26 January 2016•Update: 26 January 2016
By Anees Barghouthi
RAMALLAH, Palestine
Fayha Shalash, 29, the wife of jailed Palestinian Mohammed al-Qeeq, who is now in his third month of an open-ended hunger strike to protest his ongoing detention by Israel, has called on Turkey’s president to press for her husband’s release.
"Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, you have always stood with the Palestinian people and defended them against Israeli intransigence," Shalash, addressing the Turkish leader, told Anadolu Agency. "I can’t stand idly by while my husband dies slowly."
"The father of my two young children is suffering under the [Israeli] occupation’s injustice," she added. "My family calls on you to intervene to save his life."
Detained Palestinian journalist Mohammed al-Qeeq’s hunger strike entered its 63rd day on Tuesday.
According to his lawyer, Ashraf Abu Sneineh, al-Qeeq’s health is deteriorating rapidly.
Abu Sneineh confirmed the need for quick action to save the life of his client, who is currently being held in Israel’s Afula Medical Center.
"He has lost the ability to communicate and has lost his sense of his surroundings," Abu Sneineh told Anadolu Agency.
The lawyer added that al-Qeeq had lost consciousness and the ability to walk or speak, and had begun to urinate blood.
Originally from the West Bank city of Hebron (Al-Khalil), al-Qeeq, 32, had lived in Ramallah, where he worked for Al-Majd TV, a popular Arabic-language satellite television channel.
Al-Qeeq began his hunger strike on Nov. 24 of last year -- three days after being arrested by the Israeli authorities for alleged "incitement" -- to protest his ongoing detention without trial.
