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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220105-whats-behind-the-deal-to-release-hunger-striker-hisham-abu-hawash/">middleeastmonitor.com</a>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">What's behind the deal to release hunger striker Hisham Abu Hawash?</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Motasem A Dalloul - January 5, 2022</div></div>
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<p>After 141 days on hunger strike in an Israeli prison, Palestinian prisoner Hisham Abu Hawash has <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220104-palestine-prisoner-ends-his-141-day-hunger-strike-as-israel-agrees-on-his-release/">agreed a deal</a>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<div id="gmail-attachment_338038" class="gmail-wp-caption"><p><img src="https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/carlos_latuff_cartoon_hunger_strike_for_palestine-1.gif?resize=457%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1" alt="" style="margin-right: 0px;" width="427" height="311"></p><p class="gmail-wp-caption-text">Palestinians hunger-strikers in Israeli jails – Cartoon [CarlosLatuff]</p></div><p>Palestinian news agency <i>Wafa</i>
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.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Immediately following the announcement of the deal between Abu Hawash and the Israeli occupation authorities, the <i>Times of Israel</i>
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."</p>
<p><strong>READ: <a title="Palestine prisoner ends his 141-day hunger strike as Israel agrees on his release" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220104-palestine-prisoner-ends-his-141-day-hunger-strike-as-israel-agrees-on-his-release/">Palestine prisoner ends his 141-day hunger strike as Israel agrees on his release</a></strong></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Israeli public broadcaster <i>Kan</i> 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 <i>Kan</i>, "The release of Abu Hawash reiterated the connection between Gaza and the West Bank."</p>
<p>Baruch Yedid of <i>Channel 14</i> 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.</p>
<p><strong><a title="Will 2022 be the 'Year of the Palestinian Prisoners'?" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220105-will-2022-be-the-year-of-the-palestinian-prisoners/">OPINION: Will 2022 be the 'Year of the Palestinian Prisoners'?</a></strong></p>
<p>Well-respected columnist Gideon Levy of <i>Haaretz</i> 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.</p>
<p>The Israeli government, said Meron Rapoport from <i>+972</i>
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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not
necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.</p>
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