Palestinian boys take part in a rally in support of Palestinian prisoners on
hunger strike in Israeli jails, in the West Bank city of Nablus, 20 April.
(photo: Ayman Ameen/APA images)
Israel Punishes Hunger Striking Palestinians for Demanding Their Rights
By Charlotte Silver, The Electronic Intifada
23 April 17
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners entered day six of their hunger strike on
Saturday, while Israeli authorities ratcheted up their punitive measures in
an attempt to weaken the collective action.
On 17 April, 1,500 Palestinians launched a mass hunger strike with a long
list of demands, including improved medical care and conditions and more
family visits.
While several men on strike have already been hospitalized, Israeli leaders
are refusing to negotiate with the prisoners' demands.
"When it comes to the hunger strike by terrorists in Israeli jails, I take
the approach of Margaret Thatcher," Israeli defense minister Avigdor
Lieberman wrote on Facebook, in reference to the former British prime
minister who notoriously allowed Irish hunger strikers to die in prison in
1981.
Israel currently holds more than 6,000 Palestinian political prisoners.
Hundreds are detained without any charge or trial, and thousands after
trials in Israel's military courts which have a nearly 100 percent
conviction rate.
Targeting leaders of the strike, Israeli authorities began confiscating
personal belongings and clothes, banning television, forcibly relocating
strikers to different sections of prisons and placing dozens in solitary
confinement.
"In Nitzan and Ramla prisons, Israeli officials used police dogs on
hunger-striking Palestinian detainees and seized the Quran from prisoners,"
the Ma'an News Agency reported on Saturday, citing the Palestinian
Prisoners' Society.
Retaliation for New York Times article
Among those placed in solitary confinement are Marwan Barghouti, who
initiated the mass hunger strike, and Karim Younes, the Palestinian who has
reportedly served the longest uninterrupted sentence in an Israeli prison.
Barghouti, a prominent figure in Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas'
Fatah movement, may be further punished for his op-ed published in The New
York Times on 16 April explaining the reasons for the strike.
The Palestinian Committee for Prisoners' Affairs cited claims by Israel that
Barghouti's wife "smuggled" the article out of prison.
But Israeli public security minister Gilad Erdan said authorities are
investigating whether it was his lawyers.
Erdan added that if it is discovered that his lawyers did help Barghouti
publish the article, they may be banned from visiting him.
Michael Oren, Israel's former US ambassador who now works for Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, suggested the The New York Times may have played a role.
"If someone in the paper helped him [smuggle the article out of prison], The
New York Times should be held accountable," Oren said, suggesting that the
paper's Jerusalem bureau could be closed.
Ma'an News Agency reported that lawyers have already been banned from
visiting Ashkelon prison and access to other prisons has been inconsistent.
The Palestinian Authority's prisoners' committee said on Wednesday that
Israel's ministry of justice has confirmed that it would be illegal to
prohibit all hunger strikers from seeing their lawyers.
Lawyers representing striking prisoners are now boycotting Israeli military
courts.
Taunting hunger strikers
Public security minister Erdan, like Lieberman, has vowed to ignore the
hunger strikers' demands.
"There is no real justification for this strike," Erdan said. "Terrorists
aren't in prison to get good conditions. They're there to be punished. A
hunger strike shouldn't change our behavior as the state toward the
prisoners."
Erdan spearheaded legislation to legalize force-feeding of Palestinian
hunger strikers in 2015, when he likened hunger strikes to suicide bombs.
On Thursday, Israelis fired up a barbecue in the parking lot of Ofer prison,
where Palestinians inside had refused food for several days, to "celebrate
the hunger strike."
The people behind the barbecue are affiliated with the far-right Jewish Home
party, a member of Netanyahu's coalition government.
Several dozen detainees reportedly resumed eating after five days on strike,
but have been replaced by hundreds more joining the protest.
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