To whom it may concern,

To all those who have a living conscience in this world, to all those who believe and fight for humanity- which is being violated for the whole world to see and hear, we scream to the last bits of humanity scattered in our souls wishing for someone to join us: ENOUGH!  

We, the family of the subjugated prisoner Bilal Wajeeh Mohammad Kayed, are calling for justice. Bilal spent fourteen and a half years serving his unjust sentence in the Israeli prison. He spent fourteen and a half years away from his family and friends- who spent every second longing for him, praying to embrace his well-deserved freedom; a freedom that he had dreamt about all those years to the very last second, wishing to get back up on his feet and continue his life as an individual making up for the lost time he had spent behind the Zionist bars that had stolen the best years of his youth away.

Bilal lost his job, a number of his friends, and was not even given the opportunity to hear the last words his father uttered neither could he say goodbye- all during his period in isolation in the Zionist prison cell that brought him great oppression and pain in the final year of his sentence. Bilal was isolated from any contact with any other prisoners and from any visits from his ill mother; a  mother who dreamt of the moment of his release, the moment of their reunion and the moment of peace in knowing he would have the chance to get back to the world and rebuild a life stolen from him. On 13 June 2016, on the same day he was supposed to breathe his first breaths of freedom, Israel has destroyed that dream. They wiped the smiles off the faces of Bilal’s family and friends. Israel has placed Bilal under administrative detention for six months; a detention with no charge or trial. Where is the humanity in detaining a human being on the day of his release from a fourteen and a half year sentence? Which government in the world allows stripping a human from their most basic rights? How is it not an international crime to allow such inhumane sentence to be given to a prisoner upon his scheduled release.  

We implore the international community to stand up against such a malevolent crime: detaining a person for no reason. If this act is allowed to pass, hundreds of other Palestinian prisoners like Bilal will be targeted and Israel will continue violating the simplest international laws and still get away with it under the nose of the whole world. Bilal did finish his unjust sentence of 174 months; he spent what should have been the best days of his life in jail completing a sentence for crimes the Zionist court claimed he committed without evidence.  Bilal’s freedom was cancelled and another six-months of darkness were added to his sentence! Bilal rebelled against this cruel decision and immediately started a hunger strike. He is only consuming water for 30 days, refusing to have any food or other vital substances, and rejecting all medical intervention. His body has started to suffer. He has lost over 30 Kilos and started suffer from severe comas. Endangering his own life, Bilal insists that he will not attend any court hearings and refuses to end his strike to support the man who was always there for them, who was always willing to sacrifice for everyone’s rights. in response, Israel offered him four years of external exile, which he rejected after which IPS started isolating and scattering his comrades.

We still believe in humanity, and thus we are pleading to the international community to take a proper stand and move together to support Bilal’s rights in his freedom.