Alwaght- With every minute Palestinian Journalist Mohammad Al-Qeeq who went on hunger strike 90 days ago is nearing his death.
The 33-year-old Palestinian reporter has almost lost the ability to speak and hear, and is paying a high price for freedom of speech, his lawyer says. “Mohammed al-Qeeq is in critical condition. Mohammed could die at any time. Minutes and seconds separate him from death,” his lawyer Ashraf Abu Sneineh told RT.
Mohammed suffers from convulsions in the muscles of his hands and feet and medical certificates from Afula Hospital say the journalist is close to death, according to the lawyer.
A-Qeeq was arrested from his home in al-Khalil by Tel Aviv Regime's internal security agency Shin Bet in November. He was subjected to tough investigation for 20 days before being held into administrative detention which forced him to declare a hunger strike.
Administrative detention is a notorious military violence that allows the Israeli regime to hold captives for an indefinite period. The inhuman process also allows for arrest based on secret evidence, and there is no requirement to charge the detainees or to allow them to stand trial.
To protest at his unlawful detention, the journalsit launched an indefinite hunger strike, refusing food and taking only sips of water.
Queeq's lawyer believes Mohammed’s spirit and psychological condition "are completely fine.” He is planning to continue “his hunger-strike until he is released,” the lawyer added.
So far no charges have been brought against him. His family believes he was detained for his work as a journalist.
Al-Qeq’s wife, Faiha’a Shalash, also a journalist, told RT the family has contacted the Palestinian authorities and the Red Cross, “which said that even they are not allowed to visit Muhammad due to security reasons.”
“This is all because of the oppression he has been subjected to since the beginning of his hunger strike. They just want to force him to stop it,” she added.
The power of hunger strike lies in its non-violence as well as its being the only weapon available to fight against the Israeli regime’s injustice within the walls of detention. Palestinians have been starving for freedom from Israeli occupation since 1948 and the subsequent discriminatory policies, continuing land theft, brutal crackdowns, and bloody wars. In their quest for survival, starving themselves was the means to that end at some critical points.
In the later stages of a hunger strike, protesters struggle to speak and can barely communicate anything other than pain. Yet their voices can be heard more than ever as their calls for freedom resonate in the news, proving that empty stomachs grumble loudly.
