The New York Times has run a stirring piece by Marwan Barghouti, the Palestinian leader who has been imprisoned for 15 years, in its international edition today. Titled, “Why We Are on Hunger Strike,” the article describes Israel as a “moral and political failure” whose record of imprisoning 40 percent of Palestinian males is typical of occupying, colonial regimes. Barghouti several times refers to Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment and declares, “Our chains will be broken before we are, because it is human nature to heed the call for freedom regardless of the cost.”
Meanwhile, Barghouti is leading an increasingly successful hunger strike among imprisoned Palestinians. The strike started with 700 taking part, and has already expanded to several thousand.
Sadly, Barghouti’s article only appears in the International edition of the Times, not the domestic edition. Why does someone in Paris need to see this more than someone in New York? Think of the logic. This is an American issue. The Times‘s decision is clearly an effort, possibly subconsciously, to demote Barghouti’s eloquent cry for freedom to secondary status.
But nothing can diminish Barghouti’s importance. He was moved on Monday to solitary confinement. “The Israel Prison Service said it was trying to break up the hunger strike,” Haaretz reported.
In his op-ed, Barghouti relates “an unbelievable state of affairs” in Israeli prisons:
Over the past five decades, according to the human rights group Addameer, more than 800,000 Palestinians have been imprisoned or detained by Israel — equivalent to about 40 percent of the Palestinian territory’s male population. Today, about 6,500 are still imprisoned, among them some who have the dismal distinction of holding world records for the longest periods in detention of political prisoners. There is hardly a single family in Palestine that has not endured the suffering caused by the imprisonment of one or several of its members.
Barghouti describes Israel’s dual legal processes for Palestinians and Israelis in occupied territories as “a form of judicial apartheid,” and notes that imprisonment has failed because prisoners are fostering resistance:
Israel’s prisons have become the cradle of a lasting movement for Palestinian self-determination. This new hunger strike will demonstrate once more that the prisoners’ movement is the compass that guides our struggle, the struggle for Freedom and Dignity, the name we have chosen for this new step in our long walk to freedom [a reference to Nelson Mandela’s book].
Barghouti notes the burgeoning global support for Palestinians:
Their solidarity exposes Israel’s moral and political failure. Rights are not bestowed by an oppressor. Freedom and dignity are universal rights that are inherent in humanity, to be enjoyed by every nation and all human beings. Palestinians will not be an exception.
If this article were about the internal politics of the European Union — sure, someone in Paris will be more interested than an American. But Israel/Palestine is among the most important domestic U.S. foreign policy issues. Printing this piece in New York would surely have angered a lot of the newspaper’s base. There was no doubt a struggle at the Times; many are afraid of Barghouti’s political potential, as the most logical heir to Yasser Arafat, popular among Palestinians of all political persuasions.
Meantime, kudos to the Times‘s Jerusalem correspondent Ian Fisher for actually covering the prisoners’ hunger strike: “Over 1,000 Palestinian Prisoners in Israel Stage Hunger Strike.” Barghouti is front and center in this article, and Palestinians are quoted very high up.
More than a thousand Palestinians in Israeli prisons took part in a hunger strike on Monday, demanding better conditions in a protest that was unusual for its large size and for the fact that it was led by Marwan Barghouti, the most prominent detainee and a figure often seen as a future Palestinian leader. . .
“Israel is taking it seriously simply because of the possible consequences,” said Ghassan Khatib, a professor at Birzeit University and a former Palestinian official. “The issue of prisoners is very emotional.”
Too many times we have read in the western press, Why do Palestinians go straight to violence? Where is the Gandhi or Mandela of Palestine? Right before your eyes, is the answer. Nothing could be more peaceful than this hunger strike. Good for the Times for covering it in the news columns.
Thanks to Allison Deger.
@-Phil @- James (((Jews don’t need your help fighting anti-Semites))) North.
Barghouti may be the Messiah of your echo chamber, but outside, in the rest of the world, no one cares about him.
I know that’s a little hard for you to accept.
Question: Why, if NYT-USA refused to print this, did NYT-Europe print it? why not deny it space everywhere? Is NYT secretly promoting Palestinian rights (if not BDS), but only in Europe?
“no one cares about him”
not even an attempt to conceal your depravity, the people you claim a connection to preserved the 23rd psalm you utter fraud, he needs no one, its Marwan.
The international community allowed the United States to bomb Iraq on the pretext of weapons of mass distraction. Yes, that was an intentional typo. We gave Iraq chemical weapons to fight Iran but they had since destroyed all of them. Hell, the CIA helped to put Saddam Hussein into power. But like all US puppet dictators, once they’re no longer useful to us, we eliminate them. I wonder how long it will be before the international community imposes economic sanctions on Israel and disposes of its rulers? White Christian bigots may think that the Jews control everything, but they are quite wrong. Follow the money of these white American Christian zionists, they are setting up the state of Israel for something terrible. I swear Zionism = Anti-Semitism, no truer statement was ever uttered.
In the past thousand years or so, the Middle East was the only safe place for Jews, who thrived throughout the region. I have been to Iran and seen the Jewish community there. The Ottoman Empire was also extremely tolerant of Jews, and they lived in far better piece than in European Christian-majority nations.
Not only did the NYT bury this op-ed, but they also kowtowed to greater Israel, the hasbarists, and The Lobby et al:
“New York Times Amends Marwan Barghouti’s Op-ed Noting Murder, Terror Conviction
Initial text of the opinion piece referred to the initiator of the hunger strike as a ‘Palestinian leader and parliamentarian’
… In the editorial published on Sunday, Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences for terrorism and murder in Israel, explained why he and hundreds of other Palestinian prisoners have gone on hunger strike. Barghouti accused Israel of “mass arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners.”
In the piece, Barghouti relayed a number of personal stories about his run-ins with Israeli authorities and the subsequent imprisonments he has endured. He failed to mention the crimes for which he was convicted, claiming that “an Israeli court sentenced me to five life sentences and 40 years in prison in a political show trial that was denounced by international observers.”
Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid, in an op-ed in the Times of Israel, called the initial omission of Barghouti’s conviction “an intentional deception.” Lapid detailed the terror activities that led to Barghouti’s sentence and accused him of “inventing stories about those who imprison him” while blaming the New York Times because it “didn’t even bother to explain to its readers that the author is a convicted murderer of the worst kind.”
Speaking to Army Radio on Monday, Deputy Minister for Diplomacy Michael Oren called the opinion piece a “journalistic terror attack.” The former ambassador to the U.S. said that Israel should consider action against the New York Times for publishing something “full of lies,” especially if it turns out the paper helped Barghouti smuggle his article out of prison.
Around 1,200 security prisoners have joined the strike as of Monday. The number is expected to swell to over 2,000 participants.
The prisoners are demanding improved conditions which deal with phone privileges and visitation policies, as well as the revoking of detention without trial and solitary confinement.
Tens on thousands of Palestinians throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip marched in support of the striking prisoners on Monday, which also marks Palestinian Prisoners Day.
Barghouti has since been moved to solitary confinement. The Israel Prison Service said it was trying to break up the hunger strike.”
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/1.783950
Shame, shame, shame.