On his 58th day of hunger strike, Bilal Kayed was set an appeal date 2 months in the future by the Israeli high court. Imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention since 13 June, when his 14.5 year sentence in Israeli prison expired, Kayed has been on hunger strike demanding his freedom since 15 June. He is currently shackled hand and foot to his hospital bed in Barzilai hospital.

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Kayed’s legal team, reported that “he continues to refuse medical examinations and treatment, as well as vitamin supplements and is only consuming water, along with salts, sugar, and vitamin B1 only when needed.” Sahar Francis, Addameer’s Executive Director, visited Kayed today in Barzilai Hospital. “Mr. Kayed also reported to Addameer’s attorney that following the stand of solidarity in front of Barzilai hospital on Tuesday, 9 August 2016, that the Israeli Prison Service has been intimidating him; for example, he was surrounded by 25 armed police officers even though he is shackled with his right hand and left foot to his bed. Additional shackles have also been added to his feet, chaining him to the bed, despite the appeal submitted to the High Court by Physicians for Human to remove the shackling of his hand and legs. The IPS has also held him responsible for the mass hunger strikes inside the prisons, and the escalation taking place outside the prisons.”

He stated that he will refuse to take Vitamin B1 following his 60th day of hunger strike and that doctors have informed him that he will be treated against his will in the intensive care unit should he lose consciousness. He has been denied access to an independent doctor and is currently suffering from “chest pain, kidney, jaw, eyes, ears, legs, as well as severe headache. He also suffers from blurred vision, numbness throughout the body, hair loss, as well as yellowness and peeling of the skin.”

He expressed his appreciation for all of the local and international solidarity actions in support of his struggle and that of the many Palestinian prisoners engaging in a solidarity hunger strike to support his battle.

Kayed’s brother and sister, Mahmoud and Suha, issued a letter recogniing the international solidarity actions in support of Kayed’s strike. “You can help us, when you tell the story of Bilal Kayed to your family and friends, let the world see what is happening to my brother and to my homeland. If International Organisations, do ignore Human rights, we shouldn’t. Let’s make the world a better place on our own and not to wait for anyone else to make it better. Freedom to Bilal Kayed, and Freedom to the whole world.”

The statement came as Joe Catron published a new article in MintPress News, highlighting the growing international campaign for Kayed’s freedom. Activists highlighted the importance of solidarity with the prisoners in interviews, especially amid the silence of large human rights institutions on the case. They also urged the expansion of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns.

The Palestinian Boycott National Committee (BNC) issued a statement urging an intensified campaign to stop G4S in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike.  “As Palestinian political prisoners endure hunger in their quest for dignity and freedom, they have exposed Israel’s brutality in denying them their basic rights. To express effective solidarity with their heroic strike, we call for intensifying the Stop G4S campaign to ensure G4S does indeed end all forms of its complicity with Israel’s regime of oppression,” said the BNC.

Among a series of upcoming events in support of Kayed in the coming days in Sydney, Dublin, Derry, Copenhagen, Vienna and Berlin among other cities is a march and rally in New York City on Friday, 12 August, in which supporters of Palestinian freedom will march from the G4S office at 19 W. 44th St to another G4S office, demanding G4S get out of the business of profiting from the oppression of Palestinians.

Participants in the World Social Forum also declared their support for Kayed in a photo campaign, while Montreal activists held a protest outside a G4S office on Wednesday, 10 August, demanding freedom for Kayed and fellow Palestinian prisoners and an end to the security corporation’s profiteering from oppression.

In Beirut, marchers took the streets on Thursday, 11 August one day after Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the Lebanese Arab Communist supporter of Palestine imprisoned in France for 32 years addressed a crowd in a solidarity tent mounted in the Lebanese city in support of Kayed and his fellow prisoners. In the night march on Thursday, protesters carried torches and banged on a tank, demanding that Lebanese companies stop doing business with G4S as it is involved in the war on Palestine.

