Robben Island solidarity with Palestinian hunger strike

Spotlight

SOME of our greatest freedom fighters resorted to hunger strikes in jail as a peaceful protest against abuse, inadequate food and harsh prison conditions.

Fifty-one years after the first one on Robben Island, a mass hunger strike is under way by political prisoners in Israeli jails.

Their grievances are remarkably similar: abuse, deplorable conditions and poor medical care.

Sunny Singh participated in the historic hunger strike of 1966, the first major act of resistance by Robben Island prisoners against the brutality of apartheid’s most inhumane prison colony.

He has recounted in detail the circumstances surrounding this defining act of resistance.

What beggars belief is that the reaction of the apartheid prison authorities to the strike, in the darkest period on the island, was more measured than the reaction of the Israeli prison service to the hunger strike of 1100 Palestinian political prisoners, on April 17.

Just a week after political prisoners refused food on Robben Island, many were collapsing and the commanding officer felt compelled to address their grievances.

It has been two weeks since the start of the Palestinian hunger strike and the Israeli prison service has refused to address any of their grievances, leaving many at death’s door.

Reports have emerged that the health of Marwan Barghouti, dubbed the “Palestinian Mandela”, has seriously declined, and he is refusing medical treatment.

Within a week of the Robben Island hunger strike, the prisoners and placed leading figures in solitary confinement.

According to the Maan news agency in Bethlehem, the Israeli Minister of Public Security, Gilad Erdan, asked for the creation of a military hospital to ensure they would not be transferred to civilian hospitals, which have so far refused to force-feed prisoners.

Israeli prison service spokesperson Assaf Librati was quoted as saying the hunger strikers would be disciplined. None on Robben Island was disciplined.

Barghouthi managed to smuggle out of maximum security prison an editorial to the New York Times, which was published on April 16, explaining why they were launching a hunger strike.

He outlined their protest against a range of prison conditions from medical care to phone access. He described the hunger strike as “the most peaceful form of resistance available”.

The Israeli prison service said Barghouthi would be “prosecuted in a discipline court” as punishment for the article.

Again, a comparison under apartheid South Africa is food for thought. Ebrahim Ismail Ebrahim, who engaged in the 1966 hunger strike, was imprisoned in John Vorster Square in 1987 following his kidnapping from Swaziland.

On being moved to Pretoria maximum security prison, he smuggled out a letter to his lawyer, Priscilla Jana. It was a tiny hand-written note on a piece of toilet paper which Ebrahim had lowered down on a plastic string to prisoners in the cells below. It recounted his torture in John Vorster Square by the notorious Nic Deetlefs.

Ebrahim was never punished for smuggling the note out, even though its contents were widely reported in the local and international media.

Unfortunately, Barghouti faces what would seem a far more draconian prison system.

He is one of 6500 political prisoners in Israeli jails, 300 of whom are under 18 and 536 under administrative detention, which can be compared with detention under section 29 of the Internal Security Act in apartheid South Africa.

For the prisoners it is not just visits, medicine and phones that are problematic. Torture has also been documented by human rights organisations.

Arafat Jaradat was a tragic case of what has happened in Israeli jails. According to the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Jaradat died six days after being arrested in 2013. The autopsy showed he had six broken bones in his spine, neck, arms and a leg. His lips were lacerated and he was covered in bruises. He died of cardiac arrest.

Palestinian leaders have denounced Israel’s refusal to negotiate with the strikers, warning of a “new intifada” if any die.

Former Robben Island political prisoners have initiated a hunger strike in solidarity with their Palestinian brothers. It seems a long struggle lies ahead.