Palestinian Prisoner Walid Daqqah Dies In Israeli Occupation Prison

After spending 38 years imprisoned by the Israeli occupation, the Palestinian revolutionary organizer and thinker, Walid Daqqah, died at age 62. Daqqah was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer in December 2022 and also suffered from chronic lung disease. Activists and left groups maintain that Daqqah was killed through intentional medical neglect by Israeli prison authorities.

According to a statement released by Amnesty International, “Since [October 7, 2023], Walid Daqqah has been tortured, humiliated, denied family visits, and has faced further medical neglect. During this period, he was transferred to hospital twice due to health deterioration.”

Palestinian left groups and human rights organizations had intensified effortsto demand Daqqah’s release due to the systematic denial of adequate medical care by the Israeli occupation prison services.

Daqqah finished his original 37-year sentence in March 2023, but his release was blocked because, in 2018, Israeli authorities charged him with attempting to smuggle mobile phones into prison and sentenced him to two more years in prison. This was done despite Israeli authorities knowing he was terminally ill.

On May 31, 2023, the Israeli prison service parole committee rejected the appeal for Daqqah’s early release, alleging that the matter was not within its powers, and shortly after, an Israeli court also rejected the appeal. At the time, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said that not releasing Daqqah was “tantamount to a death sentence.”