Netanyahu said he was "psychologically terrorized" by the Palestinian Prisoners. That is because the Palestinians exposed the corruption and moral bankruptcy of Netanyahu and Liberman. People around the world rallied in solidarity with Palestinians. In Europe, where people are less brainwashed than Americans, a great solidarity movement began at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom and spread to "students and non-student groups in England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy".
Just because Palestinians will not surrender their freedom and dignity does not make them terrorists, regardless that it terrorizes Netanyahu. The Palestinians are freedom fighters. They have a right under international law to resist their oppressor, even if it is by the use of violence against the military occupiers. It is the Netanyahu's and the Liberman's who are in violation of international law. They have repeatedly ignored resolutions from the United Nations, judgements by the International Court of Justice, and condemnation from the international community, hypocritically including the USA .
Resistance is a right. The French had a right to resist Nazi occupation, Africans had a right to resist European colonialism, Vietnamese had a right to fight US imperialism, and Mei Geren had a right to stand up against a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square . Throwing a rock at a tank is not terrorism. The Israeli tanks are the terrorists. The Palestinians have not surrendered their freedom and dignity to the terrorists; it is the Netanyahu's and Liberman's who surrendered because the Palestinians exposed for the whole world the real terrorists.
The Palestinian Prisoners fought the battle of the empty intestines for 40 days and 40 nights. That is monumental. Not many people can do that and live. They risked their lives rather than surrendered. Many have died during hunger strikes, and one did. Mazan al-Maghrebi made the ultimate sacrifice and became a martyr. He is a fallen hero. Mazan joined the hunger strike even though he was already sick with kidney disease. He died without letting the Netanyahu's and Liberman's break him , no matter what they did. They tried to break the prisoners by putting them in solitary confinement, they took away the prisoners' clothes, shoved food under their noses, beat them, threatened forced feeding, and would not let them talk to their families and lawyers. All of these efforts of the Israelis were violations of international law and acts of terrorism. So who are the terrorists?
The Palestinians know that this will not be the last time that they have to fight the battle of the empty intestines. They have had to fight it before many times. Just last year they went on a hunger strike because the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it could not afford to facilitate two family visits a month for the prisoners anymore. The Red Cross collaborated with Israel and cut the family visits to one per month. What good is the Red Cross when it conspires to deny prisoners of war their human rights?
The same international community that created Israel, the United Nations, has declared that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees that prisoners have a human right to maintain their family relationships, and that it is the responsibility of the jailer to provide that opportunity. But the Netanyahu's and Liberman's refuse to obey international law even from their UN "mother". Instead the Red Cross had been picking up the tab for the visits. In 2016 when the Red Cross and Israel cut family visits to one a month, then 300 Palestinian Prisoners went on a hunger strike. Their families and friends occupied the Red Cross headquarters in New York City, Jerusalem, throughout Palestine, and around the world. The Israelis lied by saying that they would work out the family visitations with the misnamed Palestinian Authority, which has no authority. Israel has all the authority, so it made the Palestinian Authority pick up the tab.
Thirty-seven years ago the Palestinian Prisoners fought the battle of the empty intestines. It would not be the last time. The Israelis tried in 1980, but could not break them then either. The Israelis transferred them to a dungeon in the Negev Desert. The Negev is boiling hot during the day and freezing cold at night. The Israelis tried to torture the prisoners into eating. After 33 days and the deaths of 3 martyrs from forced feeding, the Israelis surrendered. That battle of the empty intestines is remembered as the legendary Natha Prison Hunger Strike.
The battle of the empty intestines that the prisoners fought in 1980 had to be fought again in 2017. The Netanyahu's and the Liberman's tried to take away the rights that the prisoners had secured 37 years ago. They must fight this battle again, and again because the Israelis never keep their word. The Palestinians will resist until the Israelis end their immoral and illegal occupation, or until they have been wiped out by the Israelis. Left to the Netanyahu's and the Liberman's and their American enablers, the genocide and ethnic cleansing will probably continue, I fear.
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