Ireland has been a center of protest in support of Kayed and his fellow hunger strikers. A large number of organizations, including Irish republican socialist group eirigi, the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association, the Dublin Anarchist Black Cross, and the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign have engaged in significant events and actions in support of Kayed’s strike while currently imprisoned Irish republicans have expressed their solidarity. The Irish anti-colonial tradition of hunger strikes and resistance to imprisonment is reflected in this broad support. On 11 August, an emergency protest convened in Dublin outside the Israeli embassy to demand Kayed’s freedom, eliciting wide support and honks from rush-hour drivers. Donegal county council member Michael Cholm Mac Giolla Easbuig urged Kayed’s release, calling for more political pressure to support his strike. “I have been in contact with supporters of Bilal Kayed and they tell me the Israelis intend force-feeding him if he slips into unconsciousness. I am calling on the Irish people to protest about the inhumane treatment of Bilal Kayed and to support this man who should have been released from prison weeks ago. Write to your local councillor and TD and demand they raise it at the highest authority possible. Bilal Kayed could have days left to live,” said Mac Giolla Easbuig.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network denounces the transparent efforts on the part of the Israeli occupation military, intelligence and judicial system to threaten the life of Bilal Kayed while attempting to force him to end his hunger strike and accept his administrative detention without charge or trial. Kayed has made his position clear as has the entire prisoners’ movement: the imposition of administrative detention, especially after the completion of a prisoner’s sentence, will never be accepted. He is committed to continue his strike until freedom. As Bilal Kayed enters his 60th day of hunger strike, international solidarity and support for Bilal Kayed and the prisoners’ movement is more urgent than ever. It is critical to redouble efforts now to free Bilal Kayed and all Palestinian prisoners with demonstrations, events and actions to support their struggle for liberation and justice.

Leila Khaled, the Palestinian resistance icon, spoke with Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network today to express her urgent concerns and support for Bilal Kayed, Palestinian prisoner on his 56th day of hunger strike. Kayed, 34, a prominent leader of the prisoners’ movement inside Israeli jails, launched his hunger strike on 15 June after he was ordered to administrative detention without charge or trial after completing his 14.5-year sentence. Rather than being released to his waiting family, he was returned to solitary confinement for six months of indefinitely renewable imprisonment.

Kayed’s hunger strike has found widespread Palestinian, Arab and international support. Over 100 Palestinian prisoners have joined a collective hunger strike in support of Kayed, including Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat, journalist Omar Nazzal, performer Mohammed Abu Sakha, youth activist Hassan Karajah and many more. Protests have filled streets and tents throughout occupied Palestine to demand Kayed’s freedom, while organizers in cities around the world have rallied and organized for Kayed’s freedom, with further events planned in the next several days.

Leila Khaled spoke in Athens at the Resistance Festival in June, focusing on Bilal Kayed, who had then started his strike only days before. Today, she shared her thoughts about his strike at the present moment:

“Bilal Kayed today is on his 56th day of hunger strike. He is determined to continue his battle for freedom and dignity. It is no longer a case of an ‘individual,'” said Khaled. “Comrade Kayed today is a truthful and genuine representative of the Paletinian prisoners’ movement and he is engaged in this battle based on his deep feeling of the responsibility that lies on his shoulders. This is the battle of administrative detention.”

She continued, “Samidoun and your supporters are well aware of what administrative detention is. It is so important to popularize the campaign to end this unjust law, used in particular against Palestinian youth and against Palestinian leaders, including journalists, for simply posting political opinions on websites or social media. Enough is enough! We must abolish administrative detention, torture, isolation. These are unjust laws that target the Palestinian people and the Palestinian prisoners collectively.” Leila continued, “This does not only affect prisoners themselves but their families and their entire communities.”

She noted the ongoing arrests and targeting of Palestinians throughout occupied Palestine. “Just last night, the occupation forces invaded Dheisheh refugee camp and injured several young men with live fire. Today one young man is threatened with death. They also arrested Nidal Abu Aker, a leader in the camp who was just released last year after his own hunger strike against administrative detention.”

Leila Khaled urged further international action on the case, declaring “I urge all people of conscience to immediately get engaged in whatever capacity they have, including demonstrations, sit-ins, letter writing, phone calls, sending solidarity delegations, because of the urgency of this situation.” She continued, “We also must remember that Bilal Kayed is not the only prisoner who is on hunger strike. Today there are so many Palestinian prisoners backing Bilal and refusing food. It is important also for international institutions to live up to their responsibilities, particularly the International Committee of the Red Cross. I have not seen a word from Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International on this case. No human rights organization that works on the case of Palestine can claim that they are unaware of this case and the hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners.”

Commenting on the international organizing in support of Bilal Kayed, she said, “I have been following the news of the international campaign to free Bilal Kayed being conducted by Samidoun and many friends of Palestine around the world. It gives us strength and a true feeling of international solidarity. I urge all activists and organizations in the BDS movement to intensify their campaigns against G4S and for the boycott of Israel. The Zionists are lying and panicked – your movement is growing and we know that your commitment to Palestine is unshakeable.”

“Of course resisting imprisonment is the task of all revolutionary movements today. We must remember the movement that Georges Ibrahim Abdallah and his comrades in Lannemezan prison are leading in France and elsewhere. We join the call to free Mumia Abu Jamal, the MOVE 9 and all of the revolutionary prisoners. This is a link between the struggles of revolutionary prisoners from the United States to Ireland to France to the Basque country to the Philippines and elsewhere: today Bilal Kayed represents all of these struggles. He must be freed,” concluded Leila.

