Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Israel Court Springs Hunger-Striking Palestinian Journalist

JERUSALEM — Israel’s Supreme Court has suspended the administrative detention of a Palestinian journalist who has been on a hunger strike for 72 days.

The court said it was suspending the detention of Muhammad al-Qiq in reaction to Qiq’s poor health due to his hunger strike. Last week his attorney said he was unconscious, on the verge of organ failure and could die at any minute.

Qiq is protesting being held by Israel in administrative detention since Nov. 24. He has said he was tortured during interrogation, according to reports.

Under administrative detention, a prisoner can be held for six months without being charged or tried. The order can be renewed indefinitely.

Under the Supreme Court order, Qiq cannot leave the hospital without permission and his family will be allowed to visit him. His detention has not been canceled, just suspended.

The order came after doctors at the HaEmek Medical Center in Afula refused to force-feed Qiq.

An Israeli law passed in July allows the force-feeding of prisoners, though it has yet to be invoked.

Qiq has been jailed by Israel before, including a month in 2003 and 13 months in 2004, the French news agency AFP reported. In 2008, he was sentenced to 16 months on charges linked to his activities on the student council at the West Bank’s Birzeit University, according to AFP.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.