Head of the Islamic Movement in 1948 Occupied Palestine Sheikh Raed Salah ended his five-day hunger strike on Thursday following appeals from the Arab Follow-up Committee.
Speaking with the PIC shortly after he visited Sheikh Salah in the Israeli Ramon jail lawyer Omar Khamayssa said he conveyed a letter to the Sheikh from the Arab Follow-up Committee in 1948 occupied territories pleading him to halt his hunger strike.
Sheikh Salah started his hunger strike five days ago to protest the dire detention circumstances and torture perpetrated by the Israeli prison authorities against Palestinian detainees.
The lawyer added that Sheikh Salah approved the appeal and suspended his hunger strike which he started last Sunday.
Sheikh Salah is meanwhile locked up in an isolated cell in the Ramon jail. He is expected to be brought before an Israeli court to extend his isolation by three months.
For his part head of the Arab Follow-up Committee Mohamed Baraka said he appealed to Sheikh Salah to end his hunger strike after the committee received the message implied by his protest move.
“The Follow-up Committee called for rallies outside the court in which Sheikh Salah is being trialed so as to speak up against his isolation and denounce the Israeli crackdowns against Joint Arab List MKs and the arbitrary decision banning them from visiting Sheikh Salah and other captives” Baraka added.
Sheikh Salah decided to go on an open-ended hunger strike on Sunday 13 November in protest at being mistreated and locked up in an isolated cell in the Israeli Ramon jail.
Sheikh Salah started his prison term on May 8 after an Israeli court sentenced him to nine months in jail on allegation of incitement to anti-occupation protests in a Friday sermon known as Wadi al-Jouz sermon that dates back to 2007.
Last October an Israeli court turned down a petition lodged by the Mezan Center for Human Rights to end Salah’s isolation.
On November 16 2015 the Israeli occupation government blacklisted the Islamic Movement in 1948 occupied territories as an “outlawed” group.
