New Yorkers took to the streets on Friday, 29 January to demand the immediate release of imprisoned Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qeeq, on his 66th day of hunger strike and shackled to his hospital bed in critical condition.
Organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, the protest outside the New York City offices of G4S demanded al-Qeeq’s immediate release as well as an end to G4S’ contracts to provide security systems to Israeli prisons and checkpoints. Today’s New York City protest for Al-Qeeq joined events in London, Berlin, and in various towns and cities in Palestine.
Al-Qeeq, 33, launched his hunger strike on 25 November 2015. A correspondent for Al-Majd TV, he was interrogated in stress positions for up to 15 hours a day and denied access to a lawyer for a month; while he was on hunger strike, he was ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial.
G4S, the world’s largest security corporation, provides the security systems that operate Israeli prisons that hold over 6,800 Palestinian prisoners, including 660 administrative detainees like Al-Qeeq. Palestinian prisoners have urged a boycott of G4S and there is a growing global boycott campaign demanding institutions end their contracts with this corporation complicit in torture, colonialism and apartheid.
Samidoun in New York organizes weekly protests outside the G4S offices, highlighting G4S’ involvement in the torture and isolation of Palestinian prisoners, and demanding freedom for all imprisoned Palestinians.
Photos by Joe Catron.
