HUNGRY FOR FREEDOM: A LOOK AT THE CURRENT HUNGER-STRIKES

FOUAD ASSI

Fouad Rabah Shukri Assi, who was on hunger-strike since 3rd April against his imprisonment without charge by Israeli occupation, has reached a deal with the occupation to end his hunger-strike.

The deal should see him released in late September and in the meanwhile to be allowed family visits, which had been denied to him during his imprisonment, which began in August 2015. Assi lost 20 kilograms during his 55 day hunger-strike.

Fouad Assi's deal follows on the heels of Sami Janazrah(43) being ordered to be released on May 30th by Israel's occupation court; Janazrah had been on hunger-strike since March 3rd.

ADIB MAFARJAH

ADIB Jamal Mafarjah, imprisoned without charge since December 2015, has been on hunger-strike from April 3rd like Foud Assi. Both men are from Beit Liqya. Mafarjah has difficulty speaking and moving.

His wife has been forbidden by the Israeli occupation to visit him in hospital where he is shackled to his bed.

Mafarjah, former student in Birzeit university, who has not been able to complete his studies as a result of repeated imprisonment by Israeli occupation, has lost 30 kilograms during his hunger-strike.

MANSOUR MOQTADA

Mansour Moqtada(46) has been in liquid-only hunger-strike for 45 days and has not taken his medication at least part of that time. Moqtada has been imprisoned by Israel since 2002, when he was badly wounded by Israel's occupation forces.

Moqtada, from Salfit, is confined to a wheelchair, part of his intestines have been removed including stomach. Moqtada has a cancerous tumour in his neck which have not been diagnosed and his health deteriorated in the months before he started his hunger-strike.

His state has not stopped Israeli occupation court from sentencing him to a new thirty-year sentence last year, even when he has already been sentenced to life imprisonment by an occupation military court.

Moqtada is a man who has long stood at the gates of death, yet Israel still fears that he could somehow escape the grasps of both Israel and mortality.

OSAMA AL-RAJBI

Osama al-Rajbi had been on hunger-strike for 31 days by May 14th in protest against his solitary confinement in Israel's Gilboa prison.

We have no later information about al-Rajbi, who is from occupied East Jerusalem.

MUHANNAD AL-AZZEH

Muhannad al-Azzeh had been on hunger-strike by May 18th for 26 days demanding medical care; we have no more recent news of him.

MOHAMMED ISSA QAWASMEH

Mohammed Qawasmeh had been on hunger-strike for 16 days since April 27th by May 13th, when we have the last news about him. He was transferred to notorious Ramle prison clinic then.

SAID MUJAHID

Said Mujahid(20) had been on hunger-strike for a week on May 7th. He started his hunger-strike in protest against torture during interrogation, in which his leg was broken.

There are no later news about him.

DAOUD HABBOUB

Daoud Habboub had been on hunger-strike for 11 days by May 18th. He was reported previously of having started a hunger-strike on March 1st; last report of it we could find is from March 6th.

On both times he has been protesting against his imprisonment without charge.

EMAD ABU REZEQ

Emad Abu Rezeq, who suffers from asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure and migraine has been on hunger-strike since 14th May. At least five days ago, he had not been allowed to see his lawyer for 33 days.

He is protesting against both harsh imprisonment conditions and interrogations, and being held in an isolation cell.

MONTASSER ABU EID

Montasser Billah Abu Eid has been on hunger-strike since May 18th in protest against his imprisonment without charge since October 20th 2015.

In April Israeli occupation renewed Abu Eid's imprisonment without charges for further six months. He is from Burin.

MALIK QADI

Malik Qadi(19) was arrested by Israel's occupation forces and beaten according to his account on May 23rd, soon after having been released after four month imprisonment without charges, during which time he had been tortured.

After re-arrest, he immediately started a hunger-strike in protest against his treatment. Malik Qadi is from Bethlehem.

