Convicted Fatah terrorist Marwan Barghouti reportedly stops drinking water in an attempt to escalate a month-long hunger strike being led by Palestinian security prisoners.
A report from the Palestinian Ma’an news agency quotes lawyer Khader Shqeirat of the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs as saying that Barghouti’s decision to forgo water would mark “a new turning point in the ongoing open-ended hunger strike.”
The committee also says Israel is taking “a criminal stance regarding the just demands of prisoners,” which it said Barghouti refuses to negotiate or compromise over, according to Ma’an.
Palestinian activists stand around a 5×4 meter (16.5×13 feet) mosaic portrait of Marwan Barghouti near an Israeli military installation in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, May 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)
According to Palestinian officials, 1,500 inmates have been refusing food since the strike being led by Barghouti began on April 17 to protest prison conditions. However, Israeli officials say only some 800 continue to refuse food and have dismissed the hunger strike as an attempt by Barghouti to show Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that he still wields influence on the Palestinian street.
Barghouti is serving five life sentences for his role in deadly terror attacks on Israelis. He is seen as a possible successor to Abbas.
Discover Israel's most beloved poet
She died more than four decades ago, but Leah Goldberg remains a magnetic and enigmatic figure: Israel’s most beloved poet, a powerful woman who lived with her mother and never married, who reinvented herself from the ashes of World War I through her magical writing.
You can screen 'The Five Houses of Leah Goldberg' June 4-11. Join The Times of Israel Community today to support our work and watch this and other outstanding documentary films in our DocuNation series.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
