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Israel escapes the condemnation it deserves

The hunger-strike of some 1600 Palestinians in Israeli jails is now over.  Many of the prisoners are being held under Israel's appalling administrative detention.  That is, they haven't been charged with anything, had a trial or been convicted.   Their point was made and the Israelis are said to have relented, somewhat, in the conditions under which the prisoners are held.     What is troubling is how little media publicity the hunger-strike attracted.    It's not every day that such an occurrence happens, especially so widespread - and in jail to boot. 

Just before the strike ended, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown wondered, out load, in an op-ed piece in The Independent why Israel's actions attract so little, if any, condemnation.  

"Thaer Halahleh wrote a letter to his wife Shireen from an Israeli jail in February: "My detention has been renewed seven times and they still haven't charged me. I can't take it any more." Then the 34-year-old began a hunger strike, as did Bilal Diab. That was 77 days ago. Both are Palestinians, fathers, whose young daughters are strip searched and terrified when they visit. David Rose, an exceptional investigative journalist and Jewish himself, recently publicised their stories. Eight others have been on the same, silent, self-wasting, wasted protest. Halahleh's eyes were bleeding, blood instead of tears. He, Diab and others may well be dead by the time you read this. Last Friday, Supreme Court judges in this hubristic democracy turned down an application from civil rights groups to have the men moved to civilian hospitals. They didn't want, perhaps, their own citizens to witness such stuff. What would that do to the image of the plucky little nation, surrounded by real and imagined threats?

The moralistic Chief Rabbi will not be on "Thought for the Day" expressing sorrow for the treatment of these prisoners. Ardent British Zionists will not be pressed to condemn those responsible for the state barbarism. You certainly won't get a big TV hit like Homeland, (based on Hatufim, an Israeli TV series that fictionalised the capture by Palestinian militants of the IDF soldier Gilad Shalit) being made about these men. Come on, you cool, edgy TV chaps, how about a film about a handsome Palestinian held by the Israelis till he loses his mind? Do I hear a choral "No"?"

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