Related Post
Wael Arafat has lost 20 kilograms of weight since he began his hunger strike 50 days ago, in protest against the martyrdom of his family, during an Israeli air strike on Gaza.
Editor Melissa Pawson mentioned, in an article published by the Middle East Eye website, that Wael, a 28-year-old British Palestinian, is currently unable to walk, but he is still conscious and speaking. He calls on the British government to take action to stop the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip, which has been ongoing for two months.
Wael told the British website from a hospital in Bath, southwest England, “I know that I may die. I know that something could happen to my health. I do not want to die. I am doing this for the sake of my people who are suffering, because every person in Gaza is my brother and sister.”
Busson, an editor who covers immigration and human rights, pointed out that Wael Arafat is originally from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. He lost his parents when he was 5 years old and was raised by his grandmother in the besieged Strip, before moving to Britain as a teenager, where he was adopted by a British family in 2009. He is 14 years old.
She indicated that he had abstained from food and drink since last October 22, after he learned that his sister and her four children were martyred in an Israeli air strike, on their way to their home in Gaza City.
Wael says, “My family was telling me that they were at home and that they were safe. They told me that they might have to evacuate. I asked them, where? They said we don’t know.” Two weeks after the war, he spoke to his sister for the last time.
He said, “My sister called me to tell me that they had stayed at home and that they might die. This was the last call to her. I would never see her again.”
Support the Palestinian people
The author noted that his health condition had seriously deteriorated over the past week, and that he was receiving small amounts of fluids through an intravenous solution. He said that he felt that a hunger strike was the only way to make his voice heard.
He said, “This is what Palestinian detainees do in Israeli prisons, who stop eating and drinking to protest their detention and the inhumane conditions in prisons. Because they have no voice, a hunger strike is their only way out.”
His adoptive mother, Patricia Davis Thomas, told Middle East Eye that his family in Britain was extremely concerned for his life. “We want him to live and then he can continue supporting the Palestinian people,” she said.
She commented, “We did not know anything about Palestine or Wael. I told him after he came that I would always stand by his side. He just needed someone by his side, and he was a member of our family.”
Patricia stated that she wrote to the local member of parliament, Chris Skidmore, to inform him of Wael’s condition, and he sent her a long response about Hamas, but did not provide any support for him.
The writer also mentioned that Carla Denyer, a local councilor in Bristol and co-leader of the Green Party, went to visit Wael in the hospital last Friday. She said, “Wael told me that he feels ignored by his deputy and the British government.”
Denyer commented that he is not the only one, and that the Conservative government, to which Skidmore belongs, and the Labor opposition are ignoring three-quarters of the British population, who want to see a ceasefire in Israel and Palestine.
