Democratic Palestine : 23 (ص 13)
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- Democratic Palestine : 23 (ص 13)
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tionary leaders in two separate cells, while force-feeding others
with hot milk, this time sweetened.
Then, on the 16th day of the strike, the administration ad-
mitted a Palestinian delegation to the prison. It included the
infamous Rashad Shawwa and Lawyer Fayez Abu Rahma,
both rightists, who visited the prison on the pretext of checking
up on the conditions. They gave the strikers promises, trying to
get them to end their action. Obviously, the prison administra-
tion’s allowing them in was a propaganda ploy, to defuse the
international and local reactions to the strike, which had
reached a level that was embarrassing for the Israelis. In
allowing the delegation’s visit, the administration also hoped
to ignite conflicts among the strikers about continuing the
strike, and thus erode their unified position. However, the
prisoners’ negotiating committee did not fall for this delega-
tion’s promises. The prisoners’ unified position was sustained,
as was the strike which entered the third week.
At the end of the third week, certain symptoms appeared
among the strikers, especially the sick, such as difficulty in
walking and losing consciousness. This forced the guards and
nurses to carry such cases to the clinic on stretchers. Here the
strikers were force-fed milk. In particularly critical cases,
strikers were put alone in cells and pressured to make a deal
with the administration for ending the strike. This attempt to
take advantage of the critical state of some of the strikers was,
however, in vain. The revolutionaries continued the strike.
STRIKE—BREAKING BY TORTURE
With the exception of some who stopped due to their critical
state and at the request of their comrades, the revolutionaries
continued their strike. The administration’s attempts to break
the strike continued to fail. Then, on the 30th night of the
strike,a new attempt was made. Prison guards started transfer-
ring groups of prisoners to other prisons, while leaving some of
the strikers in Ashkelon. They then began to torture the
strikers, but only to face failure to break the strike once again.
In view of the continuous failure of Ashkelon’s administra-
tion to halt the strike, Haim Levi, director-general of Israeli
prison affairs, promised the negotiating committee to comply
‘with the prisoners’ demands. His pledge was given on the 45th
day of the strike, and the committee agreed to stop the strike.
With the strike over, all the strikers, including those who had
been transferred to other prisons, were returned to Ashkelon.
THE STRIKE RESUMES
Days passed with no sign of the prisoners’ demands being
fulfilled. The negotiating committee, in conjunction with the
central organizational detention committee, decided to renew
the strike. Thus, 20 days after stopping, the hunger strike was
resumed. The prison administration quickly transferred the
members of the negotiating committee to Tel Mond prison;
other prisoners were transferred to other prisons as well.
Severe punishments were imposed on the strikers remaining in
Ashkelon.
The new phase of the strike lasted for 22 days. It ended after
the strikers received pledges to fulfill their demands. At the
same time, the members of the negotiating committee in Tel
Mond continued to strike until the 38th day (counting from the
resumption of the strike). Then they received assurances from
their lawyers and families that the prisoners in Ashkelon and
other prisons had stopped their strike.
The decision to end the strike was taken unanimously after
the authorities had pledged to meet the prisoners’ demands.
However, based on wrong calculations, the Muslim
Brotherhood threatened the prisoners’ unity by refusing to end
their strike. Yet due to the ineffectiveness of this force, the
strike ended anyway as agreed by all other prisoners.
Through the secret and public methods at their disposal, the
striking prisoners had been able to follow how the news of the
strike was spreading outside the prison. They were aware of the
solidarity campaign with their struggle in occupied Palestine
and abroad. They knew that their compatriots in other Zionist.
prisons had staged strikes lasting at least one week. In occupied
Palestine, there had been solidarity sit-ins and hunger strikes in
the Red Cross offices in Jerusalem and Gaza. There were mass
demonstrations and commercial strikes protesting the occupa-
tion authorities’ oppressive measures against the prisoners.
The Committee for the Defense of Prisoners had convened
several press conferences, to explain the strikers’ demands and
call for their recognition as political prisoners, not criminals.
Amnesty International and the International Red Cross also
joined in the protest, condemning the Zionist prison policies.
Liberation movements around the world showed their support
to the Palestinian prisoners’ demands.
RESULTS OF THE STRIKE
The famous hunger strike in Ashkelon had a series of results
which set a precendent at that time in terms of improving
prison conditions. Sponge mattresses were provided. The daily
break was increased by two and a half hours. A second family
visit was allowed each month. Some newspapers were provided
and some books with contents about Palestine. Summer and
winter clothes were supplied. Prisoners acquired the right to
celebrate national and international occasions. The centers
where prisoners had worked were closed down with the excep-
tion of the kitchen and the room for washing clothes.
Discrimination between Jewish criminal prisoners and
Palestinian political prisoners was reduced somewhat concern-
ing food and allowances.
Perhaps more importantly, the strike had a series of
repercussions on the prisoners’ mutual solidarity and unity in
struggle. Relations between the Palestinian organizations were
reorganized on a firm basis. Coordination grew between the
prisoners’ movement in all the Zionist jails. The prisoners’
reinforced solidarity facilitated the elimination of col-
laborators in the prisons, and helped curtail the influence of
reactionary trends such as the Muslim Brotherhood. All in all,
the alliance between the Palestinian resistance organizations
was strengthened in the prisons and among the masses in oc-
cupied Palestine.
To be realistic, such achievements, no matter how impor-
tant, did not constitute a ‘coup’ in the Zionist authorities’
prison policy. The strike showed that such achievements can
only come through hard, unified struggle, but Zionism, as a
racist and fascist movement, could only continue its repressive
policy, attempting to subjugate, if not eliminate, the Palesti-
nian people. Prisoners are targeted daily by the Zionist
authorities who realize that breaking their morale is the first
and essential step towards defeating the Palestinian national
liberation movement. Thus, many of the achievements made in
the Ashkelon strike have been retracted, and Palestinian
militants continue to strike and strike again for fulfillment of
the very simplest human rights. Nonetheless, the hunger strike
in Ashkelon constituted a qualitative leap in the struggle of the
prisoners’ movement which is on the front-lines of the overall
Palestinian struggle confronting the Zionist entity. ©
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- Democratic Palestine : 23
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- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
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