A strong statement for Palestinian unity

‘Day of Rage’ highlights need to counter Israel’s continued attempts to throttle any peace initiative

The ‘Day of Rage’ in Palestine was an important example of Palestinian unity in the face of Israeli occupation. It was a coming together of Palestinians that should be noted by both the Israelis and the administration of United States President Donald Trump in Washington that is struggling to find a strategy on how to build any new peace initiative. The general action across the whole of Palestine was planned to show solidarity with the hunger strike by more than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, organised by Marwan Barghouti, a senior Fatah figure who has been given multiple life terms in an Israeli prison for his role in killing Israelis during the second intifada.

Around 6,500 Palestinian political prisoners, including 300 minors, are currently being held in Israeli prisons — 500 of whom are held under administrative detention. These Israeli prison terms are not simple incarcerations, but include some of the gross examples of abuse, as the Israelis both interrogate and seek to punish the Palestinians they have imprisoned.

The disgusting extent of their brutality is illustrated by what happened to Aisha Odeh who was raped with a wooden rod while under questioning, and Arafat Jaradat, who died after six days of interrogation with six broken bones in his neck, spine, arms and legs and multiple lacerations on his face and lips, although the Israelis still claim he died of cardiac arrest.

The ‘Day of Rage’ followed a general strike across all the Occupied Territories on Thursday that closed businesses, schools, government institutions and public transport. In planning the events, Fatah called for Palestinians to “clash with the occupier everywhere across our homeland”. On Friday, thousands of Palestinians gathered to confront the Israeli occupation forces at their checkpoints and bases. At least 50 Palestinians were injured in the clashes.

The Palestinian action came as the Israeli government continued to ignore any chance of making peace by its deliberately provocative proposal for expanding their illegal colonies in the Occupied Territories by building 25,000 new flats or apartments in the next two years — including 15,000 in occupied East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in the 1967 war and later illegally annexed. The move was yet another example of Israel’s steady expansion of Israeli domination of Palestinian land, and Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians’ chief negotiator, said Israel’s move was a systematic violation of international law and a “deliberate sabotage” of efforts to resume talks.

If President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian people were hoping for a historic gesture from Britain ..., then they were in for a big disappointment.”

Osama Al Sharif There is something about the fixation on the Michael Flynn story that doesn’t add up.”

Eli Lake