A plastic stomach fights the battle of empty stomach

Hunger strike in Israeli jail by Mohammad Saba’aneh

His body is fraught with countless bullets, his heart beats to sound an alarm for his exceptionally grave health condition, and his plastic stomach starves for the sake of Palestine’s dignity. Sitting in his wheelchair and desiring life, Palestinian detainee Mansoor Mowqeda from Salfit has fought in the battle of empty stomachs since April 1, 2013, hoping to change the bitter reality healthy people cannot.

Against freedom, hunger means nothing to Mowqeda. It makes his plastic stomach an iron one that can break the determination of the Zionist occupation that wants to frustrate him. His empty stomach is more honest than the so-called advocates for human rights that are continuously violated.

Mansoor Mowqeda was detained on July 2, 2002, after being shot with six bullets during clashes in the village of village Sniria, in the Qalqeelia district, when he refused to surrender. He now depends on his wheelchair, for he is paralyzed and can neither defecate nor urinate on his own, but disposable plastic bags can help him.

Mowqeda holds only a glass of water in his right hand and a map of Palestine in his left. Both are his secret weapons, which will inevitably shoot down a powerful enemy that has tortured the Palestinians for more than half a century, refusing to leave land which proves her love to her rightful owners.

Humanitarian disaster

Mansoor, 41, lives in his cell in Ramleh prison, thirsty to see the sunbeams and smell a clear breeze that can mitigate the ceaseless pain that intends to kill him slowly. His steadfastness disappoints the Israeli doctor who follows the orders of the military administration and joins in bargaining over Mansoor’s life. No policy stops the medical and psychological mistreatment of Mowqeda. He has severe injuries in his urinary tract and platinum implants in his feet. Many operations on his abdomen, back, and feet removed the bullets, but one bullet remains in his body. The Zionist occupation refuses to remove it. Mansoor gets painkillers that work only for a few moments. Currently, many Israeli Prison Service doctors are trying to convince Mowqeda to back down from his hunger strike, but their efforts are in vain.

Rebirth of life

“Mowqeda suffers from tremors of the extremities and cyanosis leading to loss of his consciousness,” said Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) attorney Fadi Obaidat. “He was transferred to the hospital more than once by an ambulance after being provided with an air ventilator and giving him several injections to help him regain his consciousness.”

“There are 17 sick detainees in Ramleh prison suffering from several diseases, due to deliberate indifference and medical negligence,” Obaidat added.

“Mowqeda is at times full of hope, and others quite desperate,” says ex-detainee Sami Khaled from Ramallah, who accompanied Mowqeda for a few days to Ramleh prison hospital. “This contradiction comes out of the very slow time and the bitter shameful facts which make the man mingled with his grief, and this is actually what is currently happening with Mowqeda.”

Nizar Al-Daqrooq, the head of PPS in Salfit, says, “The PPS organized a solidarity and advocacy campaign for Mowqeda in different governorates of the West Bank, in order to lobby the Zionist occupation to reconsider Mowqeda’s case from moral and humanitarian perspectives.”

Considering the medical negligence against detainees in Ramleh prison hospital, Al-Daqrooq stresses the necessity of releasing Mowqeda to receive medical treatment.

Mansoor Mowqeda’s words have been carved in our minds:

I swear by God, before the people all over the world, that if they saw my body, they would cry on for, and that one day I will show my body, abdomen, and stomach to them…By all means, I will try hard to be alive among the prisons of death.

Translated from Arabic by: Ishraq Ayyoub Othman