Punitive measures taken against leftist leader for hunger strike in Israeli prison

19.06.09 - 12:57

Ramallah / PNN – The nonviolent resistance of Ahmad Sa’adat has garnered a vengeful response, a prisoner affairs expert said today.

Abdel Nasser Ferwana says that the life of the leftist leader is in danger at the hands of the Israeli prison administration.

A week ago Sa’adat, the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, ended a nine day hunger strike from his isolated cell in Israeli prison. Sa’adat has been in solitary confinement for three months. Communication is so difficult that the news of the end of his hunger strike did not surface until days later. He has not been allowed to see his children for four years.

Sa’adat was imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority in Jericho as part of a deal with the Israelis who stormed the eastern West Bank jail and kidnapped him in 2006.

Abdel Nasser Ferwana, a leader in the political prisoners’ movement, said today that the reprisals against Sa’adat for his hunger strike are criminal.

“This is political and out of revenge for the fact that they have been unable to undermine his will or steadfastness during months in the interrogation chambers,” noted Ferwana. “The latest is a series of punitive measures in response to a hunger strike.”

Palestinian officials and human rights groups have issued numerous calls during the past week holding the Israeli administration fully responsible for Sa’adat’s life and for the lives of his colleagues.

Five other members of the leftist resistance engaged in the strike.

Ferwana said, “This is not new, this position of the occupation against Sa’adat and the resistance. The kidnapping of Sa’adat from the Jericho prison and into the harsh conditions of Israeli jails where he is subjected to various kinds of torture and military trials and continued detention, are political retaliatory actions.”

The prisoner affairs official continued to talk about Sa’adat as a symbol of Palestinian resistance.

He is accused by the Israelis of organizing the killing of their tourism minister in response to the assassination of PFLP Secretary General Abu Ali Mustafa.