Palestinian prisoners OK deal to end hunger strike

By Edmund Sanders, Tribune Newspapers

Transcribed from the clipping

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners agreed Monday to end their 28-day hunger strike after Israel promised to improve jail conditions, release detainees from solitary confinement and make other concessions. The deal ends the longest and one of the largest hunger strikes organized by Palestinian prisoners.

Most of the 1,600 Palestinian prisoners on strike had refused food since April 17. Two detainees — Bilal Diab, 27, and Thaer Halahleh, 33 — began their strike Feb. 28 and are now in serious condition. Palestinian leaders had warned that the death of a prisoner might spark public outrage and possibly violence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Palestinian Authority Prisoners Affairs Minister Issa Qaraqe called the agreement a victory. Israeli officials said they agreed to go further in making concessions as a good-will gesture toward Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who made a personal appeal on behalf of the prisoners.

Under the terms of the deal, Israel agreed to release about 18 prisoners from solitary confinement and allow them to be integrated with other detainees, in return for a promise that those inmates refrain from engaging in criminal or terrorist activities from their jail cells, Israeli and Palestinian officials said Monday.

Israel also said it would facilitate visits by family members based in the Gaza Strip who were previously banned from seeing their jailed relatives in the West Bank. Israel's use of so-called administrative detention was another sticking point.

More than 300 Palestinians, including Diab and Halahleh, were arrested under a procedure that allows them to be held indefinitely without charges or a trial. Under the terms of the deal, Israel may continue the practice.

But prisoners now held in administrative detention will either be charged or released at the end of their current terms, which typically last about six months. The plight of about 4,500 Palestinians held in Israeli jails is one of the most sensitive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Because most Palestinian families have at least one member who has been arrested or detained, support for the prisoners is high. “They are freedom fighters for justice and dignity,” said Amjad Batta, 39, a financial manager in Ramallah.

In Israel, however, there is little sympathy for the prisoners, many of whom are accused of crimes against Israelis, including bombings and shootings.

Context added by this archive

Photograph credited Mahmud Hams/Getty-AFP. The byline foot gives edsanders@tribune.com.

Cite this item

"Palestinian prisoners OK deal to end hunger strike," The Morning Call, 15 May 2012. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2012-009. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2012-009