Bilal Kayed is currently on his 56th day of hunger strike and he remains shackled to his hospital bed in Barzilai Hospital. A photo was released yesterday, 8 August, which shows Kayed from a distance inside his hospital room.

In a visit with his lawyer, Farah Bayadsi of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Kayed said that the director of Ashkelon prison came to his hospital room on 6 August and “held him responsible” for the growing hunger strikes in Israeli prisons. Over 100 fellow Palestinian prisoners have joined in collective mass hunger strikes in support of Kayed, who launched his hunger strike on 15 June in protest of his administrative detention without charge or trial. Kayed was ordered to six months in indefinitely-renewable administrative detention on 13 June when he was scheduled to be released after completing a 14.5-year sentence in Israeli prison.

Kayed is currently suffering deterioration of his health: he suffers from chest, kidney, eye, ear and leg pain as well as headache. His vision is blurred, his body is numb and he has lost hair; his skin is yellow and peeling. He was told by a doctor following his case that he is entering a very critical stage due to loss of fluids and salts and is suffering from dehydration. She threatened that if he loses consciousness, he will be forcibly treated, a violation of his rights and international conventions and the declarations of the World Medical Association.

The threat to forcibly treat Kayed came as the Israeli Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission seeking to transfer hunger-striking brothers Mahmoud and Mohammed al-Balboul to the hospital. Like Kayed, the Balboul brothers are held without charge or trial under administrative detention; they are striking to demand their freedom. Mahmoud has been on hunger strike since 5 July and Mohammed since 7 July. The high court rejected the appeal as “interference” in the jurisdiction of the Israel Prison Service. The administrative detention orders agains tthem were confirmed by a military court on Sunday, 7 August. Both are being held in Ofer prison; the brothers are the sons of Ahmad al-Balboul, a Fateh leader assassinated by Israel in 2008. Their teen sister, Nuran, was imprisoned for three months until her release on 12 July.

Imprisoned journalist Omar Nazzal, who is one of the strikers who joined Kayed’s strike to demand his freedom, is suffering from serious medical consequences despite only being on the strike for five days; in his appearance in Ofer military court yesterday, his wife Marlene Rabadi noted that his appearance was yellowed and fragile, and that while he was in the “bosta,” the infamous metal vehicle used to transfer prisoners, he had been beaten and physically abused by the “Nachsom” unit, who also threatened him with forced treatment and forced feeding. Rabadi reported that her husband had been kept in the vehicle for hours following the beating.

On Monday, the prisoners participating in the mass strike in Gilboa prison were prevented from meeting with their lawyers, reported the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, while others were transferred to isolation in Shata prison. This is one of a series of repressive attacks carried out by the prison administration against hunger striking prisoners, including the isolation of leaders including PFLP General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat; widespread denial of family visits; confiscation of personal property; invasion and ransacking of cells and the imposition of financial fines.

In Nablus, former prisoners and supporters of the prisoners engaged in a solidarity hunger strike in support of Kayed, Sa’adat, Balboul and their fellow strikers. Participants in the strike include Nazik Kayed, Bilal’s sister; Linan Abu Ghoulmeh, former prisoner; Zahran Abu Otbeh, former prisoner; Myassar Atyani, prisoner activist; and Suad Mleitat, sister of prisoner Musab Mleitat.

Protests continued outside prison walls as well in support of Kayed and his fellow hunger strikers; protesters in occupied Palestine protested outside Barzilai hospital where he is held, while marchers in Ramallah confronted Palestinian Authority police when they were pushed back from marching to Beit El military occupation site. Participants in the Barzilai protest were attacked by Zionists and one protester was arrested. The attack on the protesters is continuing at this time.

In Gothenburg, Sweden, protesters demanded freedom for Kayed in a protest on 9 August, while in Brussels, Shadi Daana – whose family has been deeply impacted through the political imprisonment of many members, including his father and brother – and Ibrahim Khayar – who recently visited the Kayed family as part of a Belgian delegation to Palestine – spoke about the situation of Palestinian prisoners. Participants carried signs for freedom for Bilal Kayed and political prisoners in US and French jails, particularly the MOVE 9, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier and Georges Ibrahim Abdallah.

In New York City, graffiti urging freedom for the MOVE 9, Mumia Abu-Jamal and Bilal Kayed hit the streets, highlighting the cases of prominent political prisoners.

Further international events are planned in the coming days, including a multi-day program in Beirut, Lebanon; a march and rally in New York City; and emergency protests in Dublin, Copenhagen, Montreal, Berlin, Sydney and Vienna.