 Walid Dhaka is a 61-year-old Palestinian writer and activist who has spent the last 37 years behind the bars of Israeli prisons. Walid Dhaka was meant to be released in February this year, but his sentence was extended by another two years by Israeli authorities despite his very poor medical condition. This extension has been called by Palestinian groups as being tantamount to a death sentence. A large-scale campaign has been launched by various organizations across the world demanding the release of Walid Dhaka. To talk more about Walid Dhaka and the conditions of Palestinian prisoners, we are joined today by Sahir Francis, who is the general director of the Adhameer Prison Support and Human Rights Association. Hi, Sahir. Welcome. Thank you for joining us today. And we know that Adhameer is among the groups which is part of the campaign demanding Walid Dhaka's freedom, but before we go and talk about his medical condition and the urgency behind this campaign, can you start by telling us who is Walid Dhaka and why is he in prison? Good afternoon, and thank you for inviting us to discuss the case of Walid Dhaka. Walid actually is a Palestinian old prisoner that he was arrested in the 80s for being involved in militant activity, and he was sentenced for life sentence. Actually, he's sitting in prison since 1985, and he already finished his life sentence that was ruled by the Israeli court later for 37 years. He was supposed to be released on the 24th of March this year, 2023, but unfortunately in 2018, Walid was facing a new case about smuggling cell phone into the prison, and he received additional two years in prisonment. This is why he's still in prison. Of course, Walid was one of the very well-known political prisoners, leaders inside the Israeli prisons all these years. Walid was very well educated. He educated himself while he's in prison. He was able to continue his high education inside the prison and obtained master's degree, and he was publishing, writing books, articles and studies while in prison. And he was one of the leaders who led several hunger strikes inside the prisons in order to improve the conditions of the prisoner's life, daily life, facing and resisting all the violations that the prison authority forced on the prisoners all these decades. So we see that throughout his sentence, Walid has been defying the Israeli occupation state. He has, as you mentioned, attained his education. He has written books. We know that. And he even has a family. He's gotten married. He has a daughter. And so can you tell us more about how he's been able to do this, what all he has been able to do in the different ways through which he has been defying the Israeli state as well as the different ways in which the largest Palestinian prison population defies the Israeli state in order to lead lives of dignity? Of course, Walid, I should highlight as well that his name was included in the last fourth group of the old prisoners from before Oslo period to be released in the exchange deals with the Israeli government. But unfortunately, this last fourth group was canceled. And this is why he remained in prison. Walid is very well known as a very optimistic person. He was always thinking positively in the elements and aspects, how to transform torture and ill treatment and all the oppression that the prisoners faced from the prison system into a positive experience and to give hope and to support the other prisoners. This is why he was continuing his education. Of course, it wasn't easy. He was always subjected for different methods of punishments for these steps that he were taking inside the prison in order to support himself and the other prisoners. So as I said, he several times was involved in hunger strike. He was subjected for solitary confinement as a punishment. He was isolated for long periods. He was even attacked physically and endured several times in prison raids where the security guards raids the rooms and the sections of the prisoners and attack them. He was transferred from one prison to another so many times in all these decades. He was banned family visits. He actually experienced all the punishments and the violations that any prisoner, any Palestinian prisoner would face inside the prison system. But he all the time kept the hope and he was believing that the prisoners are able to resist all the oppression from within the prisons inside the prison cells. And he was initiating several legal cases via these years, including the fact how he managed to get married. It wasn't an privilege that was granted for him. If you compare with the Israeli criminal prisoners, Walid, at the end of the day, has the Israeli citizen. He was supposed to be treated as any Israeli prisoner, but instead he was discriminated as all the Palestinian political prisoners inside the system. So they were refusing, for example, his petition and his request to have his own child with his wife. And they rejected his petition at least three times. And he was forced at the end of the day to smuggle his sperm in order to give birth to Milad, his daughter. So he was always fighting, fighting and trying to obtain his rights in the prison in all different means of resistance. Absolutely. And of course, he's also written many books, many works which are, I feel, very instrumental in highlighting the Israeli policies of apartheid within the prison system and otherwise. And he's also written books of works of fiction. So can you tell us more about that and how maybe those are also or reason why he has been a particular target? Actually, he was involved in writing lots of not just books, books maybe were just in the last couple of years, but he started as a researcher doing and he started first most famous research he wrote was about the torture and how the torture actually is developing the policies of torture and how the psychological torture is implemented inside the prison system. And this study was published as well in different was translated for different languages. And he kept this writing and publishing because I think it was part of his attitude how to keep the hope and how to try to affect the surroundings like whether the prisoners inside the prison via the education programs and the discussions and the research and the study courses that he was involved in and also for the outside public in order to educate them about the life of the prisoners. And this is also why he was involved in writing stories and talking with the children and young people in the society. And he also wrote a play that was performed by a