Palestinian Hunger Strike

I’ll be upfront about my opinions about Palestine: I’m for a two-state solution. In part because I think that’s the only way to solve a lot of the conflict in that region. I also recognize that the Palestinians have as equal a claim on the land as the Israelis. Mostly though, Israel lost the upper hand with the Six-Days War and the subsequent treatment of Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank, which isn’t to say Hamas’ actions have been great either. Both sides have committed horrible acts of violence against each other.

However, a large number of Palestinians took a more peaceful approach recently. A reported 2,000 Palestinian prisoners went on a hunger strike to protest prison conditions as well as “administrative detention orders.” Basically “administrative detention order” is the term used when a prisoner hasn’t been charged with anything but is being held anyway. The positive to take from this story is that a deal was reached. Israel agreed to provide better conditions and that anyone currently held on an “administrative detention order” wouldn’t have their sentence renewed without new information or evidence to support that. In return the prisoners agreed to “completely halt terrorist activity inside Israeli prisons.” If both sides actually hold up their end of the deal, then this is really a step in the right direction. 

This was also published at The Good Men Project.