Mother of Palestinian hunger striker Maher al-Akhras speaks bitterly about her dying son

“I want to see and hug him like all mothers of the world, but the occupation has prevented me from visiting him since he was detained late last July. I am counting the minutes and hours, feeling so afraid to hear the news of his martyrdom inside the jails of the Israeli occupation, especially because he is now in a critical health condition that threatens his life, the mother of the Palestinian hunger striker Maher al-Akhras said.

Al-Akras, 49, from the occupied West Bank, has been on an open-ended hunger strike for 88 consecutive days after he was arrested and placed into administrative detention without charge or trial in late July.

“I call on the international community and all freedom-loving people of the world to help save my son’s life and to pressure the Israeli occupation to release him”, the mother said. 

 She told SANA correspondent about the moments of anxiety and fear that she is going through in the light of the deteriorating health condition of her son as a result of the occupation’s aggressive practices against him and against all other detainees, including physical and psychological torture, deliberate medical negligence and solitary confinement.

“I am afraid that the phone will ring bringing bad news about Maher for he is in a dangerous health condition and unable to move. His hearing and speech have been impaired and the long fast has harmed his vital organs such as kidneys, liver and even heart, which could threaten his life and he could die at any moment,” the mother went on to say, calling for pressuring the occupation authorities to release her son immediately.

She added that “over the entire period of his detention and his 88-day hunger strike, the occupation refused to allow me to visit him. The occupation practices the policy of slow death against my son and his fellow captives through deliberate medical negligence and through letting diseases ravage their bodies while the world is silent over the crimes of this occupation. However, this hasn’t prevented my son from fighting the battle of pride and dignity against the Israeli occupation”.

Tasabeeh al-Akhras, one of the detainee’s six children, said that her father faces organ failure and will die soon. “His situation is critical and he is in continuous pain. He asked to be moved to a Palestinian hospital so he could stop his strike, but the Israelis refused. Freedom is the only way to stop his hunger strike. My father is everything in our life and we are afraid to lose him because of the occupation’s practices,” she added.

 “He should be with us,” she said, calling on the international institutions, especially the United Nations, to interfere immediately to release her father. She stressed that ignoring the critical health condition of her father by the Israeli occupation is a crime against humanity that flagrantly violates all international conventions and norms.

Muhsen al-Akhras, the son of the hunger striker, said that his father, although the occupation keeps preventing the captive’s family from visiting him, continues with his strong will and steadfastness against the occupation practices, and so did all the prisoners inside the occupation’s detention camps.

Muhsen expressed his fear that his father may die, as happened to dozens of other prisoners who died in the occupation detention centers due physical torture and medical negligence which are crimes that require the freedom-loving peoples of the world to act before it is too late and to oblige the Israeli occupation to release him.   

Hamda Mustafa