More than 1,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails launch hunger strike

Protesters hold portraits of Palestinian prisoners during a rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah to show their support to Palestinians detained in Israeli jails after hundred of them launched a hunger strike on April 17, 2017. Abbas Momani/AFPShow less

RAMALLAH, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES // More than a thousand Palestinians in Israeli prisons began a hunger strike on Monday following calls from prominent prisoner Marwan Barghouti, widely seen as a possible future Palestinian president.

Activists said more than 1,500 Palestinians held by Israel as “security prisoners” joined the open-ended protest in the largest such strike in five years.

The protests called for better conditions, more contact with relatives, and an end to Israel’s practice of detentions without trial that has been applied against thousands since the 1980s.

If sustained, the movement could mark a serious challenge to Israeli authorities.

In the West Bank and Gaza, thousands staged solidarity marches on Monday to mark Prisoners’ Day in the Palestinian areas.

The hunger strike was led by 57-year-old Barghouti, a prominent figure in Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement. Over the years, polls have indicated that Barghouti is the most popular choice among Palestinians to succeed Mr Abbas, 82, who has failed to groom a political heir.

Barghouti was arrested by Israel in 2002 for his role in a violent Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation and is serving multiple life terms. He is one of the best-known among thousands of Palestinians jailed for charges ranging from stone-throwing and membership in groups outlawed by Israel, to attacks that wounded or killed Israelis.

In an op-ed published in The New York Times, Barghouti wrote that Israeli prisons have become the "cradle of a lasting movement for Palestinian self-determination".

“Decades of experience have proved that Israel’s inhumane system of colonial and military occupation aims to break the spirit of prisoners and the nation to which they belong, by inflicting suffering on their bodies, separating them from their families and communities, using humiliating measures to compel subjugation,” Barghouti wrote.

“In spite of such treatment, we will not surrender to it.”

Issa Qaraqe, head of prisoners affairs for the Palestinian Authority, said that “around 1,300 Palestinian prisoners” were participating in the hunger strike and the number could rise.

Qadoura Fares, who runs the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group, said over 1,500 prisoners joined the strike and that more were expected to follow.

Israeli prison service spokesman Assaf Librati said that some 1,100 detainees had announced their intention to begin a hunger strike across several prisons.

“The prisons service has started taking disciplinary measures against the strikers and in addition a number of prisoners have been transferred to separate wings,” he said.

“It is to be emphasised that the [prison service] does not negotiate with prisoners.”

Some 6,500 Palestinians are currently detained by Israel for a range of offences and alleged crimes.

Mr Abbas, in a statement carried by official news agency Wafa, “called on the international community to save the life of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails”.

The hunger strike came ahead of commemorations this summer marking 50 years since the 1967 Six Day War and the start of Israel’s occupation, when Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.

Mr Abbas and his supporters seek a Palestinian state, roughly in the pre-1967 lines. The Islamic militant group Hamas, which seized Gaza from Abbas in 2007, has called for an Islamic state in historic Palestine, including in what is now Israel. Hamas recently suggested it would support a smaller Palestine state, without specifying if this would be a stepping stone to Israel’s destruction.

In Gaza City, about 2,000 people turned out for a march, raising flags of different Palestinian factions, while in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa, joined about 1,500 marchers.

“This massive strike sends a strong message to the Israelis, after 50 years of occupation, suppression and oppression, that the prisoners ... will lead their people from behind bars,” she said.

The last large-scale hunger strike was in February 2013, when 3,000 Palestinians refused to eat for one day to protest against the death of a fellow detainee.

In 2012, hundreds participated in a large-scale strike that lasted 28 days, said Mr Fares of the Prisoners’ Club. In 2014, dozens of detainees who were being held without trial or charges staged a two-month-long hunger strike to demand their release.

Israel says it must be vigilant to prevent fresh eruptions of violence, particularly following a wave of knife, gun and car-ramming attacks that erupted in October 2015.

* Reuters, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse