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A Brief History of Major Palestinian Hunger Strikes in Israel – When, Why and What They Achieved.

More than 6,000 Palestinians are currently in prison for offences linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for charges ranging from stone-throwing to weapon possession and attacks that killed or wounded Israeli civilians and soldiers. Under international human rights law, prisoners must be guaranteed basic human rights, which include the right to maintain a family life and freedom from torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

The First:

18 February – 1 March 1969

Ramle Prison

Prisoners were protesting against meagre portions and poor-quality food, alongside the policy of banning writing stationary and being forced to address their jailers as “sir”. The strike ended when prison authorities put the prisoners in solitary confinement, which has been classified as torture by several human rights treaties.

18 February – 26 February 1969

Kfar Yona Prison

At the same time, Palestinian prisoners protested similar conditions and called on the Israeli prison authorities to replace their plastic sleeping mattresses. They also achieved the permitting of stationary for writing letters to their families.

The First Death:

5 July – 12 July 1970

Asqalan Prison

During this hunger strike, Abdul Qader Abu al-Fahm became the first Palestinian prisoner to die during a hunger strike. Al-Fahm died as a result of force-feeding by prison authorities, who inserted a nasal feeding tube into his lungs instead of his stomach. Prisoners called for allowing stationery and clothes from their families, as well as increasing break time in the prison yard, but these requests were not fulfilled.

The Longest:

24 April – 26 June 2014

Multiple Prisons

About 90 administrative detainees launch a strike to protest their detention without trial or charges. Some 290 prisoners join, 70 of whom are hospitalised during the strike. The prisoners ended their strike after a deal was made with the Israeli Prison Service, however no solid promises were formed or upheld.

The Largest:

25 September – 14 October 1992

Most Prisons

Often considered one of the most successful hunger strikes in Palestinian history. Seven thousand prisoners stage the strike after the Labour Party wins the elections and amid speculations of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. The strike results in major achievements, such as shutting down the isolation section of Ramle prison, stopping strip searches, increasing family visitation time and allowing cooking slates into the cells.

The Latest:

17 April – 27 May 2017

Multiple Prisons

Approximately 1,500 prisoners from across six jails participate in a hunger strike to coincide with Palestinian Prisoners Day. The strike is led by Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti. Prisoner demands include the installation of a public telephone in all prisons to allow communication with relatives, resuming bi-monthly family visits, allowing second-degree relatives to visit, increasing the duration of visits and allowing prisoners to take photographs with their families. The Israeli prison service said the inmates declared an end to the strike after Israel reached a deal with the Palestinian authority and the Red Cross for prisoners to receive a second family visit each month.

Brexit Talks Due to Begin on 19 June

This month, the European Union’s (EU) chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, disclosed that he does not want to consider the chance that talks on the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU could collapse. The statement comes after EU ministers on 22 May gave Mr Barnie the green light for talks to begin in June, after the UK election (8 June).

Mr Barnier, whose comments come after his UK counterpart, David Davis, made clear that the threat to walk out was genuine if the EU’s “divorce bill” was too high, stated “no deal” was no an option. UK ministers have reacted angrily to reports that the EU may demand as much as €100bn (£86bn; $112bn) from the UK. A range of figures has emerged for the amount the UK will be asked to pay when it leaves the EU, covering agreed commitments and liabilities. Furthermore, the EU is insisting that “sufficient progress” be made on the bill, citizens’ rights and the UK-Irish border before talks begin on a future trade agreement.

The first round of talks will begin on 19 June and Mr Barnier will report to EU leaders at a summit three days later. In a communiqué released on Monday 22 May, EU officials stressed that a key to the talks’ success would be their transparency for all sides.

US Will Not Widen Ban on Laptops in Cabin Luggage

According to a Homeland Security official, an American ban on taking laptops in cabin baggage on flights from several countries in the Middle East and North Africa will not be expanded, for now.

Reports had initially indicated that the ban on laptops and tablets in cabins of transatlantic flights to the US was “likely” to take place as an American delegation meet with European government officials earlier this month.  The move however has since been declined.  According to Homeland Security spokesman Dave Lapan, such a move could affect routes carrying as many as 65 million people a year on more than 400 daily flights.

Currently, US-bound passengers travelling from ten airports in eight countries are not able to carry large electronic devices on board and have to instead place these items in checked-in luggage in the hold. Since March of this year, this ban has affected flights originating in Amman, Jordan; Kuwait City, Kuwait; Cairo, Egypt; Istanbul Turkey; Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Casablanca, Morocco; Doha, Qatar; and Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. The nine airlines affected by this ban are Royal Jordanian, EgyptAir, Turkish Airlines, Saudia, Kuwait Airlines, Royal Air Maroc, Qatar Airways, Emirates and Etihad Airways. Overall, these airlines operate about fifty direct flights to the US every day. Separately, there is also a British ban in place, which targets flights out of Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Tunisia.

