Imprisoned Palestinian Writer Walid Daqqa Dies of Cancer After 38 Years in Israeli Jails

AMY GOODMAN: Before we end, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, I wanted to ask you about one of the most prominent Palestinian prisoners who has been jailed. He’s died from cancer in an Israeli prison. The novelist Walid Daqqa had spent the past 38 years locked up for his involvement with an armed group that abducted and killed an Israeli soldier in 1984. Rights groups had been pressuring Israel to release him, saying he was in dire need of medical attention. Last month, Amnesty International called for his release, saying that since October 7th, he had been tortured, humiliated and denied family visits. Can you tell us about Walid Daqqa and the effect of his death in prison?

DR. MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI: Well, Walid Daqqa is a 14th prisoner who dies in jail, in Israeli prison, since 7th of October. The 13 others were beaten to death. In this case, Walid died because of cancer. But Walid Daqqa suffered from medical negligence for years, not only recently, but especially recently. Walid Daqqa finished his term, by the way. He was — the ruling was that he would be in jail for 37 years, and that period finished, but they wouldn’t release him. They kept him through new military orders, knowing that he’s having cancer and that he needs urgent treatment and he needs to be with his family.

But the most inhuman behavior was the fact that they did not allow his wife and his daughter, his only daughter, to visit him since the 7th of October. And while knowing that he was in terminal stage, just about to die, they refused to let them even come to his prison and say goodbye to him and see him for the last time. That kind of behavior is selfish. And I think that’s the nature of the treatment.

And to add insult to injury, Ben-Gvir, this fascist minister of interior security, who is in charge of prisons, Israeli prisons, declared that he is sorry that Walid Daqqa, this famous novelist and writer, and who especially wrote for children, he said that he’s — Ben-Gvir said he was sorry that Walid Daqqa died because of cancer and was not executed by the Israeli military. This is the kind of mentality we have to deal with.

And by the way, I mean, while we are talking, I have to really mention, I’ve just been recently able to visit some of the injured people from Gaza who are being treated in other countries. And these are not just numbers, when we say 75,000 people injured. There are 11,000 people in need to be treated outside because there is no treatment for them in Gaza, like the 10,000 cases of cancer. But the people who got out, I met some of them. One of them was a woman who lost her hand, lost her leg, lost her husband, lost her two children — three children, actually. And now she’s left alone. Another one lost her sight. A third one is now paraplegic because she was hit in the back. And so on and so forth. It’s a terrible situation.

And, you know, what hurts me a lot is that when six white people, from Poland, Australia and Britain, were killed by the same Israeli army — and, of course, we are absolutely shocked that they were killed while they were trying to provide humanitarian aid — but because these six people who are internationals are not Palestinians, the whole world was up in arms, and the United States was criticizing Israel. But we didn’t see the same reaction to the 40,000 Palestinians killed so far, including almost 15,000 children — and including, by the way, the seventh person from this international group who was a Palestinian.

I think this kind of discrimination and racism is something we should all stand up against, because at the end of the day, what Palestinians want is very simple. We want freedom. We want self-determination. We want to be equal to everybody. We want to be treated as equal human beings. And it is the duty and responsibility of every person in this world who believes in humanity to be on the side of the Palestinian people. This is not a time to be neutral or to ignore this terrible genocide that is taking place against the population of Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, I want to thank you for being with us, physician and politician, general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, and Muhammad Shehada, writer and analyst, communications chief at Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, speaking to us from Copenhagen, Dr. Barghouti speaking to us from Ramallah. And I should add that Ben-Gvir, the cabinet minister, who is threatening to pull out of the government if Netanyahu doesn’t have the Israeli troops invade Rafah, was himself convicted of inciting anti-Arab racism and hatred and supporting a terrorist group.

Coming up, millions of people across the U.S. will be donning protective glasses today to witness the total solar eclipse. We’ll speak with a NASA climate scientist about the phenomenon and about the climate catastrophe. Stay with us.