When Israeli forces showed up last week to arrest 66-year-old writer Ahmad Qatamesh at his home in the occupied West Bank, his wife says she was overcome with shock and confusion.

"Why now? Why him? He's old, he has health problems, and he's just doing what he knows: speaking," said Suha Barghouti, Qatamesh's wife. "Our family and friends are shocked," she told Al Jazeera by phone from Ramallah. Israeli soldiers arrested Qatamesh, a public intellectual known for his writing and lectures, during the pre-dawn hours of May 14 after raiding his brother's nearby home.

On Wednesday, Israel placed Qatamesh under administrative detention, a practice in which Palestinians are jailed on "secret evidence" without charges or a trial. Barghouti maintains that he has no connections to political organisations and believes he is being targeted for his ideas.

"They shouldn't arrest him for talking to people and writing ... It must be personal."

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