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<h1 class="title"><font size="-2"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=775333">http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=775333</a></font><br>
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<h1 class="title">Muhammad al-Qiq begins new hunger strike to
protest latest administrative detention</h1>
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<div class="stamp">Feb. 6, 2017 <br>
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BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Prominent Palestinian former hunger striker
Muhammad al-Qiq began a new hunger strike on Monday to denounce
his latest detention by Israel.<br>
<br>
<div>Palestinian outlet Quds News Agency quoted relatives of
al-Qiq as saying that the 34-year-old journalist had started
an open-ended hunger strike on Monday to protest being
sentenced to six months in administrative detention --
Israel’s controversial practice of detention without trial or
charges.<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>Al-Qiq, who lives in Ramallah and is originally from Dura
in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771568"
style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;"
target="_blank">was released from prison in May last year</a>
after have gone without food for a grueling 94 days -- also to
protest his administrative detention at the time.<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>However, al-Qiq <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774941"
style="font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;"
target="_blank">was redetained in mid-January</a> after he
participated in a protest in the West Bank city of Bethlehem
demanding the release of bodies of slain Palestinians held in
Israeli custody.</div>
<div>According to Palestinian prisoner solidarity
network Samidoun, Israeli authorities had not garnered
confessions or issued charges against al-Qiq as of late
January, although they had earlier expressed that they were
investigating him for alleged “incitement” on social media,
amid <a href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774722"
target="_blank" style="font-family: inherit; font-size:
inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit;
font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border:
0px; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width:
auto; height: auto; line-height: 14.6667px; color: rgb(72,
0, 255); text-decoration: none;">a crackdown on freedom of
expression among Palestinian activists and journalists.</a><br>
<br>
</div>
<div>Al-Qiq’s previous imprisonment by Israel -- widely
condemned by the <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=770110"
target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border:
0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit;
font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;
height: auto; line-height: 14.6667px; color: rgb(72, 0,
255); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255,
255);">United Nations</a>, <a
href="http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=769937"
target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border:
0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit;
font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;
height: auto; line-height: 14.6667px; color: rgb(72, 0,
255); text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255,
255);">Amnesty International,</a> and other rights groups --
and subsequent hunger strike cast a spotlight on Israel’s use
of administrative detention, its arbitrary imprisonment of
Palestinians, and the concerted targeting of Palestinian
journalists.<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>Al-Qiq was one of a number of prominent Palestinian hunger
strikers in 2016, who included the Balboul brothers who went
without food for 77 and 79 days, Malik al-Qadi for 68 days,
Bilal Kayid for 71 days.</div>
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