Palestinian political prisoner held in Israel dies after cancer battle
Sami Abu Diyak, a Palestinian political prisoner in Israeli jail, who was suffering from terminal cancer, has died in prison this morning. Israel has rejected several appeals to release him on humanitarian grounds so that he can get proper treatment for cancer outside prison.
RAMALLAH, West Bank • AP and agencies
Sami Abu Diyak, a Palestinian political prisoner, died Tuesday in Israeli custody after battling cancer, Israel’s prisons service said, ahead of demonstrations in the West Bank planned before his death.
The protests, dubbed a “day of rage” by organizers, are against the U.S. announcement last week that it no longer considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be a violation of international law, reversing four decades of American policy. The protests were also set to call for Sami Abu Diak’s release.
Abu Diyak had been diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 2015. His condition subsequently deteriorated, which Palestinian media say is in part due to medical mistakes at the hospital in southern Israel where he had surgery to remove part of his large intestine.
“The death of Abu Diyak comes after months of warning [the Israeli authorities] about the seriousness of his condition, that he could die at any moment because of the medical negligence he was subjected to,” said Abu Bakr.
Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, issued a searing condemnation of Abu Diyak’s death, calling on Israel to take responsibility for its actions.
Abu Diyak is the twenty second Palestinian prisoner to die as a result of medical negligence since 1967, more than a third of whom did so in custody, Ashrawi pointed out.
“Sami is the latest victim of Israel’s reprehensible policy of medical negligence against Palestinian prisoners, who also endure other grave violations of human rights and war crimes at the hands of their Israeli jailors, including torture,” she said in a statement.
“Israel’s notorious and well-documented mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners, including minors, is morally, legally, and politically bankrupt. It fails to meet any of its obligations under international law and it flaunts its defiance of the UN-set minimum standards required for treating prisoners with abject disregard for Palestinians’ humanity,” she added.
Abu Diak was linked to the armed wing of the Palestinian Fatah faction and was arrested in the early 2000s, during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising. He was allegedly involved in the killing of three Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israeli security forces.
The Palestinian Authority and Abu Diak’s family had asked for his release to allow him to die at his family’s side, but Israeli officials denied the request. The Palestinians also reached out to European countries and the Red Cross to apply pressure on Israel to release him.
Previous deaths of terminally ill Palestinian prisoners have sparked protests and accusations of medical negligence by Israeli authorities.
Tuesday’s protests were called before Abu Diak died. The demonstrations were set to protest the Trump administration’s embrace of a hard-line Israeli view on settlements at the expense of the Palestinian quest for statehood.
Schools, universities and government offices will close their doors just before midday and rallies will be held in city centers around the Israeli-occupied West Bank, with marches expected to move to Israeli checkpoints where confrontations with Israeli security forces are expected.
Israeli leaders welcomed the U.S. decision last week, while Palestinians and other nations warned that it undercut any chance of a broader peace deal.
Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and quickly began settling the newly conquered territory.
Today, some 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the two areas, which are both claimed by the Palestinians for their state.
The Palestinians and most of the world say the settlements undermine hopes for a two-state solution by gobbling up land sought by the Palestinians. Israel says the fate of the settlements should be determined in negotiations, even as it steadily expands them.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had announced that the U.S. was repudiating the 1978 State Department legal opinion that held that civilian settlements in the occupied territories are “inconsistent with international law.”
