Freed prisoner Mohammed al-Taj launches hunger strike for health care action from PA

tajFreed Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Al-Taj declared he would go on hunger strike on Sunday, July 7 demanding action around his medical treatment. Hilmi Al-Araj, the director of Hurriyat (freedoms) center, said in a press release on Saturday that Taj has waited for two and a half months to be treated, since his release on medical grounds on April 18, 2013, after his lungs failed, but there has been no action except bureaucracy from the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry, and he has also called upon the office of the PA presidency for action but had achieved no results.

Taj, who suffers from pulmonary fibrosis, is in need of lung transplant operation after he was released from Israeli jails due to his serious condition. Without a lung transplant, his lifespan is estimated to be about eight months.

Araj said that Taj should be transferred to a European country as 85% of his lungs are not working and he is in urgent need of specialized medical care. Taj was detained in 2003 and was serving a 15-year sentence; he was released, with no treatment, by the occupation prisons shortly following the death of Maysara Abu Hamdieh and widespread protests across Palestine against the medical mistreatment and abuse in occupation prisons.