Free Republic

The deal that ended the hunger strike by hundreds of Palestinian Authority prisoners in Israel is a goodwill gesture to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the Prime Minister's Office says. Speaking for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, spokesman Mark Regev on Monday night called the deal brokered by Egyptian mediators a confidence-building gesture. The hunger strike by some 1,600 PA Arab prisoners in Israeli jails had lasted more than 40 days – and in the case of a few prisoners, past 70 days. Israeli security officials and representatives of PA terrorist organizations agreed to the deal after a meeting Monday at a...

MK Danny Danon (Likud) on Monday slammed a deal signed Monday between Israel's Shin Bet and hunger-striking Arab security prisoners being held on suspicion of terrorism. "This deal is a serious mistake," Danon said. "Rather than making things harder on the terrorists, they give them gifts." "The situation of security prisoners must be clear: no family visits, no special benefits, and key prisoners must be confined seperately," he added. "We would not allow a Hizbullah prisoner visits, and there is no reason to give Hamas prisoners visits," he said. "Both deny the existence of Israel." Danon told Arutz Sheva he...

A Palestinian Authority lawmaker says a deal has been reached with Israel to end a hunger strike by Arab prison inmates. The announcement confirmed a statement made earlier in the day by the Hamas terrorist organization that an agreement was in the process of being formulated. Hundreds of prisoners agreed Monday to end their strike after concessions were agreed to by the two sides, according to PA Minister for Prisoner Affairs Issa Qaraqe, who spoke with reporters. The agreement, brokered by Egyptian mediators, was reached at a prison in Ashkelon, with representatives of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and...

Terrorists and security prisoners being held in Israeli jails will riot unless their demands are met immediately, MK Jamal Zahalka threatened Saturday night. Speaking at a demonstration in Jaffa in support of security prisoners who are on a hunger strike demanding that Israel end the practice of administrative detention, and allow them more family visits. The demonstration was one of dozens that took place in Israel and PA-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria. Zahalka said that if Israel did not submit to the prisoners' demands, “the prisoners will soon begin to die, and we will have an intifada in the...

A dozen California State University students officially ended their hunger strike today after about a week of fasting in an effort to get university officials to comply with demands such as a tuition freeze and a rollback of administrator pay to 1999 levels. At midnight Thursday, the students decided to end the strike due to health concerns, . . .

A leader with the Islamic Jihad terror group warned on Sunday that the death of any hunger-striking prisoner in Israel will start the third intifada. The official, Mohammad Al-Hindi, was quoted by the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency as having said that the “battle of the empty stomachs”, in which more than 2,000 jailed Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist prisoners are refusing food, had overcome factional divisions. “This battle will be the gateway for Palestinian unity,” Al-Hindi told supporters of the hunger-strikers at a solidarity tent in central Gaza City. He urged cross-factional demonstrations to support the prisoners even if they lead...

Terrorist Hana Shalbi, who was rearrested following her release in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, ended her 43-day hunger strike, Thursday evening at the medical center of the Israel Prisons Service. The Islamic Jihad terrorist was protesting her rearrest. She was hospitalized because of a deterioration in her condition brought on by the..."

Islamic Jihad spokesman Khader Adnan said Tuesday he is ending his 66-day hunger strike after worldwide sympathy pressured the Justice Ministry to decide to end his administrative detention two months from now. Mainstream media have turned the terrorist leader into a victim and hero as he continued his hunger strike while under care in an Israeli hospital. The Islamic Jihad has been outlawed by the United States as a terror group. Eleven people were hurt Tuesday in a protest outside his prison cell near Jerusalem while he lay in his bed in Ziv Hospital, in Tzfat in northern Israel. Israeli...

Three members of the Occupy D.C. group said they will begin a hunger Three members of the Occupy D.C. group said they will begin a hunger strike Thursday, ceasing all eating in support of “D.C. democracy” and full voting rights for District residents. But not until after breakfast. Adrian Parsons, Sam Jewler and Kelly Mears began their fast at noon at McPherson Square Park in Northwest Washington. Their last meal consisted of carrot juice, spinach juice, stir-fried vegetables and tofu. At a news conference Thursday afternoon, protesters said they will sustain their hunger strike until D.C. is granted full voting...

Thousands of Palestinian Authority terrorists in Israeli jails launched a hunger strike on Wednesday, AFP reported. The French news agency quoted the PA’s minister for prisoners, Issa Qaraqa, as having told reporters in Ramallah, “I can confirm that all the prisoners in Israeli prisons have begun a three-day hunger strike, which could be increased, as a kind of warning to the Israeli administration.” According to Qaraqa, the strike was a protest against the policy of solitary confinement, and was called in solidarity with a group of prisoners from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He said that “around...

