Israeli circles said today that a hunger strike by about 200 Arab inmates of the Kfar Yoma prison was a calculated political move stemming from “factors both inside and outside the prison that are interested in creating unrest.”
Chief Inspector Aryeh Nir said the inmates who are serving sentences on security charges staged the hunger strike apparently to confront the recently changed prison command with certain “accomplished facts” concerning prison routine. He said the prisoners’ demands were rejected and certain trouble-makers were transferred to other prisons.
Some prisoners stopped faking their meals last week and were joined by about 200 others comprising two-thirds of the prison population. But prison sources said the hunger strike was really a fake because the prisoners had accumulated food beforehand and also had food parcels from relatives.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
