This new video features Khitam Sa’afin of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees; Abla Sa’adat, activist and the wife of imprisoned Palestinian leader and PFLP General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat; and Qadri Abu Wasel of Abnaa el-Balad, speaking in El-Bireh on 20 July 2016 in solidarity with Palestinian prisoner Bilal Kayed.

Kayed has been on hunger strike since 15 June 2016 in protest of his administrative detention without charge or trial, imposed upon him after the completion of his 14.5 year sentence in Israeli prisons. Kayed is currently held in Barzilai hospital, shackled hand and foot to his hospital bed. He consumes only water and refuses salt supplements, vitamins, and medical examinations.

Over 150 Palestinian and international organizations have joined the call for freedom for Bilal Kayed, with events and protests demanding Kayed’s freedom taking place in cities throughout Palestine and around the world. Protests for the freedom of Bilal Kayed are scheduled to take place today in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Gaza. Other demonstrations will take place on Wednesday in Nazareth and Umm al-Fahm, with further events in New York City and Brussels on 21 and 22 July. 20-30 July will be ten days of international action for Kayed’s release and in support of the growing collective hunger strike and prisoners’ movement protest.

Video:

Palestinian prisoners are escalating their steps of protest today, 19 July, demanding freedom for hunger-striker Bilal Kayed, on his 35th day of hunger strike against his administrative detention without charge or trial. Kayed, 35, was ordered to six months in administrative detention on 13 June, upon the completion of his 14.5 year sentence in Israeli prisons; he began his hunger strike on 15 June in the case that has drawn wide support from fellow Palestinian prisoners, who view it as a dangerous precedent.

Eleven Palestinian prisoners, comrades of Kayed’s in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, held in the Negev desert prison, have announced that they will join 45 fellow prisoners in Ramon, Ofer, Eshel and Gilboa prisons on open-ended hunger strike to demand Kayed’s freedom.

The eleven names – and areas in Palestine – of the hunger strikers are:
1. Bilal Odeh – Jerusalem
2. Hisham al-Titi – Arroub
3. Mohammed Dar Taha – Ramallah
4. Suleiman Khader – Nablus
5. Said Dar Daoud – Ramallah
6. Musa Darwish – Jerusalem
7. Shadi Musleh Ma’ali – Bethlehem
8. Adam Abu Awad – Ramallah
9. Montasser Eid – Nablus
10. Abed al-Rimawi – Ramallah
11. Osama Saleh – Salfit

Kayed is currently being held in Barzilai hospital, shackled hand and foot to his hospital bed and subject to intense surveillance, cameras, alarms, and numerous guards preventing access to him, including four prison guards in his room at all times. He is consuming only water and refuses salt supplements, vitamins, or medical examinations. He was transferred to the hospital with severe deterioration of his health condition, including a large loss of body weight, dizziness, inability to walk or sleep, and intense joint pain.

Shadi Ma’ali, a Palestinian refugee from Dheisheh camp and one of the prisoners who is beginning his strike today, is one of the participants in the 2015 40-day hunger strike against administrative detention. Despite the conclusion of the strike with an agreement for a terminal order of detention against him, his detention has been extended multiple times by order of the Israeli occupation.

Prisoners from all factions in Nafha prison will also refuse meals today, 19 July, and close all of their sections from the early morning, refusing to participate in roll call, to demand freedom for Bilal Kayed and support fellow hunger strikers against administrative detention.

Last night, former hunger strikers Khader Adnan and Mohammed al-Qeeq – as well as Fayha Shalash, al-Qeeq’s wife and a Palestinian journalist –  joined Kayed’s family and a large number of people in Asira al-Shamaliya village to demand freedom for Kayed and the release of the bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, held “prisoner” and denied burial by occupation forces.

Another large rally in Dheisheh refugee camp for Kayed’s freedom was followed hours later by the invasion of the camp and the arrest of former hunger striker Ghassan Zawahreh, whose brother Moataz was slain by occupation forces in October 2015.