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — More than 250 immigrants began a hunger strike in Greece on Tuesday, demanding to be legalized and challenging a Greek government crackdown on migrant trafficking. Some 200 immigrants, mostly from North Africa, launched the hunger strike at Athens University Law School after taking a ferry to Athens from the island of Crete. Supporters said 50 others went on a hunger strike in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki. Police are forbidden by law to enter university grounds without special permission. The Socialist government flatly ruled out considering the demands. "There is no intention and no possibility...

On a rainy afternoon in mid-October 2005, a white bus climbed the brush-covered hills near Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, carrying a group of visitors to Camp Delta, the desolate spot on the island's southern coast where the U.S. military holds more than 500 prisoners captured in the war on terror. It rolled through the detention camp's stockade-style gate and turned onto the dirt track inside the outermost of three high fences. Like others in the small group of civilian doctors, psychologists, and ethicists visiting that day, I peered through the bus's windows, eager for a glimpse of detainees. Since our arrival...

University students across Texas this week joined San Antonio students in a hunger strike aimed at pressuring U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to vote for the DREAM Act, a bill that would provide a path to citizenship for students and soldiers brought to the country illegally as children. Started two weeks ago by a dozen students at the University of Texas at San Antonio, the hunger strike spread this week to UT campuses in Austin, Dallas, Arlington, Brownsville and Edinburg, as well as the University of North Texas in Denton, according to members of DREAM Act NOW!, the UTSA student...

....two congressional hopefuls have gone on hunger strike to demand a debate with Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.). "The hunger has almost disappeared except when there's food around and TV ads and stuff. The Hometown Buffet commercial is one of the worst. They are an all-you-can-eat buffet," said Mike Benoit, the libertarian candidate in the three-way race. The strike started with Democrat Ray Lutz, who said he got the idea from former California Rep. Jim Bates. Benoit immediately joined in. The pair are on their fifth day of a hunger strike they started at sundown on Aug. 12. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41193.html#ixzz0wxccdx3P

SANTA CLARA, Cuba – Cuban opposition activist Guillermo Farinas ended his 134-day hunger strike Thursday, following signs the communist government is making good on its promise to release 52 political prisoners...

When some 20 UC Berkeley students announced on May 3 that they were launching a hunger strike to protest the new Arizona immigration law, they also issued a set of "demands." They demanded that Chancellor Robert Birgeneau denounce the Arizona law, rehire laid-off janitors and drop disciplinary actions against students arrested after a violent protest. You knew how the story would end before it ended. The administration would kowtow to student activists by agreeing to meet with them and behave as if their demands merited serious consideration. Most of the activists' impossible demands would remain unmet. Then - as happened...

BERKELEY — UC Berkeley protesters ended a 10-day hunger strike Wednesday with a ceremonial meal of corn on the cob. The mostly Latino group of 18 students and workers went on strike in front of the administration building May 3 demanding school Chancellor Robert Birgeneau denounce Arizona's new law that allows police to question the immigration status of anyone they stop for other crimes. They also had a host of other demands. Birgeneau denounced the new law, but stopped short of the other demands until the strikers met with him Wednesday. During the strike four students had to be hospitalized...

BERKELEY — UC Berkeley police this morning peacefully dispersed a gathering of hunger strikers who have been camped out on campus for a week, but protesters say they plan to continue their efforts. Students and others have been protesting on the front lawn of California Hall since last Monday. The 19 individuals on the hunger strike have demands of denouncing racist legislation in Arizona, creating a sanctuary on campus and ending retaliation against student and worker activists. A rally has been planned today at 3:30 p.m. to increase the pressure on the administration. In addition, regularly scheduled demonstrations have been...

Saying the University of California's sharply misguided priorities call for unprecedented and unified action, two University of California employees represented by the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299 have joined students in a hunger strike at the UC Berkeley campus. Today's action comes after workers last week called on prominent graduation speakers at UC campuses statewide to refuse to deliver their commencement addresses unless workers' demands are met (see list of demands below). Abel Salas, a gardener at UC Berkeley, and the latest addition to the hunger strikers, said, "It is the most important thing...

BERKELEY -- A group of UC Berkeley students started a hunger strike Monday to demand that the university oppose the new Arizona immigration law, drop disciplinary charges against protesters from the occupation of Wheeler Hall earlier this year, rehire laid off janitors and make the campus a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants. Latino groups on the Cal campus called the hunger strike at noon Monday.

