The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates expressed today its deep concern over the health situation of Maher Al-Akhras, a Palestinian detainee who has been on hunger strike for 70 days in protest of his detention without charge or trial by the Israeli occupation authorities.
Al-Akhras, a father of six children, has been illegally held in administrative detention several times.
He was detained in 1989 for seven months, in 2004 for two years, in 2009 for sixteen months, in 2018 for eleven months, and lastly sentenced for four months in administrative detention on July 2020, when he decided to launch his hunger strike.
Al-Akhras was urgently moved to the hospital due to the severe health deterioration, as his vital organs are failing, but continues to refuse to be treated until the punitive illegal administrative detention is terminated.
The Palestinian prisoner Maher Al-Akhras has been on an open-ended hunger strike for 62 days pic.twitter.com/nITG8vSuWk
— Shehab News Agency (@ShehabAgencyEn) September 26, 2020
“Administrative detention is Israel’s go-to legal proceeding when it simply wants to mute the voices of Palestinian political activists, but lacks any concrete evidence that can be presented in an open, military court,” wrote Palestinian journalist and editor of The Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud.
“Not that Israel’s military courts are an example of fairness and transparency. Indeed, when it comes to Palestinians, the entire Israeli judicial system is skewed. But administrative detention is a whole new level of injustice,” Baroud added.
(Palestine Chronicle, WAFA, Social Media)
