Erdan says video of Barghouti exposes his ‘lies’

Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan says footage released by the Israel Prisons Authority of Marwan Barghouti secretly eating proves his hypocrisy in leading 6,000 Palestinian prisons in a hunger strike.

“As I said from the very beginning, this hunger strike was never about the conditions of the convicted terrorists, which meet international standards. It is about advancing Marwan Barghouti’s political ambitions to replace Abu Mazen,” Erdan says of the former Fatah official.

“Barghouti is a murderer and hypocrite, who urged his fellow prisoners to strike and suffer while he ate behind their back. Just like he lied to the world when he wrote in the New York Times that he decided to strike in order to protest ill-treatment, he lied to the Palestinian public when he claimed to be striking. Israel will not give in to extortion and pressure from terrorists,” he adds.