After 89 days of hunger strike, Berlin protest calls for freedom for al-Qeiq

A solidarity vigil was staged by a consortium of human rights organizations in Berlin in solidarity with the Palestinian detainee Muhammad al-Qeiq, whose hunger strike has entered its 89th day.

Journalists, activists, students and representatives of international human rights institutions joined the protest and called for freedom for hunger-striker al-Qeiq. The demonstrators called, in a statement propagated online, for stepping up pressure on the Israeli occupation so as to release al-Qeiq before he dies.

The statement urged the concerned human rights bodies to immediately step in and work on ending Israel’s infringement of journalists’ rights to freedom of expression and of the press, holding the occupation authorities responsible for al-Qeiq’s exacerbated health condition. Al-Qeiq has been on an open-ended hunger strike for the 89th day running in protest at being held arbitrarily, with neither charge nor trial, in Israeli custody.