Here’s the underreported story of the week: Thousands of Palestinians in Israeli prisons have been on hunger strike for a week, and thousands more outside of prison have been conducting non-violent demonstrations to support the prisoners. From today’s Haaretz:
Another 4,000 Palestinians are being held under arrest in cellblocks and “investigation” facilities. While they are not active participants in the strike, they have expressed symbolic identification with the strikers.
The strike is resonating loudly throughout the West Bank and Gaza. Demonstrations and marches are being held in all Palestinian cities. Local committees organize daily events to showcase their identification with the strikers. Members of striking prisoners’ families, activists in various political factions, and the public at large all participate in these events. For example, today there will be a march by prisoners’ children. Tomorrow, Palestinian legal authorities will hold a conference. Assemblies will take place in schools during the coming week, and marches are planned to coincide with Friday prayers in the mosques.
(The Haaretz article goes on to suggest that Arafat is using the hunger strike to his advantage. That’s no doubt true, but given Arafat’s political skills, any large nonviolent resistance, at any time, would inevitably be used by Arafat to his advantage. That’s not a reason to oppose mass nonviolent action or find it less credible).
“The prisoners can strike for a day, a month, even starve to death, as far as I am concerned,” he said.
Prison authorities moved quickly to crack down on the protests, confiscating food, newspapers and writing materials from prisoners, banning visits and halting the sale of tobacco in prisons.
The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported yesterday that the Government was setting up barbecues outside prisons to influence fasting inmates with the smell of roasting meat.[…]
A spokesman for the prisoners said that they had been driven to protest by deteriorating conditions in Israeli jails. They are demanding an end to the use of torture in interrogation, an end to routine strip searches and the removal of glass partitions in visiting rooms so that prisoners can touch family members.
The prisoners are also demanding improved ventilation, measures to halt overcrowding, access to insecticide, televisions and computers, the right to study and an improved regime of visits.
Many wives and children of Palestinian security prisoners complain that they have not been able to visit their loved ones in years due to restrictions on Arabs travelling in Israel.
The protesters include leading members of Palestinian militant organisations, among them men convicted of major terrorist attacks in Israel.
Amnesty International’s report for last year concluded that at least 1500 of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are being held without charge or trial in a practice known as “administrative detention”.
Isn’t massive, peaceful protest by Palestinians exactly the sort of thing we should all be hoping for? (And remember, these protests have been going on both in and out of prison).
This is a general pattern I’ve noticed in press coverage of Palestine and Israel. If a single Palestinian terrorist murders a dozen Israelis, that gets press coverage all over (as it should). But when thousands protest peacefully, it’s ignored. The result is to spread the myth that the Palestinian resistance consists of nothing but terrorism.
(In related news: Ghandi’s grandson is currently in the occupied territories, preaching non-violence; and an editorial arguing that non-violence is the only effective tactic still open to the Palestinians.)
It appears that the prisoners have good reason to complain. From a report by Sumoud, a Canadian human rights group focusing on Palestinian prisoner rights:
Of particular concern are reports from Facility 1391, a secret detention center reportedly in the North of Israel where prisoners report being raped and sodomized by interrogators.
Inside Israeli prisons, Palestinian prisoners frequently report attacks by prison guards including the firing of tear gas inside prisoner’s cells, beatings, denial of food and medical treatment and long periods of solitary confinement. Women prisoners report that they have been stripped naked by prison guards and shackled spread-eagled to prison beds in solitary confinement.
A large number of Palestinian prisoners are in urgent need of medical treatment and yet receive little more than basic pain relievers. Prisoners report that provision of medical treatment is often used as another form of coercion against them by the prison authorities.
Increasing attention has been given towards Israel’s detention of Palestinian children. In 2002 the UN Committee On the Rights of the Child publicly raised the treatment of Palestinian child prisoners by Israel. Nevertheless, Israel continues to arrest and torture Palestinian children at an unprecedented rate.
[…]Three hundred and seventy Palestinian children are currently detained by Israel and over 2500 have been arrested since the beginning of the Intifada in September 2000.
The youngest Palestinian detained in 2003-2004 was 12-year-old Rakan Ayad Nasrat from Jericho who spent several months in prison. He was arrested on 29 September 2003 at a checkpoint in Bethlehem and taken to an Israeli settlement where he was threatened with electric shocks while under interrogation and then placed for 12 days in solitary confinement in a small room measuring 2m by 2m. He was beaten and sexually assaulted. He tried to commit suicide four times including once when he was hospitalized for two days.[…]
Family visits to Palestinian prisoners have been almost impossible since the beginning of the Intifada. When these visits have occurred, family members are forced to undergo a series of humiliating and invasive checks prior to their admittance to the prison where their relative is being held. Furthermore, prisoners are prevented from communicating with their families by phone.
There’s lots more; read the whole report.
Sumoud’s website also has a report on the treatment of female Palestinian prisoners, which may be of particular interest to feminists. From that report:
The wardens’ attitude is extremely hostile; they humiliate and offend the prisoners. The food is insufficient, of inferior quality or even spoilt, it is dirty, often containing insects and worms. Sometimes there are not enough portions for all the women. […]
The arbitrary punishments meted out to the prisoners are increasing and are becoming harsher.There is a new method of punishing the women by imposing fines that are taken out of their prison canteen accounts. Considering that they have to buy additional food in order to complement the poor prison diet, and other basics, this is a very serious punishment. They are often put into solitary confinement in very small and very dirty cells.They are prevented from receiving family visits.Quite often they are beaten, but the prison authorities do not admit this. They claim that beating is not a punishment but a method of self defense.
