Palestinian prisoner Montasser Eid, 23, a graphic design student from the village of Burin near Nablus, ended his hunger strike on 28 May after a decision to reduce his administrative detention renewal from six months to three months, reported Asra Voice.
Eid had launched a hunger strike against his imprisonment without charge or trial on 18 May. Previously jailed for a year and a half on charges of participating in protests and clashes against the Israeli occupation army invading his village, he was once again arrested by Israeli occupation forces on 20 October 2015, amid mass arrests of Palestinian activists amid rising popular protests.
He was ordered to administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial – for six months.
On 19 April, when he had hoped for release, he was again ordered to an additional six months in administrative detention. After the announcement of his strike, Eid – like other hunger strikers – was transferred to solitary confinement in the Negev Ketziot desert prison.
Eid’s strike is the latest victory by Palestinian prisoners protesting administrative detention; 750 Palestinians are held without charge or trial under the military orders, which are indefinitely renewable and issued on the basis of secret evidence.
Hunger striker and fellow administrative detainee Adib Mafarjah, shackled to his hospital bed in Barzilai Hospital, is entering his 56th day of hunger strike, having refused meals since 3 April 2016. Mafarjah has been imprisoned in Israeli jails without charge or trial since 10 December 2014. He is demanding his freedom and an end to administrative detention. Mafarjah has lost a significant amount of weight and is suffering severe pain after nearly sixty days of hunger strike; his family has set up a permanent solidarity tent outside his home in Beit Liqya near Ramallah.
Two more detained Palestinians, Malik Qadi, 19, and Imad Abu Rezeq, are on hunger strike in protest of torture and abuse under interrogation, Qadi since 23 April and Abu Rezeq since 13 April.
These hunger strikes follow victories by Fouad Assi, reportedly for Sami Janazrah, and the release Mohammed al-Qeeq, Khader Adnan, and other Palestinians held under administrative detention without charge or trial following lengthy hunger strikes. Over 729 administrative detention orders have been issued or renewed so far in 2016.
Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network salutes Montasser Eid on his victorious strike, and salutes the steadfastness of all prisoners who continue to struggle for liberation in the most difficult of circumstances. We urge international protest and action in support of Adib Mafarjah, Malik Qadi, Imad Abu Rezeq, and all 7,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, demanding freedom, justice and liberation.
