Marwan Barghouti, who is serving several life sentences in an Israeli prison, was caught on video eating while on hunger strike. The video was released by the Israeli Prison Services and shows the prisoner eating on two occasions – April 27, when he ate two cookies, and May 5, when he had an Israeli-made chocolate bar and a packet of salt.
According to Israeli journalist and commentator Ehud Yaari this accident will damage Barghouti’s position as a leader for Palestinians.
Marwan Barghouti is considered a Palestinian terrorist in Israel and a national hero in Palestine. He is the former head of Tanzim, the terrorist wing of the Fatah party, which rules the West Bank. He was one of the architects of the second intifada, helping to organize the initial outbreak of violence in 2000 and guiding Fatah’s terrorism until his capture. Early in the fighting, he stated,
“Gone are the days when we alone must make sacrifices. We must take revenge. Israelis must be killed. Israelis must be killed.”
Barghouti was sentenced to several life sentences in prison for murders committed upon his orders during the intifada. He made no and claimed he is a political prisoner, asserting that Israel had no right to prosecute him for murders committed on its own soil.
According to Yari this was not the first occasion when Barghouti cheated during a hunger strike but the journalist believes that this time this will ruin his already unstable position of a possible successor of Mahmoud Abbas as the president of the Palestinian Authority.
“The hunger strike—not the first, of course—did not take off as planned and will slowly scale down,” Yaari said. “Quite a few of the prisoners who joined the strike simply refuse to have the prison meals but buy food in the canteens.”
Barghouti claimed that the video was fake. His wife, Fadwa, told the press:
“The prisoners are familiar with Israel’s lies and games and the video they released signals the beginning of its fall.”
