016 after an agreement with the Zionist authorities that he would be released on 5/21/2016.

Many solidarity campaigns

Solidarity campaigns with him continued, and various areas of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank witnessed vigils in solidarity with the prisoner and to protest Israel’s position of refusing to respond to his demands. Participants in the protests raised slogans calling for pressure on Israel to release the prisoner and end his suffering in administrative detention. They also called on the Palestinian Authority and Arab organizations to play their role in supporting Al-Qiq and activating his cause in all international forums. The protests included school children who organized classes in the street in an effort to draw the attention of world public opinion to the suffering of Al-Qiq in the occupation prisons.

Many institutions and personalities expressed solidarity with him, including: The Palestinian Journalist Bloc called for solidarity campaigns with him, and in conjunction with a number of media outlets, the Al-Resala Media Foundation and its affiliated Al-Resala newspaper organized; A stand in solidarity with him after (78 days of his strike). Journalists at the institution carried banners in support of the journalist “Al-Qiq”, including: “#Save_Muhammad_Al-Qiq, and the empty intestines will defeat the high walls, and the chains will be broken despite the nose of the jailer, and from our intestines we will create a victory, and support the justice of Muhammad Al-Qiq, and Al-Qiq represents the symbol of freedom, and what the pen was unable to achieve will be achieved with the intestines.” Empty, and a will that bears the slogan #free_or_martyr will not be broken.” The participants also carried banners such as: “Where are the advocates of freedom? Al-Qaiq’s body is exhausted by the strike. The international community is muzzled, and Al-Qaiq is approaching death. A strike in exchange for freedom and defense of the honor of the profession and the pen. Muhammad will return to his family and loved ones, achieving a new victory.” The Director General of Al-Resala said, “This stand is in solidarity with journalist Al-Qeeq, who confirms, through his ongoing strike for 78 days, that he is paying a price for the freedom of the Palestinian pen,” noting that they will continue to organize events defending his freedom until he achieves it.

On Sunday, February 21, 2016 , a general commercial strike spread throughout Hebron Governorate . Commercial shops and markets closed their doors in solidarity with the prisoner Muhammad Al-Qeeq. This strike came after a call made by the political forces in the governorate through loudspeakers that were installed on private cars that roamed the streets of the governorate and carried posters of the prisoner Al-Qiq. A distinctive commitment was observed by the commercial movement in Hebron Governorate to this strike, as shop owners placed pictures of the prisoner Al-Qiq on their doors and wrote on them: “Today is a comprehensive strike in solidarity with the imprisoned hero, Muhammad Al-Qiq.”

Hamas prisoners begin a series of supportive protest steps

On January 28, 2016, prisoners of the Hamas movement in the occupation prisons began a series of protest steps against the continued targeting of prisoner journalist Muhammad al-Qeeq, 65 days after his open hunger strike, which led him to an extremely dangerous health situation. The first of these steps will begin by returning meals provided to them before. Administration of the Zionist Prison Service . The prisoners of the movement had confirmed that the martyrdom of prisoner Al-Qeeq would bring the prisons into a new phase that the occupation and its prison service had never experienced before. [11]
The Islamic Movement inside the country staged a sit-in in front of the

hospital

The solidarity of the Islamic Movement in Israel with Al-Qiq continued , and developed until the movement held congregational and Friday prayers in front of Afula Hospital, and it developed further on February 18, 2016, when the Israeli police released the head of the Islamic Movement within the Green Line, Sheikh Raed Salah , and the head of the Supreme Follow-up Committee, the Arab MP. In the Knesset, Muhammad Baraka , after an investigation that lasted hours, after she was arrested following their visit to Al-Qiq and their announcement of going on a hunger strike in solidarity with him.

Internationally

The Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process at the United Nations , Nickolay Mladenov , had called for action to release the prisoner Muhammad Al-Qeeq. Mladenov called for action to prevent deterioration in the health of prisoner Al-Qeeq, which would “fuel violence in the region,” pointing to the United Nations’ rejection of the policy of administrative detention.

Ending the strike by agreement

The supreme leadership body for Hamas prisoners in Israeli prisons announced on Friday, February 26, 2016, that an agreement had been reached to end their suffering. The Commission said that the offer is to end the administrative detention of the journalist on 5/21/2016 with a fundamental decision that cannot be extended.

She pointed out that he had the option to complete his treatment after ending the strike in any government hospital inside the occupied territories in 1948, but we preferred for him to remain and be treated by a Palestinian team from inside the occupied territories working in Afula Hospital out of appreciation for his health condition that we observed and that he cannot tolerate movement. Al-Qiq will be a guest in Nafha prison among his brothers after completing the treatment period and not going to the Ramla prison clinic to ensure that the occupation forces his release on the agreed upon date.

Freedom

On Thursday, May 19, 2016, the Israeli occupation released prisoner Muhammad Al-Qeeq (33 years old) at a military checkpoint south of the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli judiciary had previously refused to release Al-Qiq, who went on a hunger strike for 94 days, while he stopped his strike in February of the same year, after reaching an agreement requiring his release. On February 4, an Israeli court suspended the administrative detention of the detainee Al-Qiq and allowed his family to visit him. But she kept him detained in the hospital, due to his health condition, which deteriorated following his hunger strike.

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