Radical cleric starts hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinian journalist

Radical Islamist cleric Raed Salah announced Tuesday that he was going on hunger strike in solidarity with a Palestinian journalist who has been refusing food for almost three months.

Salah told Al-Jazeera television he would be joined Wednesday by former Knesset member Mohammad Barakeh, the current chair of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel.

Mohammed al-Qiq, who is striking to protest his detention in Israel, on Tuesday rejected a compromise that would have seen him transferred to a hospital in East Jerusalem, saying he will only stop his fast if he is sent to a Palestinian medical facility.

Salah leads the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement, which the Israeli cabinet banned in November as an organization with terrorist links. The group rejects the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians and boycotts national elections on the grounds that they legitimize the Jewish state.

Salah was sentenced late last year to 11 months in prison for incitement to violence and racism over an inflammatory sermon he delivered in 2007 in Jerusalem. Salah has appealed the sentence. He has previously served terms for similar offenses.

Al-Qiq, who was arrested and held by Israel without charge under administrative detention, is currently being treated at Haemek hospital in the Israeli town of Afula in the Lower Galilee.

“There is no difference between Afula and al-Makassed hospital for al-Qiq,” Ahmad Abu Muhammad of the Palestinian Prisoners Society told the Palestinian Ma’an news agency.“If he decides to go to Jerusalem, they will take him, put two or three soldiers by his bed … it will be exactly the same.”

Al-Qiq’s lawyers had petitioned the High Court Monday for him to be transferred to a hospital in Ramallah, under Palestinian control.

But the court rejected the request and recommended he be sent to the Arab-run al-Makassed hospital instead. It added the move was “within the framework of the frozen administrative measures concerning him,” raising the possibility he could be detained again if he ends his hunger strike.

The 33-year-old is reported to be close to death after 83 days of a hunger strike to protest his administrative detention by Israel. Administrative detention allows the state to hold suspects without trial for periods of six months, which can be renewed indefinitely.

The Shin Bet security service says Qiq was detained for terrorist activity on behalf of Palestinian terror group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.