Samer Al-Issawi
(Update below) After refusing food for more than 265 days legendary Palestinian Hunger Striker Samer Al-Issawi has struck a deal with Israeli military prosecutors described by his lawyer, Jawad Bulous, as “a big victory for Samer.” The news comes just one day after Al-Issawi told a military judge that he did not recognize the court’s authority at a hearing in the hospital on Monday, and refused to take part in any further legal proceedings against him. Today military prosecutors offered Al-Issawi, age 32, a deal that will allow him to return to his home in Jerusalem after 8 more months in prison.
AP:
Attorney Jawad Bulous said Israeli military prosecutors agreed on early Tuesday to release Issawi after he serves another eight months in prison, which would mean he would be released later this year. The lawyer said he expected the deal to be signed later in the day, after which Issawi will end his hunger strike…..
“No doubt, this is a big victory for Samer,” Bulous said. The hunger strike “forced the Israeli side to reverse their position.”
Reportedly, Al-Issawi stopped taking nutritional supplements last Sunday but resumed taking the supplements as of midnight Monday in the presence of his sister, Shireen, and his lawyer after they conveyed the offer at his hospital bedside.
It is significant that Issawi refused to be exiled and is being released to his hometown of Al-Issawiyeh, a village in the district of Jerusalem. Al-Issawi refused to stop his hunger strike, and be released and deported to Gaza.
Update: Palestinian News and Info Agency (WAFA) reports:
Boulus said the importance of this deal is that Issawi will not be convicted by an Israeli military committee to spend the remaining 20 years left in his sentence in prison…….
Boulus said the deal also includes an Israeli presidential amnesty, which means Issawi cannot be re-arrested and forced to serve the remaining 20 years of his former sentence.
Wonderful news!!! This man is a tower of courage and strength. May he live to witness the end of Israeli occupation and oppression and the dawn of FREE PALESTINE with the return of the refugees to their homeland.
What do you bet that just as Samer Issawi is about to be released in eight months, suddenly new information will come up which will make it necessary to keep him in prison? Security! New evidence, when they cannot make pubic.
“We were going to release him, your honor, but who knew? These things happen. Security.”
I am not saying Israel is wrong or right. Or that Samer Al-Issawi is wrong or right.
I am just saying that I think that what is going on is an attempt to get Samer to break his fast, under the theory that he will be too disinheartened to start again.
The Israelis have purched about a year and half of time. The eight months + the time needed for Issawi to get to this present emaciated state all over again.
How many times does Israel agree to release a prisoner then as the release date comes up … Who knew? … Go figure?! … new information comes up … Security … and the prisoner is not released. Find a new judge. One who is more understanding.
I am NOT criticizing Israel.
Israel just bought time. Issawi is probably going nowhere. Not now. Not in eight months. That is my guess.
I don’t believe Issawi’s story that he was innocent in the brief period of time he was out.
I don’t believe Israel’s story that he violated his restrictions outside Jerusalem.
He probably violated his restrictions inside the territory of Jerusalem, and the Israelis cannot or will not admit their sources; and invented the story of his restriction violation of leaving Jerusalem.
Or it might be that Mr. Issawi was a big fish, and when no one was paying attention, they invented an excuse to re-arrest him. They had no intention of letting him remain at large.
None of this is central … now.
Israel won.
Samer Issawi broke his fast.
In eight months Samer Issawi may be too disinheartened to restart the fast when Israel renegs.
If Samer Issawi does restart the fast, the present threat of a third Intifada have disappearred, in which case the Israelis can let him die.
Or … a lot of accidents can happen in eight months. He fell down a staircase. He had a heart attack, when he started eating again. He did it to himself. Of course, the electrolyte salts put in his foods won’t show up in the autopsy.
Whether you are pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian … this is a victory for Israel, not Samer Issawi.
Make no mistake. Israel won this time.
It is as much a victory for Samer, as the Gaza war was for Hamas.
“However, the possibility remains that the procedure regarding military leave it until the end of the sentence handed down on him before his release in Shalit deal.”
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4371128,00.html
Ynet…….. wafa can write story’s, we already know they are capable of that
RE: “Today military prosecutors offered Al-Issawi, age 32, a deal that will allow him to return to his home in Jerusalem after 8 more months in prison.” ~ Annie Robbins
MY CONCERN: After Al-Issawi’s release, what’s to keep the Israeli authorities from waiting a few months and then using some pretext to rearrest him; thereby turning Al-Issawi into yet another Palestinian version of Kafka’s “Josef K”* like they have done with the Nassar Halabi** (and many other Palestinians)?
** FROM MONDOWEISS (by Joe Catron on October 18, 2012):
SOURCE – https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2012/10/on-eve-of-historic-anniversary-boycotts-hunger-strikes-and-repression-continue.html
* THE PREDICAMENT OF NASSAR HALABI IS A BIT LIKE THAT OF JOSEF K IN ORSON WELL’S FILM ADAPTATION OF FRANZ KAFKA’S “THE TRIAL”: After months of trial postponement, Josef K goes to court painter Titorelli to ask for advice. He is told to hope for little. He might get definite acquittal, ostensible acquittal, or indefinite postponement. No one is ever really acquitted, but sometimes cases can be extended indefinitely.
SOURCE – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057427/quotes?qt=qt0135410