1700 employees of Wagon Pars Company in Arak have gone on a hunger strike to protest the company's failure to pay their wages and pension. ILNA's Kar news agency reports that this is the ninth protest organized by the employees this year. The workers have announced that if their demands are not met, they will block the highway entrance to the City of Arak. Mohammad Reza Madahi, deputy chief of the company's Islamic Workers Association announced: " 75 days of unpaid wages and retiree pensions and benefits" were the cause of the protests in the past six months. Wagon Pars...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - After more than five years, the Pentagon revealed why it is holding a Saudi nicknamed "the Professor" at Guantanamo Bay, saying he once lived with a Sept. 11 conspirator and received a stipend from Osama bin Laden. Shaker Aamer's lawyer denies the allegations, made after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week requested the release of the Saudi, who has been an unofficial leader among the detainees, and four other former residents of Britain. The Bush administration, which has been urging other nations to accept Guantanamo prisoners amid international pressure to close the military jail,...

SANTA CRUZ -- More than 100 students and staff from UC Santa Cruz gathered at the foot of campus Tuesday to launch a hunger strike aimed at urging administrators to reverse course on budget cuts that opponents say disproportionately affect students of color. About two dozen people, some attending the noon rally organized by the nascent Students of Color Collective, pledged not to take nourishment until a long list of demands is met. The demands include blocking cuts to the Community Studies and Latin American and Latino Studies departments, as well as hiring full-time directors for the American Indian Resource...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- The U.S. has rejected a Guantanamo prisoner's proposal to end his 3 1/2-year hunger strike in exchange for easing his conditions at the American prison in Cuba, saying such a deal would undermine security and encourage similar protests. A federal judge in Washington had urged U.S. authorities to consider the proposed deal in the case of Ahmed Zuhair, a Saudi prisoner who has refused to eat since the summer of 2005 and is force-fed a liquid nutrient mix to keep him alive.

PARIS, France (AP) -- He helped wreck a McDonald's restaurant, campaigned for the French presidency and now is refusing food to protest genetically modified corn. Jose Bove, France's most famously militant farmer, and about 15 supporters launched a hunger strike to pressure the government to ban cultivation of genetically modified corn. "We will hold out for as long as it takes," the mustachioed sheep farmer, an unsuccessful presidential candidate last April, said Thursday. Bove, who is in his mid-50s, ate only vegetable soup for eight days before the fast to accustom his body to the lack of food,

Wearing an armband with the word "fast" on it, Sofi Shank admits that her decision to put her body on the line for her beliefs isn't sitting well with her parents. "They're really concerned about my health," said Shank, 19, a University of Minnesota freshman. "My dad hasn't been getting sleep; he's been calling me all the time." On Monday, Shank was one of 11 university students who began a hunger strike in support of striking clerical, health care and technical workers. The students -- who are also being joined by one professor and a university civil service employee --...

Marghi Dutton is 90 and losing her eyesight, but nothing was going to stop her from trekking to midspan of the Golden Gate Bridge on Sunday with the anti-war group Code Pink: Women for Peace. She joined a crowd of about 100 demonstrators dressed in hot pink hats, shirts and scarves and fought the wind to raise her sign: "Impeach Bush and Cheney!" "My arms are aching, but I'm getting energy from the drivers - so many are honking in support," she said. Code Pink, a national grassroots peace movement inspired by Bay Area women, organized the protest to call...

/begin my excerpt S. Korea: Some Hostages on Hunger Strike Al Jazeera reported on 8 o'clock news(S. Korean time?) that some S. Korean hostages are on hunger strike. James Bay, Al Jazeera's Kabul correspondent, said that the hostages are divided into multiple groups and kept separately, and some are on hunger strike, according to an Afghan official who visited one of the groups. According to the official, the hostages are on hunger strike to protest their extended captivity. /end my excerpt

Bay area CODEPINK member collapsed in Lieberman's office after 10 days of an ongoing hunger-strike to gain a meeting with the Senator. Outraged by Senator Lieberman's comments on CBS on June 15 about wanting to bomb Iran, CODEPINK member Leslie Angeline, 50, decided to start a hunger strike until she could meet with the senator. A meeting was scheduled then cancelled by Lieberman's office, resulting in over 50 members of CODEPINK and Iranian, Iraqi, Israeli and Jewish communities to converge on the Senator's office. 3 days later the Senator from Connecticut repeated his accusations and proposed military attack against Iran....

