Palestinian mass hunger strike

A mass hunger strike involving 2000 Palestinian prisoners began on April 17. I'm sorry to say I did not learn of it until today when I read a story on the Electronic Intifada about the BBC not reporting it.


EI states, "Palestinian prisoners are protesting Israel’s practice of administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial — as well as solitary confinement, the denial of family visits and access to education, and other punitive measures of Israel’s system of arrest and detention which is designed to break the Palestinian struggle for freedom and liberation."


By the way, the force behind EI, Maureen Murphy, who I have mention before, is one of the people the FBI has subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury, a subject in itself. She and others have refused to appear. So far, no action has been taken against them but the threat of imprisonment for refusal hangs over them.

what was Khader Adnan trying for?

After almost 70 days of his hunger strike, Palestinian Khader Adnan's term in Israeli prison was reduced. As I have mentioned previously, Adnan was in prison on "administrative detention" that allows the Israeli military to put anyone in prison for months and then extend that term on the say of an Israeli military officer, all the while with no charges filed.

Yes, it's an outrage that the United States should not support, but of course we do and you will never heard a word about it in Congress.

But Adnan was not starving himself to end the practice of administrative detention in itself. He was wasting away to protest the entire colonial occupation of Israel. The Electronic Intifada provides an English translation of an excellent article explaining the reasoning behind Adnan's hunger strike and the hunger strikes of current Palestinian prisoners that are following his example.

Cast Lead 2 year mark - who broke the truce?

Throughout the history of Israel, armed force has been the usual instrument of policy, not surprisingly for a military state. It's an area in which the state holds all the cards, a method that has proven very effective in the past and a big reason that the current non-violent protests in the occupied territories (and in Israel itself) are a frustration to the Israeli government - the use of force against the non-violent is counterproductive and only raises the level of outrage against the state, not just within Palestine but worldwide.

So it isn't surprising that an effort would always be made to turn events into such as would justify the use of military might.

It has now been two years since the Cast Lead operation conducted by Israel against Gaza in which several hundred civilians died and an incredible amount of damage was done, most of which has yet to be repaired by a people under lock-down.

Israel claims that it was the rocket fire from HAMAS (always in capitals because it is an acronym) that forced Israel to respond. When I participate in demonstrations against what Israel does, passersby sometimes will say, "what about the rockets?" The public perception in the U.S. is, as is almost always the case, the story of justification that Israel puts out.

As we all know from life experience, details often betray the story line for any situation, but they are often buried and boring. With that in mind, you should take a look at this short article on the rocket fire situation that took place prior to Cast Lead. It appears Israel was looking for a reason to attack while restrained by a cease-fire with HAMAS, so broke the cease-fire with a small raid unlikely to appear in the press in order to bring a response that could be used as required.

It should be noted that because there are several armed groups of Palestinians that oppose Israel, any action by any one of them can be blamed on the Palestinians as a whole with the result of collective punishment; the political divisions with the Palestinian movement are tailor made for the use of Israel to punish at will because all can be blamed for what anyone does.

FYI: Maureen Murphy, who is the managing editor of the Electronic Intifada (in which the above article appears), was one of those served by the FBI with subpoenas to appear before a grand jury, and who has refused to testify.