On a hot day at the beginning of July, during recreation time, the women were having fun splashing water on each other. For this, seven women were fined NIS 200.- (US$ 50) each, and three women among the seven were punished additionally by being deprived of their daily walk in the yard for one week, and of family visits for two months. After a bucketful of water got spilled on the foot of a warden, Maha El’ak was beaten, tied to her bed for a day and a half and not allowed to go to the toilet. She was held in solitary confinement for one month.
After the assassination of the Palestinian leader in Gaza, El-Rantissi, some women returned the food and held a mourning ceremony by saying prayers. For this, eight women were fined. NIS 400.- (US$ 100) each, they were not permitted to have family visits for two months, and some of them were put into solitary confinement for a few days.
Su’ad Ghazal was punished for writing details about their prison conditions in a letter to a French Human Rights Organization. Her punishment was a fine of NIS 250.- (US$ 65) and no family visits for two months.
Sumoud’s page on the hunger strike seems like a good place to watch for new information; it contains links to both progressive and mainstream news reports on the strike.
Isn’t massive, peaceful protest by Palestinians exactly the sort of thing we should all be hoping for?
It would be somewhat more impressive if it were being conducted by people with actual ACCESS to weapons, rather than simply as the non-violent half of a two pronged attack.
Richard, it’s illogical to say that if some Palestinians, anywhere, threaten violence, that delegitimizes the non-violent actions of Palestinians elsewhere.
I’m white. I engage in peaceful political acitivism. The fact that other white people, elsewhere, may engage in violent political activism doesn’t discredit what I do. To think otherwise is to argue for group racial guilt, which is a disgusting thing to argue for.
Finally, as my post pointed out, thousands of Palestinians outside of prison have also been engaging in non-violent protest, in support of the hunger strikers; presumably many of these folks could find some sort of weapon, if they wanted to. By implying that none of the non-violent protesters have access to weapons, you’re showing that you don’t understand the facts of the situation.
In a flight of argument, I wrote “To think otherwise is to argue for group racial guilt, which is a disgusting thing to argue for.”
I’m NOT accusing Richard of believing in group racial guilt; I apologize if it came across that way.
“Isn’t massive, peaceful protest by Palestinians exactly the sort of thing we should all be hoping for?”
Sure but perhaps we are over-racializing it. It is basically a prison strike not a Palestinian strike. This is not a massive, peaceful protest by Palestinians regarding relations between Israel and Arafat’s pseudo-state. Prison strikes (even large ones) take place all over the world. I’m not sure it is a shock they aren’t comprehensively reported.
Sebastian, Israel maintains separate prisons for Palestinians and for Israelis. It’s not the prisons full of Israelis that are on hunger strike.
Strikes like this are a major dynamiser for those outside jail. The South African detention hunger strike during the 1988-9 Defiance Campaign was a big demoraliser for the apartheid government.
Finally, as my post pointed out, thousands of Palestinians outside of prison have also been engaging in non-violent protest, in support of the hunger strikers; presumably many of these folks could find some sort of weapon, if they wanted to. By implying that none of the non-violent protesters have access to weapons, you’re showing that you don’t understand the facts of the situation.
The reference to “access to weapons” dealt solely with those engaging in the hunger strikes. It is certainly a good thing that non-violent means of protest are being engaged in.
I know you would not be accusing me of promoting “racial guilt,” and the truth is rather the opposite, each group of individuals must be considered individually. Just as there can be no “racial guilt,” there can be no “racial innocence” where the non-violent protesters make up for the violent attacks of other groups Palestinians.
Non-violence should be encouraged, but as long as long as the leading political/military groups (Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad) continue to endorse violence (explicitly or implicitly), pointing to non-violent protests as somehow “important” is like looking at the one George Bush ad that DOESN’T smear and libel John Kerry as worthy of praise.
Meanwhile, I am even less impressed by the editorial you linked to than I am by the actual non-violent protests:
“Democracy, or the claim of democracy, is what counts these days in Washington and the capitals of Europe. A cornerstone of democracy is the right to non-violent public protest. . . . We suggest that the political chessboard can be turned around if Palestinians start playing the democracy game.
. . .
To illustrate the principle, Israeli public opinion would condone the shooting of armed fighters and even stone-throwing youths, but abhor the murder of wheelchair-bound protesters at a checkpoint. The worldwide democratic backlash against any Israeli military overreaction, as perhaps captured on video, would provide impetus for further non-violent steps toward peace.”
Somehow, I don’t believe Gandhi’s theories of non-violent protest are best summarized as “Pretend you support democracy, and then hope that the enemy kills you when you are unarmed and the cameras are rolling.”
I read some people here, and it’s pretty obvious some of you are looking for ANY reason to dismiss this.
To the guy who said they don’t have access to weapons: How the hell do you explain Prison riots, shankings and that sort of thing? They could be killing prison gaurds, they aren’t.
The mere fact that they keep seperate prisons for their own people and the people in their territories speaks VOLUMES about the conditions in those facilities.
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on http://tinyurl.com/5hu74e