SEE ALSO:

How Palestinian hunger strikes counter Israel’s monopoly on violence

http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771539

SOURCES:

6 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike

http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=78302

Campaign launched in soldiarity with striker captive Moqedeh

http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=78474

Captive Abu Rezeq on hunger strike for the eighth day

http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=78708

Fouad Assi ends hunger strike after 54 days in agreement; Mafarjah, other strikers continue battle of empty stomachs

http://samidoun.net/2016/05/palestinian-hunger-strikers-continue-battle-for-freedom-from-hospital-new-striker-joins-protest/

Hunger Strike Update: Janazrah to face hearing on 10 May on 68th day of hunger strike; solidarity actions growing

http://samidoun.net/2016/05/hunger-strike-update-janazrah-to-face-hearing-on-10-may-on-68th-day-of-hunger-strike-solidarity-actions-growing/

Israeli court rules to release Palestinian hunger-striking prisoner

http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771613

Janazrah, at least three more Palestinians continue hunger strikes against Israeli imprisonment

http://samidoun.net/2016/05/janazrah-at-least-three-more-palestinians-continue-hunger-strikes-against-israeli-imprisonment/

New York protest demands freedom for Palestinian hunger striker, G4S out of Palestine

http://samidoun.net/2016/05/new-york-protest-demands-freedom-for-palestinian-hunger-striker-g4s-out-of-palestine/

On the road to victory for hunger striker Sami Janazrah – release ordered for Monday

http://samidoun.net/2016/05/on-the-road-to-victory-for-hunger-striker-sami-janazrah-release-ordered-for-monday/

Palestinian detainee on hunger strike for 12 days

http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=78395

Palestinian detainee on hunger strike over administrative detention

http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=78751

Palestinian hunger-striking prisoner moved to hospital over deteriorating health

http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771538

Palestinian prisoner launches hunger strike against torture

http://samidoun.net/2016/05/palestinian-prisoner-launches-hunger-strike-against-torture/

Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike demand freedom, end to administrative detention

http://samidoun.net/2016/05/palestinian-prisoners-on-hunger-strike-demand-freedom-end-to-administrative-detention/

Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike demand freedom, end to administrative detention

http://ufreeonline.net/index.php/site/index/news/715/3

Palestinian prisoner suspends hunger strike after 55 days

http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771644

Press conference in Ramallah condemns administrative detention

http://english.palinfo.com/site/pages/details.aspx?itemid=78773

Sami Janazrah suspends hunger strike, Majdi Yassin ends strike

http://samidoun.net/2016/05/sami-janazrah-suspends-hunger-strike-majdi-yassin-ends-strike/

Shackled to a bed, starving for freedom

https://electronicintifada.net/content/shackled-bed-starving-freedom/16681

Two Detainees Continue Hunger Strike Protesting Their Illegal Detention

http://imemc.org/article/75168/

SAMI JANAZREH WINS HIS HUNGER-STRIKE

Israel's occupation forces' military court in Ofer prison ruled yesterday to both end the administrative detention (imprisonment without charges) of hunger-striker Sami Janazreh(43) and reject the charge of 'incitement on Facebook' finally brought against him.

In March Israel's occupation forces' military court extended his imprisonment by four months; now he should be free - pending any late developments - on next Monday, May 30th.

Janazreh, from al-Fawwar refugee camp near Hebron, has been imprisoned since November 15th without charges, having previously been imprisoned without charges for a combined total of nine years.

During previous periods of imprisonment Israeli occupation has, for example, accused him of membership in Fatah's armed wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade.

He started his hunger-strike on March 3, taking only water and vitamins. He stopped taking water May 2 as a protest of his feet and hands being tied, and for being refused the use of a bathroom.

On 11th of May he started to take water, vitamins and food in liquid form. Depending on the definition of hunger-strike chosen, this did not or did break his hunger-strike. On May 18th he again stopped taking liquid food.

After Janazreh winning his freedom, the longest on hunger-strike of current hunger-strikers have been Fouad Assi and Adib Mafarjah, who both have been now 52 days on hunger strike. Both men are imprisoned without charge.

(The photo shows Sami Janazreh's children standing before a banner supporting their father.)

