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Israel Won't Negotiate with Palestinian Hunger-Striking Security Detainees

(Ha'aretz) Chaim Levinson, Amos Harel and Jack Khoury - At the recommendation of the Israel Security Agency, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to negotiate with hunger-striking Palestinian detainees who are seeking an end to the practice of administration detention. ISA head Yoram Cohen appears to believe a compromise would leave Israel vulnerable to nonstop extortion by means of recurrent hunger strikes. The practice of administrative detention, which accounts for about 10% of all Israeli arrests of Palestinians, is deemed vital to the war on terror. It is used in cases where an indictment would require exposing intelligence sources or where the evidence is not sufficient for a criminal case. Cohen seems to believe the agreement he negotiated to end the last major hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in 2012 was a mistake and that the Palestinians violated that agreement. Meanwhile, the IDF is preparing to cope with Palestinian rioting in the event that one of the hunger strikers dies.
2014-06-09 00:00:00
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