Viewpoint
Hunger Strike Ends: What Next for Palestine?
By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer
After 40 days, the hunger strike among Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by the Zionist regime of Israel has come to an end, with key Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, himself among the strikers, agreeing to a compromise with Tel Aviv regarding the strikers’ demands for better treatment.
Israel had initially resisted any idea of improving prison conditions, arguing that they already met the bare minimum requirements as set out by international law. The Red Cross was warning the hunger strikes would soon face irreversible health problems, however, and Israel appeared willing to finally make a bit of a deal.
The main complaints by the detainees were that they wanted to be allowed family visits more often, and access to supervised phone calls with relatives. Israel has agreed that the detainees will be allowed two visits a month, instead of the standard one, but appears not to have budged on phone calls.
In general, however, what is going on in occupied Palestine is a grossly unequal conflict that ought to be considered an obscenity worthy of universal condemnation. This has nothing to do with Israeli claims of exercising human rights. This is about the colonial domination of Palestinians, which continues to be the prime cause of suffering in the Holy Land.
Under this colonial policy, Israel continues to demonstrate the absolute impunity that it has enjoyed for so long to kill, detain and torture Palestinians when it likes and however it likes. Without any pressure and accountability from the international community in general and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in particular, the regime will continue to detain Palestinians, steal Palestinian lands, and take Palestinian lives.
It is only through the preventive force that necessary deterrence can be created against all these indiscriminate and disproportionate violations. Negotiating a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is no longer an option here. So far, Israel hasn't paid the price for denying Palestinians their freedom and rights. The apartheid regime has to be held to account. It has a lengthy history of unpunished human rights abuses, with no accountability, no outrage, and no calls for international action. Israel can and should be stopped.
The ICC has the chance to be on the right side of history. It has the world’s backing. It can and should stand up for justice by speeding up an international probe into systematic abuses of Palestinians in Israeli jails. There is no other way to tell the usurper regime that it is not above international law.
Into the argument, it is evident that a two-state outcome is no solution either. Without equal rights, it would mean further discrimination in what would continue to be an apartheid-style system. It would mean further Israeli aggression and more Palestinians in Israeli jails.
The world has had enough of Israel’s U.S.-backed occupation and wars, illegal settlement activities, human rights violations, blockage, systematic discrimination and genocide, as well as unimaginable suffering and unimaginable torture of Palestinians in jail.
Now that the Trump White House has just announced that it will not stop aiding and weaponizing the usurper regime, the long-suffering people of Palestine have no choice but to also take up arm. As maintained by Iran’s Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, armed resistance by Palestinians is "the only way” to confront Israel. After all, no one wants to negotiate with a weak party.
After 40 days, the hunger strike among Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by the Zionist regime of Israel has come to an end, with key Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti, himself among the strikers, agreeing to a compromise with Tel Aviv regarding the strikers’ demands for better treatment.
Israel had initially resisted any idea of improving prison conditions, arguing that they already met the bare minimum requirements as set out by international law. The Red Cross was warning the hunger strikes would soon face irreversible health problems, however, and Israel appeared willing to finally make a bit of a deal.
The main complaints by the detainees were that they wanted to be allowed family visits more often, and access to supervised phone calls with relatives. Israel has agreed that the detainees will be allowed two visits a month, instead of the standard one, but appears not to have budged on phone calls.
In general, however, what is going on in occupied Palestine is a grossly unequal conflict that ought to be considered an obscenity worthy of universal condemnation. This has nothing to do with Israeli claims of exercising human rights. This is about the colonial domination of Palestinians, which continues to be the prime cause of suffering in the Holy Land.
Under this colonial policy, Israel continues to demonstrate the absolute impunity that it has enjoyed for so long to kill, detain and torture Palestinians when it likes and however it likes. Without any pressure and accountability from the international community in general and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in particular, the regime will continue to detain Palestinians, steal Palestinian lands, and take Palestinian lives.
It is only through the preventive force that necessary deterrence can be created against all these indiscriminate and disproportionate violations. Negotiating a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is no longer an option here. So far, Israel hasn't paid the price for denying Palestinians their freedom and rights. The apartheid regime has to be held to account. It has a lengthy history of unpunished human rights abuses, with no accountability, no outrage, and no calls for international action. Israel can and should be stopped.
The ICC has the chance to be on the right side of history. It has the world’s backing. It can and should stand up for justice by speeding up an international probe into systematic abuses of Palestinians in Israeli jails. There is no other way to tell the usurper regime that it is not above international law.
Into the argument, it is evident that a two-state outcome is no solution either. Without equal rights, it would mean further discrimination in what would continue to be an apartheid-style system. It would mean further Israeli aggression and more Palestinians in Israeli jails.
The world has had enough of Israel’s U.S.-backed occupation and wars, illegal settlement activities, human rights violations, blockage, systematic discrimination and genocide, as well as unimaginable suffering and unimaginable torture of Palestinians in jail.
Now that the Trump White House has just announced that it will not stop aiding and weaponizing the usurper regime, the long-suffering people of Palestine have no choice but to also take up arm. As maintained by Iran’s Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, armed resistance by Palestinians is "the only way” to confront Israel. After all, no one wants to negotiate with a weak party.