Is the mass Palestinian prisoner hunger strike the beginning of the Palestinian Spring?
Palestinian Christians and Muslims praying together during a special service at the Dominican monastery of Saint-Etienne in occupied Jerusalem on May 8, 2012 in solidarity with thousands of Palestinian political prisoners, held captive in Israeli Zionist dungeons, on hunger strike and to protest against Israel’s use of administrative detention orders. |
Can anyone doubt that if there were more than 1,500 prisoners engaged in a hunger strike in any country in the world other than Palestine, the media in the West would be obsessed with the story? Such an obsession would, of course, be greatest if such a phenomenon were to occur in an adversary state such as Iran or China, but almost anywhere it would be featured news, that is, anywhere but Palestine. It would be highlighted day after day, and reported on from all angles, including the severe medical risks associated with such a lengthy refusal to take food, with respected doctors and human rights experts sharing their opinions.
Palestinians look at a map showing parts of British Mandate Palestine during a rally in Gaza City ahead of the Nakba anniversary on May 9, 2012. On May 15 Palestinians will mark Nakba, or catastrophe, of Israel’s founding in a 1948 war, when hundreds of thousands of their brethren fled or were forced to leave their homes |
This current wave of hunger strikes started on April 17, Palestinian Prisoners Day, and was directly inspired by the earlier recently completed long and heroic hunger strikes of Khader Adnan (66 days) and Hana Shalabi (43 days) both of whom protested against the combination of administrative detention and abusive arrest and interrogation procedures. It should be understood that administrative detention depends on accusations contained in secret evidence not disclosed to the detainee or defense lawyers and allows Israel to imprison Palestinians for six months at a time without bringing any criminal charges, with terms renewable as they expire.
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