Imprisoned Palestinian novelist and activist Walid Daqqa, who was suffering from cancer, has died in Israel\u2019s Shamir Medical Center, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Daqqa was from Baqa al-Gharbiyye, a predominantly Palestinian city in Israel, and had served for 38 years in Israeli prisons, the commission added, before saying that he had died as a result of a \u201cslow killing\u201d policy carried out against ill prisoners by the Israeli prison administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Protesters have gathered in Ramallah in memory of one of the most prominent Palestinian prisoners, who was due to be released next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Palestinian state news agency Wafa described Daqqa as a \u201cfreedom fighter\u201d, while Hamas said that it was renewing its \u201ccovenant with the prisoners until they gain freedom\u201d, following the news of his death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement, Hamas noted how Daqqa\u2019s death \u201ctook place in the occupation prisons\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel\u2019s far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir \u2013 who is responsible for the Israel Prison Service \u2013 said that Israel was \u201cnot crying\u201d over the death of Daqaa, who he referred to as a \u201cterrorist\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a social media post, he said that Daqqa\u2019s life had ended naturally and that it was not a part of the \u201cdeath penalty for terrorists\u201d as it was \u201csupposed to\u201d be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Poor treatment of prisoners<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Daqqa is one of the most prominent and longtime Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody. He was arrested by Israel in 1986 for killing an Israeli soldier and has remained in prison since then. While in jail, he wrote several books, including a children\u2019s story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1999, he also got married while behind bars. Along with his wife, Sana Salameh, he welcomed a daughter \u2013 Milad \u2013 in 2020, conceived after his sperm was smuggled out of prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Israeli officers inside the prison told him they would not allow him to have a child, but he won by having Milad,\u201d his wife told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A year later Daqqa was diagnosed with myelofibrosis \u2013 a rare form of bone marrow cancer that disrupts the body\u2019s normal production of blood cells. Rights groups began pressuring Israel to release him on medical grounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last year, Addameer, a rights group that supports Palestinian prisoners, said that Daqqa was in \u201cdire need of urgent medical attention\u201d, accused Israeli authorities of denying him the treatment he was prescribed, and called for his \u201cimmediate release\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Israel refused to free him from prison early, setting his release date for 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Israeli prison authorities regularly delay checkups and urgent surgeries for Palestinian prisoners for years, according to prisoner groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Specialised doctors are not regularly available, except for dentists, and \u201cover-the-counter painkillers are administered as a remedy for almost all health problems\u201d, rights groups said in a joint report to the United Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At least 10 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, according to Wafa. But a Haaretz investigation said that the number was actually at least 27.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before that, in 2020, four Palestinian prisoners died in Israeli custody; and in November 2021, Palestinian prisoner Sami Umour, 39, died after a months-long delay of an urgently needed operation for serious heart problems from which he suffered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The delay in deciding the case of Daqqa and other sick prisoners was described by Qadura Fares, the director of the Palestinian Prisoner\u2019s Society, the main Palestinian prisoner rights NGO, as a policy of \u201cslow, systematic killing\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Sunday, after the news about Daqqa\u2019s death was announced by Israel, tributes poured in on social media in memory of him and his work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe was among the most prominent prisoner intellectuals, with several works to his name, notably \u2018Melting the Consciousness,\u2019 \u2018Parallel Time,\u2019 and the novel \u2018The Secret of the Oil Story,\u2019 which received local and Arab awards,\u201d Lema, a diplomat at the Palestine Mission to the European Union, said in a post on X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDaqqa leaves behind a legacy as a Palestinian hero,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Source: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Imprisoned Palestinian novelist and activist Walid Daqqa, who was suffering from cancer, has died in Israel\u2019s Shamir Medical Center, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs. Daqqa was from Baqa al-Gharbiyye, a predominantly Palestinian city in Israel, and had served for 38 years in Israeli prisons, the commission added, before saying that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":10099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[307,185,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-news","category-palestinian-affairs","category-172"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10101,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10098\/revisions\/10101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}