2016 Israel: Muhammed al-Qiq
Military Judge Advocate General
Brigadier General Sharon Afek Hakirya,
Tel Aviv, Israel
Dear Military Judge Advocate General
Brigadier General Sharon Afek Hakirya,
I hereby calling on the Israeli authorities to release all journalists and other writers held under administrative detention if they are not to be charged with an internationally recognisable criminal offence and tried in proceedings adhering to international standards.
Israel’s increasing resort to the practice, amid a renewed period of violence in Israel and the OPT since October 2015, has been brought into sharp focus by the hunger strike of TV journalist and writer Muhammed al-Qiq, from Ramallah in the West Bank, whose health is now in grave danger. Al-Qiq has been held without charge or trial since his arrest on 21 November 2015 and has been on hunger strike since 25 November. He is refusing everything but water, in order to protest the torture and other ill-treatment to which he says he was subjected in Israeli custody, and to demand his release from detention which he believes is motivated solely by his work as a journalist.
Norwegian PEN and Writers in Prison Committee calling on you to end the practice of administrative detention against journalists and other writers.
Yours sincerely
Magnhild Bruheim
Writers in Prison Committee
Norwegian PEN
Copy: The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Embassy of Israel in Oslo, Norway