SOURCES:

Hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner has begun refusing water
https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771394

Israeli court rules to release Palestinian hunger-striking prisoner
https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771613

Palestinian prisoner Sami Janazreh suspends hunger strike for a week
https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771484

Sami Janazrah resumes hunger strike
http://samidoun.net/…/…/sami-janazrah-resumes-hunger-strike/

Shackled to a bed, starving for freedom
https://electronicintifada.net/…/shackled-bed-starvin…/16681

JIM CROW DEATH PENALTY LAW AGAINST PALESTINIANS PLANNED IN ISRAEL

According to a Likud source, Israel's planned "Death penalty for terrorists' law would be limited only to its military courts - which means that it would be solely used against the Palestinians.

As the conviction rate of Palestinians in Israel's military courts averages above 99 %, any demand for capital punishment would be practically certain to pass.

Only one minor coalition party, Kulanu, has announced it will oppose the proposed law, which means that it is likely to pass in Knesset if and when brought for vote.

Israel former attorney general Yehuda Weinstein four days ago called his successor Avichai Mendelblit, to oppose the death penalty proposal, but Mendelblit has been silent.

The Moldovan-born leader of Jewish Home -party, Avigdor Lieberman, has made the adoption of such a law one of his two demands for joining the governing coalition. The other, getting the 'defense' minister's post, he largely secured by the resignation of Moshe Yaalon from that post.

Yaalon, former chief of staff of Israel's occupation forces and favourite of the illegal settlers for long, has found that in spite of his hard-line, hawkish policies he has been outmaneuvered from the right by the reborn alliance between Lieberman and Netanyahu.

'Western' politicians and media, eager to oppose non-violent BDS movement, have been silent about the proposed law expect in the case of the latter as a purely a part of domestic Israeli politics.

But all policies of an occupying power are international politics and the hypocrisy of those who oppose non-violent activism and make legislation against it, while being silent about a Jim Crow -law against occupied people and serenading political love songs for Israel, is astounding and condemnation of them both as politicians and as human beings.

SOURCE:

Likud Source: Israeli Death Penalty for Terrorists Won’t Apply to Jews
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.720896

New Israeli death penalty would apply to non-Jews only: Likud source
http://www.middleeasteye.net/…/new-israeli-death-penalty-wo…

FROM HARD-RIGHT TO FAR-RIGHT IN ISRAEL: 'DEFENSE' MINISTER YAALON RESIGNS

Israel's hard-line 'defense' minister Moshe Yaalon(65) has resigned today, citing 'lack of trust' towards prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu and the prime minister's 'conduct' as the reason.

His resignation is a result of Netanyahu's recent negotiations to bring far-right politician Avigdor Lieberman and his "Israel Home" -party into the government and give Lieberman Yaalon's post, which is one of the two main demands from Lieberman.

'Western' governments and several Arab governments increasingly allied with Israel have allegedly tried to get Netanyahu to take the Zionist Union bloc into government and Zionist Union's leader Isaac Herzog had put a mandate to pursue peace negotiations with president Abbas' government as the price of joining the government.

Taking Lieberman, his some-time ally, instead and choosing an exactly opposite path is Netanyahu's way of answering to calls of even a modest attempt at peace and end of the occupation, if only nominally.

Lieberman's demand of re-introduction of death penalty against "terrorists" - aka only to be used against Palestinians - as his other price of joining the government sends a clear signal that Netanyahu is no more interested of peace than before as he waits for the next president of United States to take office, expecting Barack Obama's successor to be even more pro-occupation than Obama.

Both the leading main party candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, have sought the backing of wealthy pro-occupation donors with attacks against Palestinians and declarations of support for ethnic cleansing and illegal colony building on part of Trump and from Clinton opposition to boycott of Israel, claim that "autonomy" should be enough for Palestinians and that she will take United States' relationship with Israel and Netanyahu "to the next level".

Yaalon, former chief of staff of Israel's military from 2002 to 2005 and member of Netanyahu's Likud, will resign from Knesset also. His Knesset seat will be taken over by Yehuda Glick, one of the leaders behind the attempts to take-over the al-Aqsa mosque compound and replace it with a new Jewish temple.

Yaalon's resignation is a symptom of the increasing strife among Israel's now mainstream pro-occupation hard-right, as Netanyahu allies himself with even more radical elements, buoyed by the mild international reaction to his policy of increased ethnic cleansing, illegal colony building and violence.