Palestinian theater in Haifa city that the municipality of Haifa shut down the theater after they performed the play of Walid Daqa. This is again reflects how bad the system, the whole system, not just the prison system, but I mean the whole regime, even the municipalities and the officials are considering all the Palestinian prisoners as terrorists and they don't want even if it's related to educational and raising awareness actions, they are refusing and restricting and banning such activities. Right. And now if we go to his current medical condition, even the Israeli authorities have acknowledged that, you know, his life is at risk. But despite that, his appeals of release are being denied. His treatment is being, you know, he's not been given proper treatment. So can you tell us about this, his medical case, what his conditions are in the treatment he's getting within the larger context of the policy of Israeli medical neglect? Of course, the medical issue is a very concerning point in the context of the Palestinian prisoners because there is a systematic health neglect inside the prison system. And Walid was one case of tens of other cases of Palestinian political prisoners that they face this health neglect policy on daily level inside the Israeli prison. Walid was analysed in 2018 as a cancer case, but his situation was under control more or less till this year. Unfortunately, he got infected with lung's problem and he wasn't transferred to the hospital in proper time. It was just after his wife discovered in one of the family visits that his situation is very serious and she was forcing the prison in Ashkelon prison to take him out to the civil hospital to be treated. But it was a bit late kind of because they needed to cut part of his lungs in the surgery he was getting. And the problem inside the prison system that it's not a good conditions and the treatment that is offered by the different clinics, including the medical centre, a Rumley medical centre, where he is kept now is not enough, is not sufficient, comparing to the treatment that is needed in such serious cases as Walid's case. And all the time that he was getting a bit better, they immediately transferred him back to the medical centre in Rumley and he was getting infections in different ways again in the last couple of months. And this was he was transferred again to the civil hospital to be transferred back to the Rumley medical centre. And this is why we are worried about his health condition, because as you mentioned, even the Israeli doctors in the civil hospital, also in the prison health system admitted that his cancer is very dangerous. And if he's not treated anyway, it seems his time is limited. And this is why we are part of this campaign to request his immediate release. Unfortunately, the request by his lawyer for the special committee that should be deciding about the early release of any political prison, any Palestinian prisoner, you should know that they are considered as security prisoners for the Israeli prison service system. So this is why his request was denied last week, because they claim that he is still classified as a security prisoner, although we finished the life sentence. And still they consider him that he's a security prisoner that according to the new legislation of 2016 of the anti-terror law that it shouldn't be applicable on Walid. Anyway, someone that he's arrested from the 80s, why he should be treated according to the anti-terror legislations and they denied his early release request. I believe that the lawyer would appeal this decision and this is why it's very important to keep the campaign, to keep the pressure and to demand his immediate release in order to save his life. Right. So of course, this campaign is very important. So can you tell us about how this campaign is shaping up as in the different kind of actions that are taking place? Of course, there are many organizations involved, but there are also prisoners who are campaigning and mobilizing behind bars. So can you also tell us about that process? So for the prisoners initiatives inside the prisons, you know, they are limited with the conditions inside the prisons. So the things that they are able to do are limited for hunger strike, threatening to use the hunger strike, closing the sections and such disobedience steps that they usually use. The powerful part of the campaign should be the role of the supporters and the organizations and the international community outside the prison. And this is why we are asking like legal organizations as a doner. Actually, we submitted his case to the UN different special report for the OPT and the working group on arbitrary detention and other bodies within the Human Rights Council. We referred his case to the diplomats in the Palestinian occupied territories like the EU, the other state members. And we believe that there is a need for political pressure, for diplomatic pressure from these countries on the Israeli side to accept his early release request. And for the activists around the world, of course, we ask them either to contact their own governments, their own parliamentarians, the groups that they believe that they can initiate political pressure and raise awareness and be part in the campaign, distribute the information, maybe writing letters directly to the prime minister office in the Israeli government asking the early release of Walid and such actions that actually put pressure, direct pressure on the Israeli government to understand that Walid is not alone and he's supported by all actors around the globe. Finally, I'd just like to conclude by asking, you know, what implications do you think Walid's case and the campaign for his freedom can have on the lives of other Palestinian prisoners? If we succeed in releasing Walid, this is would be a very positive step for other Sikh prisoners that they are in very serious cases. Walid is not the only case that suffers from cancer or suffers from serious health concerns. And this is why it's very important to succeed in the case of Walid because it will mean a support for all the Sikh prisoners that maybe we can make difference in their daily lives. Thanks a lot for joining us today. This was a very important discussion and we hope to keep following this case with you in the future. Thanks a lot for your support. That's all the time we have for today. Thank you for watching People's Dispatch for more such stories. Follow our social media channels on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and visit our website, peoplesispatch.org.