Palestinian student leader Omar Kiswani is on indefinite hunger-strike in Israeli jail, protesting his detention, torture and interrogation without charges.

According to reports, citing an update from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS), the head of the student council at Birzeit University started the hunger strike on 19 March.

 

Kiswani is being held at the Al-Maskobiyya interrogation centre near Jerusalem, where he has been subject to interrogations of up to 18 hours a day.

 

PPS lawyer Ma’moun Al-Hasheem said Kiswani informed an Israeli judge about his hunger strike, and the reasons for holding it.

 

In addition, the report added, the court banned Kiswani from meeting with his lawyer until 26 March to allow for continued interrogation without legal representation.

 

Kiswani was snatched from Birzeit University campus on 7 March by undercover Israeli occupation forces pretending to be journalists, in a violent raid that has prompted widespread condemnation.

 

Dozens of UK student officers are among those who have expressed anger at Kiswani’s arrest, and supported the Palestinian right to education.

 

 

Source: Middle East Monitor