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A mass hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails has been called to an end after 41 days as Israel offered a compromise deal to meet some of the strikers’ demands.
The deal – on the eve of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting – means approximately 800 prisoners, led by the prominent Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti, will give up their protest in exchange for improved visitation rights.
It suggests a rare recent success on the Palestinian side, and comes despite the repeated insistence by Israeli ministers – not least the public security minister, Gilad Erdan – that they would not give in to any of the strikers’ demands.
There were reports that Donald Trump’s special envoy on the Middle East peace issue, Jason Greenblatt, discussed the strike with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, on Thursday.
An Israeli prison service spokeswoman, Nicole Englander, said the hunger strike ended after Israel concluded a deal with the Palestinian Authority and the Red Cross for prisoners to receive a second family visit each per month.
The prisoners’ two main demands had been for more frequent visits and for prisoners to be allowed to speak to their families on public phones under supervision.
More than 6,000 Palestinians are currently in prison for offences linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Charges range from stone throwing to weapons possession and attacks that killed or wounded Israeli civilians and soldiers.
The timing of the hunger strike coincided with the run-up to the 50th anniversary of Israel’s seizure of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, in the 1967 six day war, which falls in early June.
The strike provoked widespread demonstrations among Palestinians in solidarity with the protesters and clashes with Israeli security forces.
Barghouti is the most high-profile Palestinian jailed in Israel. The leader in Abbas’s Fatah movement was convicted of murder and sentenced to five life terms in 2004 over the killing of Israelis during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
Opinion polls have repeatedly showed that many Palestinians would like Barghouti to be their next president, and analysts believe the deal will improve his position in Palestinian politics.
The Palestinian Authority prisoners’ affairs chief, Issa Qaraqe, said the deal had been concluded after 20 hours of talks.
Qadoura Fares, who runs the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, said negotiations took place between Israeli officials and a committee of prisoners, including Barghouti.
The Israeli prison service, however, insisted the deal had been done not with prisoners’ representatives but with the Palestinian Authority and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
On Thursday the ICRC warned that its doctors, who have been visiting the prisoners, were concerned about “potential irreversible health consequences”.
Palestinians rallied behind the hunger strikers as national heroes, relishing a rare break from deep divisions between two rival political groups – the Islamic militant group Hamas, which runs Gaza, and Fatah, which governs in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Xavier Abu Eid, a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organisation, released a statement on Saturday saying that the hunger strike had “prevailed”.
“This is an important step towards full respect of the rights of Palestinian prisoners under international law,” he said. “It is also an indication of the reality of the Israeli occupation which has left no option to Palestinian prisoners but to starve themselves to achieve basic rights they are entitled to under international law.”
Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem
* The Guardian. Saturday 27 May 2017 11.52 BST Last modified on Saturday 27 May 2017 22.55 BST:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/27/mass-palestinian-hunger-strike-israel-ends
BREAKING: Palestinian prisoners suspend hunger strike after 40 days of struggle
After 40 days of hunger strike, Palestinian prisoners have reportedly suspended their hunger strike and announced that they have achieved victory in their humanitarian demands, following 20 hours of negotiations between the strikers’ leadership and Israeli occupation prison administration. Samidoun will report with extensive details as they are released. An official press conference and announcement of the details is scheduled to take place later today, Saturday, 27 May.
All salutes to the courageous, struggling Palestinian prisoners, on the front lines of the Palestinian struggle for liberation! Their victories and their struggles are those of the Palestinian people and of all people seeking justice and liberation.
And salutes to all of those around the world who have been part of the prisoners’ struggle and Palestinian victory for the past 40 days.
Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Palestinian prisoners in Israel suspend hunger strike
Deal struck with Israel after intense talks hailed as ’victory’ for Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike for 40 days.
A mass hunger strike staged by Palestinian prisoners over conditions in Israeli jails was suspended on Saturday after a deal with Israel, officials said.
About 1,500 inmates launched the actionon April 17, in one of the largest such strikes.
The 40-day hunger strike raised tensions with Israel as protests in support of the strikers spilled over into clashes in the occupied West Bank and along the Israel-Gaza border.
More than 800 prisoners, who had stuck with the hunger strike until Saturday, ended it after talks held with the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Palestinian Authority concluded in an agreement with Israel, allowing prisoners to receive two visitors per month.
Issa Karaka, Chairman of Prisoners’ Affairs at the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), confirmed the inmates had agreed to stop the strike.
On Wednesday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein urged Israel to improve conditions for Palestinians in its custody.
Both Karaka and the Israeli Prisons Service did not initially divulge the full details of the agreement. However, the Prison Service did say that a second monthly family visit would be reinstated after it had been cut in the past.
“After intense negotiations, a compromise was reached on the just demands of the prisoners and based on the agreement, the details of which will be disclosed later, the strike has ended,” Jamal Mheysen, a member of the central committee of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, said in Ramallah.
“Today, we declare the victory of the prisoners and the Palestinian people. We declare the triumph of the prisoners in their epic struggle and fight for freedom and dignity,” he added.
The strike was called by Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, the most high-profile Palestinian jailed in Israel, to protest against solitary confinement and an Israeli practice of detention without trial that has been applied to thousands of prisoners since the 1980s.
Other demands included longer and more regular family visits, landlines installed in prisons and better healthcare.
There are currently 6,500 Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel, including more than 500 administrative detainees, according to Jerusalem-based prisoner rights group Addameer.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Ramallah, Majed Bamya, who oversees the prisoner files for the Palestinian foreign ministry, said the outcome of the hunger strike was a success.
“This was one of the widest and longest Palestinian hunger strikes in history of the prisoners’ movement and it was for basic demands.”Israeli reaction was that there will not be a dialogue, nothing will be given. They tried to break the hunger strike by force and utterly failed. The hunger strikers remained steadfast, dialogue was established and the demands were met.
“We will have the details in the coming hours.”
The Free Marwan Barghouti campaign said in statement that “the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike prevailed”.
“This is an important step towards full respect of the rights of Palestinian prisoners under international law. It is also an indication of the reality of the Israeli occupation, which has left no option to Palestinian prisoners but to starve themselves to achieve basic rights they are entitled to under international law,” the statement added.
Barghouti was convicted for his involvement in the second Palestinian intifada, and sentenced in 2004 to five life terms.
Surveys show many Palestinians want him to be their next president.
Source: Al Jazeera News
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