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Sympathy for a Palestinian Terrorist?

(CAMERA) Tamar Sternthal - Palestinian demonstrations and NGO activity on behalf of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner Samer Issawi have intensified. Who is Samer Issawi and why had he been imprisoned? According to the Israel Prison Service, Samer Issawi of Issawiyeh, Jerusalem, was arrested in April 2002 and sentenced to 26 years for attempted murder, belonging to a terror organization, military training, and possession of weapons, arms and explosive materials. Issawi was one of the 477 Palestinian prisoners released in the first stage of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in October 2011. Issawi was convicted of firing a gun at a civilian vehicle in October 2001, indiscriminately firing an AK47 assault rifle at civilian buses, and manufacturing and distributing pipe bombs used in attacks on Israeli civilians. As part of the Shalit deal, a condition of Issawi's release was that he was banned from entering the West Bank, but he violated the terms of his release by entering the West Bank three times after he was freed, and was therefore rearrested. As for his 200-day hunger strike, the Palestinian minister of prisoner affairs, Issa Qaraqe, said Issawi began his fast in August and has been observing it intermittently. Prison spokesman Sivan Weizman said he eats periodically.
2013-02-22 00:00:00
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