In this internal strife Netanyahu is seen now as having achieved at least a tactical if not a strategic victory over Israel's military, his attempts at neutering and domesticating it to better serve his agenda one step closer. Having been raised on a pedestal in Israel, the military has been able to extend pressure on politicians before, and is currently more closer to the United States' government in some of it's views towards issues like Iran than its own government.

This struggle between military and Netanyahu has recently been window dressed as a supposed struggle over military's conduct towards Palestinians and overall about increasingly racist tendencies in Israeli society, like in the recent squabble over the Holocaust Day speech by major general Yair Golan' - but in the end it's about power and the choice between accelerated or creeping colonization and annexation.

Moshe Yaalon, a hard-liner who once called pro-peace liberal Zionist organization Peace Now "a virus", represents the hard-right elements which are content with indefinitive occupation with more creeping annexation; it would be an error to mistake him as some kind of moderate even in comparison to Netanyahu and Lieberman.

Yaalon claims now that "extremists have taken over Israel" like it would be a new development; they have been in power from the beginning. What is happening now is that the Potemkin's facades that showed the world a 'liberal' Israel are falling.

Naturally the 'Western' pro-occupation media has already started to call Yaalon with terms like 'relatively moderate' (DPA) in his political obituaries. As the 'political centre' in Israel moves ever farther right, so does the 'Western' idea what goes for 'moderation' in Israel; yesterday's hard-liners are today's moderates for the 'West'.

BBC, that loyal spear-carrier for Israel, in its own article calls Lieberman's policies "a tough line dealing with the Palestinians" - implication that everything that Israel has so far done is supposedly 'soft'.

Instead his resignation shows how Israel is continuing to move ever farther to the right, with no intention of using the fig leaf of USA-led endless peace talks as a cover. Israel of Apartheid and Annexation, like the emperor in a children's story, has no clothes and feels it can flaunt this in public, without any backlash from the 'impotent' West or from the Arabs.

SOURCES:

Benjamin Netanyahu Seeks Ultranationalists for Coalition in Israel

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/world/middleeast/benjamin-netanyahu-israel-lieberman-nationalism.html?_r=0

Extremists have taken over in Israel, says departing defence minister

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/20/extremists-have-taken-over-in-israel-says-departing-defence-mini/

How Tony Blair and Egypt's Sissi Tried to Push Zionist Union Into Netanyahu's Coalition

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.720328

Israeli defence minister resigns due to 'lack of trust' in Netanyahu

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-defence-minister-resigns-due-lack-trust-netanyahu-1861976871

Israeli defense minister resigns from gov't, paving way for ultraright replacement

http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=771573

Israeli PM asks Avigdor Lieberman to be defence minister in shock move

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/19/israeli-pm-asks-avigdor-lieberman-to-be-defence-minister-shock-move

Israel politics: Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon resigns in protest

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36340185

Liberman accepts Netanyahu offer to be defense minister; Ya'alon out

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Liberman-Netanyahu-hasnt-made-coalition-offer-to-Yisrael-Beyteinu-but-if-he-does-well-listen-454271

Netanyahu agrees to give defense portfolio to ultranationalist Lieberman

http://www.dw.com/en/netanyahu-agrees-to-give-defense-portfolio-to-ultranationalist-lieberman/a-19266939

Netanyahu Is Using Lieberman to Break Israel’s Oldest Elite: The Military

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.720327

Netanyahu-Lieberman deal tears ‘mask off face of Israel’ — but ‘NYT’ keeps the mask on

http://mondoweiss.net/2016/05/netanyahu-lieberman-israel/

Netanyahu seeks to recruit far-right Lieberman into Israeli government

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-government-idUSKCN0Y91S7

Netanyahu set to expand Israeli government coalition

http://www.dpa-international.com/news/international/1st-leadnetanyahu-set-to-expand-israeli-government-coalitionby-ofira-koopmans-dpa-a-49350461.html

Sissi’s peace speech linked to Israeli coalition talks

http://www.timesofisrael.com/sissis-peace-speech-linked-to-israeli-coalition-talks/

With political merger, Israel appears poised to move even further right

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/netanyahu-draws-criticism-for-political-merger-with-lieberman/article30104062/