Ramallah, occupied West Financial institution – An Israeli court docket has postponed a parole committee to evaluation the opportunity of an early launch for terminally sick Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa, 61, who was transferred to hospital a number of days in the past.
“Regardless of his extraordinarily troublesome well being situation … the court docket session to evaluation conditional early launch for the aim of remedy has been postponed to Could 31,” his household mentioned in an announcement on Wednesday.
Daqqa, who suffers from a complicated stage of bone marrow most cancers, was transferred on Monday to the intensive care unit on the Assaf Harofeh hospital south of Tel Aviv attributable to additional well being problems.
Dozens of Palestinians took to the streets on Tuesday night in Ramallah within the central Israeli-occupied West Financial institution to demand Daqqa’s rapid launch.
Daqqa hails from the Palestinian city of Baqa al-Gharbiya inside Israel and is likely one of the most distinguished thinkers and writers of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Motion. He holds a grasp’s diploma in political science and has written a number of books whereas in jail, together with a youngsters’s one.
He was imprisoned by Israel in 1986 for being concerned within the killing of an Israeli soldier and was sentenced to 37 years in jail, which he accomplished in March 2023 however Israeli authorities had prolonged his sentence by two years in 2017 over expenses of smuggling cell telephones into jail.
“Walid Daqqa might lose his life at any second. His well being is in grave hazard. He can’t stroll or can’t speak correctly. He additionally can’t breathe usually – he’s on a respirator,” Ihtiram Ghazawneh from the Addameer Palestinian prisoners’ rights group advised Al Jazeera.
“He accomplished his 37-year sentence. He isn’t somebody who’s on a safety file any extra. He should be capable to proceed remedy outdoors of jail, amongst his household, as a result of even when he’s launched, it’s not clear how lengthy he’ll stay,” Ghazawneh continued, including they “have been assembly with diplomats to stress their governments for his launch”.
Daqqa underwent surgical procedure on April 12 during which a big portion of his proper lung was eliminated. He was positioned within the Ramle jail clinic – infamous for its unhealthy circumstances – on Could 7, and offered solely with antibiotics and a collection of bodily remedy classes, in response to prisoners’ teams (PDF).
“Walid must be in a hospital, below fixed monitoring and remedy. Not within the Ramle jail clinic which isn’t appropriate for any sick particular person, not to mention somebody with such a harmful well being scenario like Walid,” mentioned Ghazawneh.
On Monday, his household mentioned in an announcement their solely demand stays Daqqa’s “rapid launch … in order that he can obtain remedy with out restrictions”, including that “jail authorities maintain full accountability for his life contemplating the dearth of an appropriate remedy for the uncommon most cancers he suffers from”.
Late on Tuesday evening, Israel’s Nationwide Safety Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir mentioned in a tweet Daqqa “ought to finish his life in jail”.
Palestinian Authority officers mentioned such an “inflammatory assertion” is “thought-about an official licence to kill him”.
‘Plain function’
Daqqa started complaining of well being issues as early as 2015, in response to Addameer. Three years later, docs beneficial that he obtain periodic blood exams, which jail authorities refused. Solely in December 2022 was he admitted to hospital following a sudden deterioration in his well being, the place he was identified with bone marrow most cancers and declared in pressing want of a transplant.
He has not been afforded the transplant surgical procedure till right this moment.
In January 2023, a physician who evaluated Daqqa’s medical situation mentioned that with out definitive remedy, he has an “common survival of a few yr and a half”.
In mid-February, Daqqa suffered a extreme stroke. Regardless of requiring emergency remedy, he was solely transferred to a hospital 11 days later. Throughout that point, he misplaced at the least 10 kilogrammes in a month and a half, and a major quantity of blood.
In March 2023, the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) submitted an pressing enchantment to the United Nations calling for Daqqa’s rapid launch.
“It’s simple that the IPS [Israeli Prison Services] performed a direct function, if not an unique function, for the life-threatening situation of Walid,” the enchantment mentioned.
“The IPS has disadvantaged him of a well timed bone marrow transplant—the one identified remedy course that may save his life, regardless of the advice of each consulting doctor,” it identified.
“Crucially, the instrumentalization of medical negligence as a software to denigrate, demoralize, and punish Palestinian prisoners is emblematic of Israel’s unlawful and inhumane jail system.”
In 1999, Daqqa received married whereas behind bars. He and his spouse, Sana Salameh, welcomed their daughter Milad in 2020, conceived after his sperm was smuggled out of jail.
He’s one in all 23 prisoners who’re being held in Israeli prisons in violation of the 1993 Oslo Accords, which stipulated that each one Palestinian prisoners detained previous to the signing of the settlement can be launched.
Walid Daqqa, a 61-year-old Palestinian author, activist, mental, and political prisoner, was identified with a uncommon type of bone marrow most cancers in 2022. Walid has been in dire want of pressing medical consideration since then.#Free_Walid_Daqqah pic.twitter.com/utZcewWQt9
— Addameer –الضمير (@Addameer) May 23, 2023
In latest months, Palestinians and supporters have taken to social media to demand Daqqa be launched below the hashtag #Free_Walid_Daqqa.
Palestinian officers and rights teams have lengthy documented and condemned a “deliberate Israeli coverage of medical negligence”.
Israeli jail authorities frequently delay checkups and pressing surgical procedures for Palestinian prisoners for years, in response to prisoner teams.
Specialised docs are usually not frequently accessible, aside from dentists, and “over-the-counter painkillers are administered as a treatment for nearly all well being issues”, rights teams mentioned in a joint report back to the United Nations.
‘Dropping prisoners yearly’
On Could 2, Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan died whereas in Israeli custody on the 87th day of a starvation strike in opposition to his repeated arbitrary arrests, inflicting widespread anger and prompting armed resistance teams within the besieged Gaza Strip to fireplace rockets at Israel.
In December 2022, Palestinian prisoner Nasser Abu Hmaid additionally died in Israeli custody regardless of longstanding calls to launch him and claims of Israeli medical negligence following his late analysis of most cancers a yr prior.
In 2020, 4 Palestinian prisoners died in Israeli custody.
“If Walid Daqqa just isn’t launched, he have to be positioned in an appropriate remedy surroundings,” mentioned Ghazawneh. “The Ramle jail clinic is similar place the place Khader Adnan was martyred. We don’t wish to preserve dropping our prisoners on account of the style during which the occupation behaves.”
Chatting with Al Jazeera on the protest in Ramallah, former prisoner and starvation striker Mohammad al-Qiq mentioned the worldwide group should “at the least ship a committee to evaluation Israel’s actions in direction of our prisoners, which violate all worldwide legal guidelines”.
“Yearly we’re dropping prisoners attributable to medical negligence, oppressive insurance policies and worldwide silence within the face of those crimes,” the 41-year-old mentioned.
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