Daniel Weissman doesn't feel the hunger pains anymore, and the reddish stubble on his cheeks has stopped growing. He gets confused more easily. But the main problem is the cold. Although the temperature was a moderate 53 degrees, the 22-year-old Stanford University physics graduate student was layered in two pairs of pants, a down vest, a hooded sweatshirt, a flannel shirt, a sweater, a knit cap and fingerless gloves to keep warm on his eighth day of a hunger strike demanding the university revise its living-wage policy for low-end workers such as janitors and groundskeepers. "We'll do this as long...

When hunger pangs hit Patricia Brooks, she turns to stitching. Her needle flashes silver as she stitches squares of purple and blue, pink and red. It may also be her message of goodbye to her two granddaughters, ages 5 and 7. Brooks, 68, who lives in a subsidized senior-citizen apartment in Coupeville, Island County, has been on a hunger strike since Sept. 11. A longtime activist who joined Coupeville Peace and Reconciliation on the street corner at Highway 20 and Main Street, Brooks was frustrated over the lack of progress in ending the war in Iraq. "I have been in...

SADDAM HUSSEIN ended his 19-day hunger strike last Wednesday with a meal of beef, rice and Coca-Cola, but he had little to show for his starvation. Iraqis in particular, living day-to-day with brutal sectarian violence, viewed Mr. Hussein’s self-sacrifice as an insult. “Saddam’s hunger strike didn’t work because it came from someone who is finished in Iraq and has no political or personal value for the Iraqi people,” said Fauwzya al-Attiya, a sociologist at Baghdad University. “Most of us wish he was executed just to end this problem so we can face our other problems.” But if Mr. Hussein tarnished...

Five antiwar activists, four of whom have been on a hunger strike for 25 days, were arrested yesterday... {snip} The arrests occurred after the five blocked the entrance and ignored police orders to move..... Three of the people arrested are members of CodePink, including its co-founder, Diane Wilson of Seadrift, Tex.

For two months the van was parked outside the Packard Bell computer factory in Angers, western France. Inside were three former employees on hunger strike: Tony Berthelot, Bruno Mouillé and Betty Bergeon. The trio said they were subsisting on fruit juice and water in protest at the way Packard Bell had handled their voluntary redundancies, claiming they had not received adequate support in the search for other work. On July 12 their stamina gave out. After Mr Berthelot had been taken to hospital with heart problems, the others reluctantly ended their fast too. Yet there are plenty of others still...

SADDAM Hussein is receiving psychiatric counselling to convince him to start eating again after 12 days on hunger strike in a US military prison. Saying that the 69-year-old ousted Iraqi president was still refusing food but taking liquid nourishment, a US spokesman said such counselling was part of additional daily medical care for inmates who risked damaging their health by their actions. "Medical and mental health professionals counsel the detainees on the dangers," Lieutenant Colonel Keir-Kevin Curry said. "They try to convince the detainees to end their fast." Saddam and three co-defendants who last ate on July 7 are all...

Iraq: ninth day of hunger strike for Saddam Hussein BAGHDAD - former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein spent Sunday his ninth day of sharpened without feeding. He carries out a hunger strike in order to claim a protection increased for his lawyers. "In spite of its refusal to eat, it is always considered in good health", specified a spokesman of the American army. With three of his co-defendants, the former Iraqi leader, whose lawsuit for crimes against humanity takes again the next week, refuses to feed since July 7. He drinks sweetened coffee and others liquidate, specified the army. The...

Iraq - Saddam Hussein in hunger strike since five days BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein and three of its co-defendants have been in hunger strike for five days, announced Wednesday the army American, thus confirming a declaration of lawyer of the former president. The ex president would go however well thanks to an enriched drink. The four strikers have refused to feed for Friday evening, protesting against the procedures of their lawsuit for crime against humanity and claiming more safety for their lawyers. A third of them was killed last month.

*With the White House as her backdrop Tuesday, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan ate her last meal at midnight and begin a hunger strike designed to call attention to her efforts to bring home U.S. troops fighting in Iraq. Danny Glover, Rev. Al Sharpton and Susan Sarandon are among the celebrities joining Sheehan for the nationwide effort, dubbed “Troops Home Fast.” So far, more than 3,000 people from the U.S. and 18 other countries have signed up to join the “rolling fast,” meaning they’ll be giving up food on designated days and encourage others to fast with them on those days....

