Well, I'm slightly amused.
About 1,500 Palestinian security prisoners are having a hunger strike; they are abstaining from SOLID food, and threaten to do so until death. They are protesting horrific conditions; such as no public phones on their cell blocks and glass partitions between them and visitors and body searches.
Poor babies. Do they want their mommies to come sing them lullabies before bedtime too? Maybe they want their teddy bears and blankies.
In any case, if anyone is worried about the their health, don't. They will be taking liquids. If that liquid includes liquids like soup then this hunger strike is nothing but smoke. Many people are restricted to liquid diets for one reason or another.
BTW, please note the source of the article. Not exactly a pro-Israel site.
I'm having a good laugh.
Just in case the article disappears for some reason; here is a copy:
Palestinian prisoners start hunger strike in Israeli jails
15-08-2004, 05:44
Some 1,500 Palestinian prisoners started a hunger strike Sunday morning at three Israeli jails in a bid to improve their condition.
In reaction to theeir strike, the Israeli authorities imposed further restrictions Sunday. They removed radios and television sets from jail cells, did not distribute newspapers, canceled family visits and stopped selling cigarettes, Haaretz reported.
Some 4,000 Palestinian prisoners announced about two weeks ago their intention to open the hunger strike to back their demand for a number of privileges that have either been restricted or taken away by Israel's Prisons Service.
The prisoners are demanding public telephones in their cell blocks, the removal of glass partitions separating them from visiting relatives and an end to what they call "intrusive" body searches.
Meanwhile, Hamas described the prisoners’ hunger strike as a great step that was launched to challenge the Israeli "oppression" represented in the daily humiliations, strip searches, visit deprivation, reducing quantity of meals, denying medical treatment and other practices that could be only "perpetrated by non-humans."
The statement said that the prisoners’ bitter struggle and ferocious battle were part and parcel of the Palestinian people’s Jihad and sincere struggle to rid the homeland of such a detestable occupation and to realize independence and freedom.
On its part, the Palestinian Mizan center for human rights has asked the international community to immediately pressure Israel into meeting the detainees’ demands.
The center’s statement affirmed that the Israeli prisons authority was exercising various penal measures against the prisoners that made their lives inside those detention centers like "hell."
The center declared its wholehearted solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners and asked the international community to immediately intervene and demand the minimum limits of treatment of prisoners in accordance with international norms and to seek their swift release. (albawaba.com)
Posted by Rachel Ann at August 15, 2004 11:09 AMHeck, I think all prisoners should be on a liquid diet. It's much more economical to feed them if you don't supply solids.
Posted by: Jim at August 15, 2004 02:49 PMThis is the saddest thing I have ever heard! Is there an address where I can send a care package for these poor prisoners?? These people should have all the comforts of home because they are human beings too...oh wait...did you say PALESTINIAN PRISONERS?.....never mind!
FYI to the morons on a hunger strike...that means NO FOOD! Liguid food is still considered FOOD!!!! I think I gained weight on a soup diet years ago.
Do you remember back in the 70's when IRA prisoner Bobby Sands went on hunger strike and Margaret Thatcher said, 'If Bobby Sands wishes to starve himself to death he is free to do so'? And he duly did just that along with a few others but the hunger strikes petered out after that, and this was a time honoured and almost sacred 'ritual' protest for the Irish Republicans, somehow reminiscent of todays Islamic suicide bombers. Why are there so few leaders with backbone today?
Posted by: lignaeus at August 16, 2004 05:21 AMIsn't there a form of torture or execution or something where you starve someone for a number of days and then give them a particular food? Quick Googling didn't come up with it, but it's got my wheels turning, anyway.
Posted by: FrumDad (Orthodox Jewish Father) at August 17, 2004 11:03 PMWait! There's more!
According to this article in JPost online, imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, leader of the hunger strike, has been secretly videotaped...
Wait for it...
Eating.
"Prison Services spokesman Ofer Lefler said Barghouti asked wardens for the food and ate without knowing that a camera was filming from a small hole in the wall. Israel wanted to show fasting prisoners how their leader was behaving, Lefler said."
And it gets better still.
"Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat joined the strike on Wednesday in a display of solidarity with the prisoner's struggle."
I know it's Elul. A time of forgiveness. So forgive me when I say I hope the frog-headed son of a bitch starves to death.
--FrumDad
Posted by: FrumDad (Orthodox Jewish Father) at August 18, 2004 10:00 PM