Palestinian journalist Muhammad al-Qiq has begun a new hunger strike in protest of how Israel has once again detained him without charge or trial.
On January 15, al-Qiq was arrested at a military checkpoint near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. He was returning from a protest in Bethlehem at the time.
Since then, he has been under interrogation while his detention was repeatedly extended.
He announced his hunger strike after he was issued with an administrative order — special orders issued by Israeli courts that allow prisoners to be held indefinitely without trial. Orders for administrative detention can be indefinitely renewed.
Less than a year ago, al-Qiq refused meals for more than 90 days while being held indefinitely without trail, to protest the use of the administrative detention order against him.
Al-Qiq ended his hunger strike after Israel agreed not to renew the administrative detention order. He was released in May.
Fayha Shalash, al-Qiq’s wife, said the latest administrative detention order was proof of Israel’s failure to find any evidence on which it could indict her husband.
At the time of his arrest last month, a spokesperson for Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic spy agency, told The Jerusalem Post that al-Qiq was arrested “on the basis of suspicions of involvement in incitement to terrorism against Israel and renewed activity with Hamas”.
Read the full article by Charlotte Silver at the Green Left Weekly.