TEL AVIV: According to Ma'an News Agency, Samir Al-Barq, a Palestinian prisoner being held in administrative detention, will resume a hunger strike he had given up in exchange for his release. Administrative detention, used regularly by Israel, is imprisonment without charges or a trial. According to B'Tselem, from 219 administrative detainees in Israeli prisons at the end of 2011, 29 percent had been held between six months to a year, 24 percent from one to two years, and another 18 individuals between two and five years. As recently as September, Israel held 4,606 Palestinian political prisoners, 212 of which were in administrative detention. Al-Barq, held since 2010 without being charged or put on trial, ended a 125-day hunger strike after his lawyer reached an agreement with Israel that would result in his release into Egypt. Israel, however, has delayed his release. Presently being held in Ramle Prison Clinic, the 35-year old science teacher is serving his seventh administrative detention term. According to Al-Barq's lawyer, he will no longer accept the release agreement's condition that he be exiled to Egypt, noting that Israel acted alone in breaking the agreement. “Al-Barq will not end his hunger strike until he is home in Jayyous, in the northern Qalqiliya district of the West Bank," Ma'an reported.
