Israel: Palestinian hunger strike leader ate in secret

Associated Press

JERUSALEM

Israel’s Prison Service released footage Sunday that it says shows the leader of a mass Palestinian hunger strike breaking his fast, a claim dismissed by the Palestinians as an attempt to undermine the open-ended strike, now in its 21st day.

Assaf Librati, a spokesman for the prison service, said strike organizer and Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti ate a candy bar Friday and cookies April 27. He said surveillance was increased and Barghouti was caught on film eating.

Footage aired by Israeli media shows a prisoner sitting down fully clothed on a toilet unwrapping something and putting it in his mouth. Other footage shows a prisoner eating something near a sink.

Qadoura Fares, who heads an advocacy group for Palestinian prisoners, cast doubt on the footage, saying Barghouti is being held in solitary confinement and has no access to food.

“This is a fabrication,” Fares said of the footage released Sunday. “This is psychological warfare that we expected Israel to wage against the strike.”

Barghouti, a leader of the second Palestinian uprising, is serving five life terms after being convicted by an Israeli court of directing two shooting attacks and a bombing that killed five people. Barghouti, who disputed the court’s jurisdiction and did not mount a defense, has been in prison since 2002.