Palestinian hunger striker Bilal Kayed vows to continue protest
A Palestinian prisoner who has been on hunger strike for over two months has vowed to continue his protest despite his severely deteriorating health condition which has reached a point where he has lost the ability to speak.
Bilal Kayed, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was arrested in 2002 and spent 14 and a half years in Israeli jails. On the day he was scheduled to be released on June 13, Tel Aviv decided to extend his imprisonment term for another six months under the administrative detention policy, which allows detainees to be held without trial for renewable six-month periods.
According to a prisoner advocacy group, Addameer, whose representatives visited the 35-year-old in hospital last week, Kayed is shackled to his bed and is suffering from severe pain, blurred vision, numbness, hair loss and yellowness and skin peeling.
Addameer noted that despite his bad health, the hunger striker is in good spirits and "has vowed to continue his hunger strike until he is freed."
The Palestinian Prisoners Society says that Kayed harbors worries that Tel Aviv is pursuing a new policy of adding administrative detention to prison terms without charge.
"We can only support him" said his sister, Soha Hussein. "So we say, go on, but stay alive and come home,” she added.
On Friday, aid group Amnesty International, released a statement calling for his release.
“The Israeli authorities must release Kayed, or, if they have evidence that he has committed a crime, then he should be promptly charged with a recognizable criminal offense and tried in proceedings which comply with international law and standards on fair trial,” read the statement.
Kayed has repeatedly been denied family visits, and was subject to solitary confinement, for which Israeli officials cited unspecified “security reasons.” He has gone on multiple hunger strikes, the most recent of which was in February, when he protested against his isolation in Ashkelon prison.
There are reportedly more than 7,500 Palestinians held at Israeli jails. Seven hundred of these inmates have apparently been incarcerated under the practice of the administrative detention. Some Palestinian prisoners have been held under the administrative detention for up to eleven years.
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