The bans were introduced this year amidst growing fears that terrorists are perfecting explosive devices small enough to fit inside consumer electronics in an attempt to bring down commercial airlines. The move was reportedly linked to a threat from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and was prompted by intelligence. The group boasts one of the world’s most feared bomb makers – Ibrahim Hassan al Asiri. Authorities are concerned about plots similar to an incident that occurred in Somalia in February 2016 when a bomb hidden in a laptop blew open the side of a plane, failing however to bring it down. Only the bomber was killed in that incident.

Venezuela and Brazil: From Slow Cooking to Boiling Over

This month saw the culmination of several processes in Latin America that have been slow cooking for some time now. Venezuela is on the brink of civil war as its economy is collapsing, food is scarce and violent protests rage in the streets. The country with more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia is going through the world’s deepest recession. Supermarkets are empty and the little food available is unaffordable for most Venezuelans due to skyrocketing inflation. The supermarket queues alone are extremely dangerous as people have been robbed and killed while standing in line. However, there is no alternative. Almost three quarters of the population lost on average almost twenty pounds due to the ‘Maduro Diet’. People are combing thrash for food while child mortality levels increased by thirty percent. Hospital conditions are extremely harsh with a chronic shortage in medicine and basic healthcare. A Malaria outbreak compounds this problem. Daily protests in response to these conditions have up to date killed at least 46 people. In order to curb the rioting Maduro has jailed its opponents, shut down independent media outlets and unleashed his security forces on the populace. 2600 soldiers were sent to the Andean area near Colombia in order to regain control as the country marked its 50^th day of violent clashes. Still, Maduro vowed to push ahead in July with the formation of a ‘constituent assembly’ in order to rewrite the constitution thereby increasing the fear that opposition parties will be excluded from future elections. Meanwhile, to the south, in Brazil, months of simmering anti-corruption probes reached a climax when the current sitting President Michel Temer himself was implicated in a corruption scandal. An audio recording emerged in which Temer and the President of meat-packing firm JBS, discuss bribing a jailed politician in exchange for his silence in his role as witness in Operation Car Wash. The tape’s fallout and the resulting news that the President himself was involved in a cover-up connected to the continent-wide anti-corruption probe shook the nation. Brazilian assets were dumped on foreign financial markets and protests ensued in the country’s major cities. Running battles between police and tens of thousands anti-Temer protesters led to the deployment of the army on the streets. While the financial markets have recovered, Temer’s position likely has not. Even though Temer, in a defiant public speech, has explicitly announced not to stand down, the possibility that the country will see a second President fall in less than a year has become more likely. If that happens the country’s long overdue, but unpopular, economic reforms will be further away than ever, thereby decreasing the prospects of ending the deep recession that has been going on. The spillover effect of both country’s crises are likely to keep on influencing the entire continent’s economic and political state of affairs for the time being.

US Arrests of Suspected Illegal Immigrants on the Rise

According to data released by the United States government this month, US arrests of suspected illegal immigrants rose by 38% during the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Detentions by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency increased to 41,318 between 22 January 2017 and the end of April. This was up from 30,028 arrests that occurred in the about the same period in 2016. According ot the ICE, almost two-thirds of those arrested this year had criminal convictions, noting that more than half the increase in arrests was of immigrants who were simply in the US without permission. President Trump has stepped up immigration enforcement to target such undocumented immigrants.

The dragnet follows presidential orders, which have widened the scope of who can be targeted for immigration violations. Acting director of ICA Thomas Homan told reporters on Wednesday 17 May that immigrants who posed a threat to national security or had criminal records were still a priority for this agency, noting however that “there is no category of aliens off the table.” He went on to say that the ICE would continue to target people who had been issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge, even if they had not committed another crime. He stated that “those that enter the country illegally, they do violate the law, that is a criminal act,” adding “when a federal judge makes a decision and issues an order that order needs to mean something.”

While former President Barack Obama was also criticized for deporting a large number of immigrants, most of them were recent illegal border crossers. While President Trump’s signature campaign pledge to build an expanded wall on the US-Mexico border is currently in limbo, after Congress denied funding for it in a recent budget agreement, his tough rhetoric on border security appears to be having an impact on immigration enforcement. US Customs and Border Protection data indicated this month that the number of people caught crossing the border with Mexico is down significantly since the beginning of the year.