An-Najah physics prof ‘slowly dying’ in Israeli prison

The Ahrar Center for Prisoners Studies and Human Rights called attention to the urgent case of a 52-year-old Physics Professor in an Israeli prison suffering from a bevy of untreated medical problems, including kidney disease and high blood pressure, a report said.

Director of the center, Fuad Al-Khufesh, described the failure of Israeli prison officials to treat the man as “medical negligence,” and said Israel would be held accountable for his health and well being.

The prisoner, professor of physics at An-Najah National University in Nablus, Isam Rashed Al-Ashqa, is from the town of Seida in the Tulkarem governorate.

“Rashed is slowly dying … because of medical negligence and lack of medications,” Al-Khufesh said, noting the professor only receives light painkillers for treatment.

Rashed obtained his bachelor of sciences in Physics from the Jordanian University in Al-Yarmouk in 1980 and his master of science from the University of Jordan in 1982. He went on to teach at An-Najah between 1982-4, and then traveled to the US for his doctoral studies at Toledo University, Ohio.

When he returned from Ohio, Rashed founded the department of Physics at An-Najah.

Rashed has been under administrative detention since 19 March 2009. He has not stood before a judge and has not been charged. This is his third detention.