Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prison are commencing a hunger strike. Because Israel has started jamming their smuggled cell phones.
Seriously.
Haaretz reports:
Palestinian security prisoners from Hamas and Islamic Jihad began a hunger strike on Monday despite previous agreements to postpone it.According to media outlets in Gaza affiliated with Hamas, some 150 men imprisoned in Israel began striking. Hamas’ Prisoners Ministry announced that the five inmates driving the effort began their strike on Monday evening. They are all prisoner leaders, high-status inmates elected by their peers, representing Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PFLP. Four out of the five are serving life sentences, mainly for carrying out or planning terror attacks.According to the prisoners’ announcement, the second wave of the hunger strike will take place on April 11, the third on the 13th, and the fourth on the 17th. More prisoners are expected to join the strike with each wave. Prisoners will not eat any food or drink water, which is expected to cause a rapid deterioration in their health.
The trigger for the hunger strike is Israeli jamming of smuggled cell phones, the Times of Israel reports:
Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails launched a hunger strike on Sunday morning to protest the installation of cellphone jamming technology in some prisons that has made it impossible to use smuggled cellphones in the wards.The leaders of the strike have threatened to escalate the situation by refusing water if their demands for better incarceration conditions and the removal of the signal jamming systems are not met within seven days.The strikers are led by a few of the most notorious terrorists Israel has ever put behind bars, according to a Channel 13 news report. They include Arman Mahamed, who is serving 36 life sentences for the Cafe Moment suicide bombing in central Jerusalem on March 9, 2002, which killed 11 and wounded 54; Hassan Salame, who is serving 84 life sentences for the bus 18 bombings in Jerusalem in 1996; and Muammar Abu Sheikh, who is serving 29 life sentences for his role in the bombing of the Park Hotel in Netanya on Passover Eve, March 27, 2002, which killed 30 and left 140 wounded.
The imprisoned murderers claim the cell jamming equipment could harm their health, according to Al Jazeera:
This equipment is a health hazard that harms the prisoners and may lead to cancer, the prisoners said in their statement.According to Israel’s Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, the installations are necessary to halt “terror” activity – an allegation Palestinian prisoners deny.They say without mobile phone service, they are unable to communicate with their family members, many of whom are unable to visit their jailed relatives.Prisoners have long called for the installation of payphones, yielding only some results as part of demands associated with previous hunger strikes.
This tactic has worked for imprisoned terrorists in the past, because of the anti-Israel bias of international ‘human rights’ activists and media — If Israel does nothing and the prisoners die, Israel is blamed; if Israel force feeds them to prevent their deaths, it is accused of a human rights violation.
The tactic works only if international attention is generated.
Israeli diplomat Dan Poraz explains on Twitter:
1. It is against the rules for prisoners, in any prison, anyplace in the world, to have their own cellphones.2. Same applies for Israel, same goes for Hamas terrorists (who usually aren’t doing time for tax fraud).3. Hamas prisoners aren’t happy about Israel not allowing them to use cellphones. So they smuggle them into jail.4. How? Sometimes piece by piece. Like an assembly line. Sometimes abusing family visits to smuggle pieces in.5. Naturally, prison management doesn’t approve this.6. Why? First of all because rules are rules. But more than that, Hamas prisoners aren’t craving for cellphones to play candy crush saga, I’ll tell you that. Cellphones allow them to keep operating with other Hamas terrorists outside of jail.7. Take Yahya Sinwar for example. Hamas’s leader in Gaza spent more than 20 years in jail for murdering at least 5 people. During these 20 years he was totally on top of things. He was deeply involved in terror acts going on outside of jail. He was chatty on the phone.8. So, what can prison management do when the fight against smuggling hasn’t proven to work? Here’s an idea! Use some low tech devices that can jam cellphone signals.9. Hamas terrorists in jail be like: “this is unacceptable and will bear consequences + we will go on hunger strike to create a mega crisis”.10. That’s basically it. Only in the Middle East.
Why do they keep doing this?
Because it has worked in the past. What if Israel just said No, and stuck to it?
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