[News] What's behind the deal to release hunger striker Hisham Abu Hawash?

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeastmonitor.com
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220105-whats-behind-the-deal-to-release-hunger-striker-hisham-abu-hawash/>
What's
behind the deal to release hunger striker Hisham Abu Hawash?
Motasem A Dalloul - January 5, 2022
------------------------------

After 141 days on hunger strike in an Israeli prison, Palestinian prisoner
Hisham Abu Hawash has agreed a deal
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220104-palestine-prisoner-ends-his-141-day-hunger-strike-as-israel-agrees-on-his-release/>
with the occupation authorities that his administrative detention will end
on 26 February. The Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission announced
the deal between Abu Hawash and the Israeli occupation authorities, but did
say what led to the agreement or who played a role in it.

The Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) said that the hunger strike and
deal highlighted the issue of the prisoners held by Israel. "The struggle
by Abu Hawash has brought the issue of the prisoners, specifically the
issue of administrative detention, back to the forefront, despite all the
challenges," said the society.

Father of five Abu Hawash, 40, is from Dura, south of Hebron in the
occupied West Bank. He was detained on 27 October, 2020, and was
immediately put under administrative detention for six months. Facing
neither charges nor a trial his detention order was renewed several times,
prompting him to go on an open-ended hunger strike in protest.

The most important fact in his case is that the Israeli authorities agreed
on his release against their wishes. Neither the politicians nor the
military wanted him to be released. They waited for him to end his protest,
but when his health condition deteriorated critically and he was on the
verge of dying, they accepted that he preferred death over administrative
detention. So why didn't Israel just let him die?

Palestinians hunger-strikers in Israeli jails – Cartoon [CarlosLatuff]

Palestinian news agency *Wafa* reported that the Israeli authorities came
under massive pressure from the Palestinian Authority to release Abu
Hawash. PA President Mahmoud Abbas and the head of the General Intelligence
Service, Majed Faraj, are said to have made intensive representations to
the Israelis for his release.

However, Israeli journalists dispute this. Although the PA should have
played a major role in getting Abu Hawash released from prison, I doubt
that it did. The evidence for this is the PA's own detention of Ziad
Al-Kilani, a Palestinian from Jenin who was released recently by Israel.
With their own prisons full of Palestinian political prisoners, many of
them ex-prisoners of the Israelis, why should Abbas and Faraj seek to have
Abu Hawash released?

Commenting on the reports about Abbas's involvement in the deal to release
Abu Hawash, former West Bank hunger striker Sheikh Khader Adnan said, "If
the PA's political pressure is effective, it should seek the release of
Marwan Al-Barghouti or hunger striker Naser Abu Hamaid, who is on the verge
of death." Adnan added that if the PA is able to do anything at all, it
should at least push Israel to end the isolation of the Palestinian
prisoners in Al-Ramla Prison.

Immediately following the announcement of the deal between Abu Hawash and
the Israeli occupation authorities, the *Times of Israel* reported that his
marathon hunger strike attracted intense interest from Palestinians as well
as international pressure on Israel. UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric
welcomed the deal, and said, "We have always made it clear that detainees
must be tried according to legal procedures or released."

*READ: Palestine prisoner ends his 141-day hunger strike as Israel agrees
on his release
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220104-palestine-prisoner-ends-his-141-day-hunger-strike-as-israel-agrees-on-his-release/>*

Israel did not want to release Abu Hawash precisely because it will now
come under more pressure to release prisoners held without trial under the
archaic administrative detention system. Moreover, the government will be
condemned by extreme right-wing Israelis for buckling under pressure from
"terrorists". On hearing about the deal, one extremist member of the
Israeli parliament, Itamar Ben-Gvir, stormed into the hospital where Abu
Hawash is being held and tried to attack him.

The Palestinian resistance did not claim to have put any pressure on Israel
to release the hunger striker, but hailed his patience and resilience.
However, Israeli media have revealed that pressure from the Palestinian
resistance in Gaza pushed Israel to promise to bring his administrative
detention to an end.

Israeli public broadcaster *Kan* reported that threats from Gaza prompted
the Public Prosecution Service to agree on Abu Hawash's release on 26
February. According to Israeli journalist Gal Berger from *Kan*, "The
release of Abu Hawash reiterated the connection between Gaza and the West
Bank."

Baruch Yedid of *Channel 14* told me that it is not in doubt that the
threats from Gaza played a role in the release of the hunger striker.
"Currently, Israel does not want a confrontation. It does not want a
confrontation with Hamas." He confirmed that many right wing Israeli media
are using this incident to attack the government.

*OPINION: Will 2022 be the 'Year of the Palestinian Prisoners'?
<https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220105-will-2022-be-the-year-of-the-palestinian-prisoners/>*

Well-respected columnist Gideon Levy of *Haaretz* told me that Israeli did
not want Abu Hawash to die. "They know that this would cause more unrest in
the West Bank and rockets from Gaza," he explained.

The Israeli government, said Meron Rapoport from *+972* magazine,
reiterated to me that Israel did not want a dead prisoner. "It seems that
the release of Abu Hawash was related directly to Gaza, but Israel always
gives up at the last moment."

The PA may be trying to claim the credit for the end of Abu Hawash's hunger
strike and his release next month, but it shows itself up by doing so. If
Abbas and Faraj think that political prisoners should be released, then
they should empty the PA's own prisons of every member of every resistance
faction. The fact that they won't tells us all we need to know about their
real intentions.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20220105/55dda1ef/attachment.htm>