Escalation in Israeli brutality against Palestinian prisoners

The Jerusalem Intifada has sparked much debate regarding the impunity which enables Israel to justify mass arrests, administrative detention, torture, extrajudicial killings and, most recently, proposals to hinder the process of cross examination during court trials. Palestinian resistance, legitimate under international law, has been routinely maligned by Israel and the international community. Recently, Palestinian media has publicised the resistance of another Palestinian political prisoner and journalist, Muhammad Al-Qeeq, who is on hunger strike protesting torture and ill treatment by Israel’s intelligence forces.

According to Palestinian NGO Addameer, Al-Qeeq was arrested in November 2015 by the Israeli occupation forces that raided his house at 2am and later subjected him to 25 days of interrogation, torture, sexual harassment and threats of administrative detention. He commenced his hunger strike on the fourth day of his interrogation and was later placed in solitary confinement at Megiddo prison during which he received the six-month administrative detention order. As his health deteriorated, Al-Qeeq was transferred to Ramla prison and, later, to Afula hospital, where doctors have been threatening to force-feed him unless he agrees to relinquish his resistance efforts. Al-Qeeq has insisted upon his right to persist with his hunger strike until his release. The Palestinian Information Centre has reported that Al-Qeq was actually force-fed between Sunday and Thursday.

The Israeli military judge claimed that Al-Qeeq is affiliated with Hamas and unidentifiable “others”. The prosecution is also alleging that Al-Qeeq’s work as a journalist is a source of incitement. However, it is clear that the arrest is part of a premeditated campaign targeting Palestinians and which, given the context of the current uprising, has enabled Israel to embark upon as many violations as possible, while attention shifts from one case to another given the frequent dissemination of information.

It is unlikely that Al-Qeeq’s hunger strike will ignite international indignation as happened in the case of Samer Issawi. However, close attention should be given to the dynamics between international law, Israeli colonisation and international complicity. The weak condemnations of administrative detention are a farce, given the stipulation in international law that such action may be taken in extreme circumstances; hence the construction of complicity and impunity which has enabled Israel to navigate through both its colonial endeavours and feigned international opposition.

Administrative detention is swiftly starting to resemble a macabre game through which Israel bolsters its security rhetoric and seeks measures to stipulate further legal oppression against Palestinian political prisoners. On the other end of the spectrum, several Palestinian prisoners have successfully maintained their hunger strike until a negotiated release. However, Israel has not been averse to embarking upon additional humiliating measures, including the re-arrest of released hunger strikers. As the international community focuses upon what Israel deems newsworthy, the Palestinian struggle becomes marginalised, with adverse effects for those whose lives have been concealed from sight and singled out for severe torture in Israeli prisons. Given the usual apathetic, sporadic outbursts of concern and condemnation, Al-Qeeq’s hunger strike will be unjustly confined to express an individual effort, rather than an important action and narration within the wider realm of Palestinian collective memory.

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