The detention of Mohammed al-Qeeq, Palestinian journalist and former long-term hunger striker, was extended by an Israeli occupation military court on Thursday, 19 January for four more days until Monday, 23 January. Allegedly, he is being accused of “incitement,” a broad charge used to prosecute Palestinians for giving public speeches or even writing on social media about the occupation.
Al-Qeeq, 34, engaged in a 94-day hunger strike in early 2016, winning his release from administrative detention without charge or trial in May 2016. On Sunday, 15 January, he was seized by Israeli occupation forces at the Beit El checkpoint north of Ramallah while returning from a demonstration in Bethlehem demanding the return of the bodies of Palestinian martyrs killed by Israeli forces whose bodies remain detained by the Israeli state.
Meanwhile, released yesterday was Ayed Heraimi, 24, who went on hunger strike against his administrative detention without charge or trial for 45 days in July and August 2016, ending his strike with an agreement for his release. Heraimi was imprisoned on 22 December 2013 on charges of membership in a prohibited organization, the Islamic Jihad movement. When he was released in 2015, he was re-arrested only shortly thereafter was imprisoned without charge or trial for one year and one month under administrative detention.
