New York City activists protested outside the offices of security corporation G4S on Friday, 19 February, demanding that G4S get out of the business of profiting from the imprisonment of Palestinians, and calling for freedom for Mohammed al-Qeeq, the Palestinian journalist on his 87th day of hunger strike, demanding his release from Israeli administrative detention without charge or trial.
The latest weekly protest organized by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network targeted the security corporation, subject to an international boycott campaign. Palestinian prisoners have called for an international boycott of G4S, and over 200 Palestinian and international organizations have called on the United Nations to stop doing business with the corporation, which provides security systems, equipment and control rooms to Israeli prisons, detention centers, and checkpoints.
Protesters highlighted the case of Mohammed al-Qeeq, who launched his hunger strike in protest of his torture under interrogation in Israeli detention centers – to which G4S provides security equpment – and then of his imprisonment without charge or trial under administrative detention. After nearly three months of hunger strike, Al-Qeeq is in extremely critical condition and threatened with death at any time. Participants distributed information about G4S and al-Qeeq’s case, demanding his immediate release.
