hunger strike

 
 
On April 17th at least 1500 Palestinian prisoners launched a hunger strike of indefinite duration, responding to a call from Israel’s most famous Palestinian prisoner, Marwan Barghouti. It also happens to be that Barghouti is the most popular political leader, far more liked, trusted, and admired that the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. Barghouti is serving a series of lifetime terms for his alleged role in directing an operation during the Second Intifada in which five Israelis were killed.
 

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is among a group of South African officials and activists engaging in a 24 hour hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners. (AP/Schalk van Zuydam)
One of South Africa’s two vice presidents is going on a 24-hour hunger strike today in solidarity with the 1,600 Palestinian prisoners protesting their conditions in Israeli jails.

Hanford collapse, hunger strike and the brewery wars + this day in history w/Astor Place Riots and our song of the day by RAC & Rostam on your Morning Monarchy for May 10, 2017.

Protesters gather under a banner with a picture of jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti during a rally supporting Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, who have been on an open-ended hunger strike in the West Bank city of Ramallah, May 3, 2017. The prisoners launched the protest to press for better conditions, including family visits. The International Committee of the Red Cross issued a rare statement, urging Israeli authorities to stop what it called the “systematic suspension” of family visits for the hunger strikers. (AP/Nasser Nasser)

Photo from report by Project South and the Penn State Law Center for Immigrants’ Rights Clinic.
Published in partnership with Shadowproof.
Georgia immigrant detention centers frequently put asylum seekers and other migrants into solitary confinement as punishment for going on hunger strike.

The Canadian media has mostly ignored recent Palestinian efforts to non-violently disrupt a half-century old occupation. They’ve barely reported on a prisoners’ hunger strike and associated solidarity protests, let alone Canada’s effort to suppress “popular protests” in the West Bank.

On Oct. 30, 2016, Robert Earl Council was found sprawled unconscious on the floor of his cell in Alabama’s Limestone Correctional Facility after being on hunger strike for 10 days. Medical staff at the prison force-fed him intravenously, as his blood sugar levels had reached dangerous levels.

Gaza is the world’s largest open air prison. The West Bank is a prison, too, segmented into various wards, known as areas A, B and C.  In fact, all Palestinians are subjected to varied degrees of military restrictions. At some level, they are all prisoners.

Yale College Republican officers during the barbecue (Photo: Facebook)
Last week, campus union organizers at Yale University gathered in a tent outside University President Peter Salovey’s home. The eight-member group was participating in a hunger strike in response to Yale’s unwillingness to negotiate a contract with its graduate teachers.

The Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is due to meet Donald Trump in the White House on Wednesday to discuss reviving the long-cold corpse of the peace process.
Back home, things are heating up. There is anger in the West Bank, both on the streets and within the ranks of Abbas’s Fatah movement. The trigger is a two-week-old hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners.
Last Thursday, Palestinians shuttered their businesses in a show of solidarity, and the next day youths clashed with the Israeli army in a “day of rage”.