Israel shows Palestinian hunger striker ‘sneaking food’
Prison footage appears to show militant leader in prison for killings breaking three-week fast
ISRAEL has released a video of what it said showed the high-profile leader of a mass hunger strike by Palestinian inmates sneaking food in his prison cell.
The prison service distributed footage on Sunday night of what appeared to show Marwan Barghouti, a senior member of President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party who led the second Palestinian uprising, secretly eating biscuits and sweets.
The 57-year-old, who has been in prison since 2002, is serving five life terms for two shooting attacks and a bombing that killed five people.
Barghouti, who is kept in solitary confinement, is apparently seen in security camera footage dated April 27 removing the biscuits from a hiding place in his bathroom in Kishon prison, looking around to see that nobody was watching and then eating them.
The second, dated May 5, shows him opening an envelope, walking to the lavatory and taking out a snack bar.
It has been reported that prison guards had smuggled the food to Barghouti to try to tempt him to break the nearly three-week-long strike. “This hunger strike was never about the conditions of the convicted terrorists, which meet international standards,” said Gilad Erdan, Israel’s minister of public security.
“Barghouti is a murderer and hypocrite who urged his fellow prisoners to strike and suffer while he ate behind their backs.”
Palestinian officials organising the strike, who say some of the prisoners have become ill from only drinking salt water, called the videos “absurd”.
Barghouti’s wife, Fadwa, told reporters in Ramallah, West Bank, that the claims were fabricated and “intended to break the morale” of the some 890 Palestinians in Israeli jails who have been refusing food since April 17.
Around 6,500 Palestinians are being
‘Barghouti is a murderer and hypocrite who urged his fellow prisoners to strike as he ate behind their back’
held in Israeli prisons. The strikers are demanding more family visits and access to education, an end to solitary confinement, and better health care.
Palestinian leaders have denounced Israel’s refusal to negotiate with the hunger strikers, warning of a “new Intifada” if any of them die.
The video could prove damaging for Barghouti, who is popular among Palestinians and is touted to succeed the
82-year-old Mr Abbas as president. While Barghouti and most of the other strikers belong to Mr Abbas’s Fatah party, some belong to its rival, Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip.
The new leader of Hamas made his first public appearance in the new role yesterday, visiting a solidarity tent in his native Gaza for the hunger-striking prisoners.
Ismail Haniyeh replaced Qatar-based
Khaled Mashaal as head of the political bureau, the Palestinian group’s most senior position. His victory in secret internal elections was announced on Saturday.
Mr Haniyeh’s rise was the latest sign of a power shift in the Islamic militant Hamas from the diaspora to Gaza, which has been under Hamas rule since a 2007 takeover.
This shift comes at a time of growing
financial pressure on the territory by Hamas’ main rival, Western-backed Mr Abbas, who in recent weeks has been trying to force the group to cede ground in Gaza.
Mr Haniyeh pledged support for hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners yesterday in his first comments since being elected as head of the movement.
Mr Haniyeh said that the Islamist
movement stood with the hundreds of prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails.
“This visit is a message to our heroic prisoners that your cause was and will remain a top priority,” he said during a visit to a protest in support of the strikers in Gaza.
“Your freedom is a national duty and your dignity is our dignity,” the 54-year-old added.