New York, July 10 (RHC)-- In New York, protesters rallied in front of the United Nations headquarters over the weekend, demanding the release of 62-year-old Palestinian political prisoner, writer and organizer Walid Daqqah, who has been in Israeli custody since 1986. 

Walid Daqqah completed his time for the 1984 killing of Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam this year, but he was sentenced to two additional years in 2017 for smuggling phone devices into Ktzi’ot prison. 

Organizer Munir Atallam, speaking at the rally in from of the UN, said: “Walid has developed a rare form of bone marrow cancer, and he has essentially been dealt a death sentence by the Israeli courts, because — by the Israeli prison systems, because he’s being denied medical care for this life-threatening cancer.  And his family has also been denied visitation to see him.  So we call — he’s in a state of crisis, and we call on them to release him immediately.  And we’re pushing the United Nations to push the Israeli regime to do so.”