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Palestinian Hunger Strike Campaign Exposes Divides within Fatah

(Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) Lihi Ben Shitrit and Mahmoud Jaraba - The hunger strike by a thousand Palestinian prisoners begun on April 17 reflects the intra-Fatah conflict between Marwan Barghouti's supporters and opponents. As of May 2017, there were 6,189 security prisoners. In addition to Hamas prisoners, who are not officially participating in the strike, the Fatah leadership in the Rimon, Negev, and Megiddo prisons, which hold more than 1,800 Fatah detainees, have not officially endorsed the strike due to their disagreements with Barghouti. Moreover, these leaders convinced Fatah's Central Committee to withdraw its initial directive making participation mandatory for all Fatah prisoners. The Palestinian Authority - while expressing moral support for the hunger strike - has also worked on the ground to contain protests in solidarity with it. PA security services are worried that an escalating civil resistance campaign could get out of hand, leading to security chaos that Hamas could exploit. Mahmoud Abbas and the PA security services have therefore doubled down on security coordination with Israel in an effort to maintain control over the Palestinian street. Lihi Ben Shitrit is an assistant professor at the School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia, Athens. Mahmoud Jaraba is a researcher and lecturer at Erlangen Center for Islam and Law in Europe (EZIRE) and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Germany.
2017-05-26 00:00:00
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