Israel’s Supreme Court turned down a petition on Tuesday, February 16, submitted by Palestinian hunger-striker Mohammed al-Qiq requesting that he be transferred from Haemek Hospital in Afula, Israel to a hospital in Ramallah in the West Bank.

Al-Qiq, a journalist, has been on a hunger strike for 84 days to protest his administrative detention without trial. His petition argued that, because the authorities have temporarily suspended his detention, he should be allowed to move freely to wherever he wants. Therefore, he demanded to be transferred to a hospital in the Palestinian Authority (PA), given that his medical condition requires hospitalization. During Tuesday’s hearing, Justice Eliyakim Rubinstein said that the court had proposed that al-Qiq request being moved to the Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem or alternatively to another hospital in Israel and his request would be dealt with; but the court could not grant al-Qiq’s petition to be transferred to a hospital in the PA.

Muhammad al-Qiq in Afula hospital on February 10, 2016 (Photo: Activestills)

Al-Qiq’s attorney, Jawad Boulous from the Palestinian Prisoners Club, said that his client rejected the court’s suggestion that he be moved to Makassed Hospital. While the court was considering its decision on Tuesday, attorney Boulos related how Israel’s military prosecution had said in the hearing that it could not allow al-Qiq to go to Ramallah, where he would be outside Israel’s direct control, and could therefore represent a “threat” to Israel’s security. Boulos noted in court that currently al-Qiq is not under guard at the hospital in Afula, in the north of Israel, and is able to speak to whomever he wants, which would also be the case in Ramallah.

Boulos added that al-Qiq and his family had also requested that he be monitored by Palestinian Authority security for the remainder of his administrative detention period, which ends in May.

Hadash MK Yousef Jabareen (Joint Arab List) who is a professor of law, called the court’s ruling “a death sentence,” adding that “the prisoner al-Qiq has declared that he is willing to cease his hunger strike if concrete criminal charges are brought against him, and that his entire hunger strike is directed against the evil of administrative detention. Instead of lifting the administrative detention and saving al-Qiq’s life, the Supreme Court has once again bowed to the dictates of the security authorities and sacrificed humanitarian considerations.” MK Jabareen also remarked that the court had exceeded its authority when it determined that Qiq was a militant without having given him the chance to respond in court. “The verdict is just more proof that justice is not now, nor has it ever been relevant to the Palestinians living under occupation for nearly five decades,” Jabareen concluded.