[Rictor]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3567130.stm

For up to date news, check Electronic Intifada's hunger strike section
For a complete list of demands, check this page

// note - by now, the number of people on hunger strike is probably 5000+, and since it started on August 15th, it is now in Day 10.

About 1,600 Palestinians in Israeli jails have begun a hunger strike to protest at conditions they say are humiliating and unnecessary.

But Israel's security minister said they would not bow to pressure and the prisoners could "starve to death".

The inmates' demands include an end to strip searches and more prison visits.

Israel argues that prisoners continue to plan attacks from within jail and their contact with the outside world must be restricted as far as possible.

   
As far as I'm concerned, they can strike for a day, a month, until death
Tzahi Hanegbi
Israeli Internal Security Minister

The open-ended hunger strike is currently taking place in several jails, and organisers of the protest say most of the around 7,500 Palestinians held by Israel are expected to join it by the end of the week.

A statement from the Palestinian Prisoners Society announced the start of the hunger strike, accusing Israel of "robbing us of all our rights, treading on our dignity and treating us like animals".

The Palestinians are presenting the strike as non-political. Their demands include:

    * guards to stop conducting strip searches

    * more frequent contact with families; organisers say 40% of inmates are currently denied any visits

    * improved sanitary conditions

    * access to public telephones

A spokesman for the Israeli prison service, Ian Domnitz, told AFP news agency that the protest would not be classified as a hunger strike for 48 hours but was already being deemed contrary to regulations.

In response, prison officials have confiscated televisions and radios, stopped the sales of cigarettes and sweets, and stopped all visits.

[Flipside]

'In response, prison officials have confiscated televisions and radios, stopped the sales of cigarettes and sweets, and stopped all visits. '

That'll teach 'em!

Edit : I wish I could find something surprising about the article. It's a sadly vicious circle, with both sides believing they have to right to not budge an inch, and not realising it is that very stubborness causing the problem in the first place

[Bobboau]

why do people use hunger strikes to try to get what they want from people who are suposably inhumane human rights violators?

I'd give them the sanitary demand, other than that that's what being a prisoner is all about, of course it is subjective, and is quite posably bull****.

[Corsair]

Better peaceful protest than bombs.

[Rictor]

If you read the list of full demands, its motly what prisoners in other civilized, first world countries have anyway. Somehow, I doubt these people are living in luxury.

We'll just see who gives in first. I fully expect that the Palestinian prisoners will die if necessary. I just wonder why it took so long for them to do something like this, or why political prisoners have not done the same.

[Sandwich]

Originally posted by Bobboau
I'd give them the sanitary demand...

Agreed - perhaps then when they are released, they can go back to their respective homes and teach the PA something. *shudder* I was in a Palestinian school in the middle of Jenin once... they don't have toilets, they have those "bulls-eye" hole-in-the-floor things.