Similar actions are planned to take place in escalating protest throughout Israeli prisons. Over 150 Palestinian and international organizations have joined the call for freedom for Bilal Kayed, with events and protests demanding Kayed’s freedom taking place in cities throughout Palestine and around the world. Protests for the freedom of Bilal Kayed are scheduled to take place today in Ramallah, Bethlehem and Gaza. Other demonstrations will take place on Wednesday in Nazareth and Umm al-Fahm, with further events in New York City and Brussels on 21 and 22 July. 20-30 July will be ten days of international action for Kayed’s release and in support of the growing collective hunger strike and prisoners’ movement protest.

Over 45 Palestinian prisoners are now on an open hunger strike against administrative detention and in solidarity with imprisoned hunger striker Bilal Kayed, 35, on his 34th day of hunger strike against administrative detention. Kayed was scheduled for release after the completion of his 14.5 year sentence in Israeli prison on 13 June – instead, however, he was ordered to six months’ administrative detention without charge or trial.

Held in solitary confinement, he launched a hunger strike on 15 June. Hundreds of prisoners from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Kayed’s leftist party, have been engaged in a series of hunger strikes and protest actions in support of his demand for freedom. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement, comprising all major Palestinian political parties in Israeli jails, has also pledged full support and involvement in protest actions to demand Kayed’s freedom. His case is seen as threatening a dangerous precedent of indefinite imprisonment of Palestinian prisoners upon the expiration of lengthy sentences.

After a sharp deterioration in his health, he was transferred from isolation in Ashkelon prison to Barzilai Hospital as dozens of Palestinian prisoners launched an open collective hunger strike – scheduled to grow on an ongoing basis – demanding Kayed’s freedom. Kayed’s lawyer, Farah Bayadsi of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, reported that Kayed is under intense security at the hospital, shackled hand and foot to his hospital bed, and being subjected to ongoing and repeated pressure to end his strike. Kayed is continuing his strike, consuming only water and rejecting all supplements and refusing medical examinations. He has declared that he will continue his strike “until the end.”

In addition to the 37 PFLP prisoners who announced their participation in the open hunger strike beginning on Sunday, 17 July, Asra Voice noted that five prisoners affiliated with Fateh and three with Islamic Jihad had joined the open hunger strike, as has Bassam Kandakji of the Palestinian People’s Party.

Israeli repression has escalated in order to quash the growing hunger strike: PFLP leaders, including Nidal Daghlas and Kamil Abu Hanish have been isolated, with Abu Hanish transferred from Ramon to Gilboa prison. Prominent Palestinian national leader Marwan Barghouthi was transferred from Gilboa prison to collective isolation in Hadarim prison also on 17 July, prevented from communicating with prisoners outside the isolation wing. The imprisoned brothers, Mohammed and Mahmoud Al-Balboul, are on their 14th day of hunger strike; both are held under administrative detention without charge or trial and are demanding their release.  Their imprisoned 15-year-old sister Nuran was freed earlier this week after three months of imprisonment.

Three more Palestinian prisoners held under administrative detention in Ofer prison without charge or trial announced an open hunger strike against their detention on Sunday, 17 July. The three: Ayad Herama, detained since December 2013; Muhannad Mutahna, detained since December 2013; and Malek al-Kadhi, detained since May 2016 – are demanding their freedom. They, the Balboul brothers and Kayed are among nearly 750 Palestinians held without charge or trial under indefinitely-renewable administrative detention orders, issued on the basis of secret evidence.

Attia Bassiouni of the National and Islamic Forces in Gaza said on 18 July that the prisoners’ protest for freedom for Kayed will grow on Tuesday, as sections will close and prisoners will refuse to participate in roll  Prisoners across political lines will return their meals and demand freedom for Kayed and an end to the policy of administrative detention.

Protests are taking place throughout Palestine and internationally to free Kayed, including planned demonstrations in Ramallah and Jerusalem on Tuesday, 19 July. Over 150 international and Palestinian organizations have joined the call for Kayed’s freedom. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is calling for urgent actions between 20 and 30 July internationally to free Kayed, including participation in the World Student Day of Action for Kayed, called by the Progressive Student Labor Front in Palestine.