After six straight agonizing hours without food, deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has ended his hunger strike. The strike was launched to protest the use of a generic substitute for his customary Kellogg's Fruit Loops. Curtis Debabbler, a human rights lawyer who has been retained to defend Saddam Hussein, labeled the shift to generic "Fruity Hoops" as "shabby and indecent." "This man was absolute ruler of a sovereign nation of over 20 million people," said Debabbler. "To try to foist this inferior substitute on him is another chapter in the book of American atrocities committed in Iraq." Debabbler asserted that...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Guantanamo Bay detainees are staging suicide attempts and hunger strikes to undermine American policy in the war on terror, a senior U.S. military official said, calling the acts a "jihad" against the United States. "The detainees view this as a struggle. They view this as a jihad ... They're trying to figure out ways that they can continue the fight," Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris, the commander of the U.S. prison on Cuba's southeastern tip. "They do that with hunger strikes, overdosing on medicines. And now they've succeeded in killing themselves." Three detainees -...

BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein ended a brief hunger strike after missing just one meal in his U.S.-run prison, a U.S. military spokesman said on Friday.

Saddam, 7 Co-Defendants on Hunger Strike Jun 21 1:29 PM US/Eastern Email this story By JAMAL HALABY Associated Press Writer AMMAN, Jordan Saddam Hussein and his seven co-defendants went on a hunger strike Wednesday to protest the killing of an attorney on the defense team, Saddam's chief lawyer said. Khalil al-Dulaimi told The Associated Press, "President Saddam and other members of his leadership went on a hunger strike today to protest the killing of Khamis al-Obeidi." "They pledged not to end the strike until international protection is provided to the defense team," said al-Dulaimi, who was visiting Jordan.

There were no diamond-studded stilettos on display for what Drudge called, "The Night of the Golden Statue" last night. As Hollywood stargazers watched their faves arrive for ceremonies in green cars, a worldwide hunger strike to protest China's recent attacks on Human Rights defenders was getting underway

ALARM - Saddam Hussein stopped the hunger strike BAGHDAD - Iraqi deposed president Saddam Hussein ceased there is one week his hunger strike after having refused during eleven days to feed, affirmed Monday with AFP his principal defender Khalil Al-Doulaimi.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein and three former officials in his regime on Tuesday told the court handling their trial that they were on a hunger strike in protest of the judge overseeing the proceedings. Saddam said he had not eaten in three days, while his former intelligence chief, Ibrahim Barzan, said he had been on strike for two days. Their claims of a hunger strike could not be independently confirmed. The defendants are being held in U.S. detention, and U.S. officials could not immediately be reached to comment. Investigative judge Raid Juhi did not deny the defendants were refusing...

Saddam Hussein and her co-defendants in hunger strike since three days BAGHDAD - Iraqi president deposed Saddam Hussein affirmed Tuesday with the court that it had started with his seven co-defendants for three days a hunger strike. "We have been in hunger strike for three days", said the former dictator while sitting down in the dock.

Reuters - SADDAM HUSSEIN LAWYERS SAY FORMER IRAQI PRESIDENT TO START HUNGER STRIKE ON MONDAY TO PROTEST TRIAL

Lawyer for Gitmo Detainees Say Forced-Feeding Caused Drop in Number of Hunger Strikers SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A lawyer for detainees at Guantanamo Bay said Thursday that the military has used increasingly harsh methods, including strapping prisoners to a special chair, to force-feed those on hunger strike and persuade them to end their protest. Military personnel have strapped the striking detainees into a "restraint chair" to aggressively force-feed hunger strikers, Tom Wilner said. The attorney returned from the prison at the U.S. base in eastern Cuba last week and had his notes declassified by the government late Wednesday. The...

Bus Workers Go On Strike in Prison Bahram Rafiee Feb. 5, 2006 Iran’s domestic media have been banned from publishing news on the government crackdown of the strike of bus drivers who again took to the streets in protest of their conditions. There are news reports that many arrests have followed the government clampdown and that those arrested had been transferred to the harsh 209-ward of the notorious Evin prison in northern Tehran. There are also reports that the prisoners have gone on a hunger strike to protest their imprisonment. Khedmat, an internet news site close to hardline president Ahmadinejad...

TEN alleged terrorists were on hunger strike in a Victorian prison in protest over a refusal to allow them to pray together. The men, devout Muslims who are being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day in the maximum security Barwon Prison at Lara, began the hunger strike this week. The 10, arrested in pre-dawn raids in November, are facing charges of being members of a terrorist organisation Their lawyer, Rob Stary, said they had not been allowed to pray together. He said the men wanted to hold a short prayer service on Friday afternoons. "They just want...