The fate of the 4,700 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel has sparked widespread protests across the occupied territories and expressions of concern from the international community. Many of these men are being silenced by administrative detention, another name for open-ended incarceration without charge or trial. Israeli law also allows the employment of "moderate physical pressure" against Palestinian detainees, in many cases a euphemism for torture. Though Israel can change names and words, it cannot change the facts: There has been a marked increase in violence throughout the occupied West Bank this week by Palestinians protesting against Israeli prisons which are designed to punish and break the will of those who refuse to submit to the occupation. The clashes have erupted specifically amid a hunger strike by four Palestinians in Israeli jails, and if anything happens to these men, it could easily set off a crisis. The four were part of hundreds of other Palestinian prisoners in a 2011 swap for Gilad Shalit, only to be re-arrested soon afterwards for violating the terms of their release. But the status of the four is in limbo as Israeli civilian courts failed to rule definitively in hearings held for two of them this week, referring their multi-decade sentences back to military courts. With their fate apparently locked in a legal maze, their struggle with their Israeli captors in many ways epitomizes the strife between the brute force of an occupier, on the one hand, and a helpless but defiant people longing for liberty and clinging to life, on the other. Palestinians, including lawmakers, students, professionals and peaceful political activists, who may have committed no violation of Israeli laws, are kept behind bars for prolonged periods, sometimes in excess of 10 years, without ever knowing the reasons behind their imprisonment. This is illegal because it violates the right to liberty and due process. The tension is rising all the more in the West Bank a month before US President Barack Obama is due to visit Jerusalem and Ramallah. That he has announced no concrete plans to revive peace talks stalled for three years is making the situation worse. Palestinians hope Egyptian mediation will convince Israel to free the hunger strikers and others, much like last year, when hundreds of Palestinian prisoners went on a mass hunger strike to demand better conditions in jail. A deal mediated by Egypt promised more family visits and limits on administrative detention. Currently, there is little exact information on the health of the strikers, whose on-off hunger strikes have ranged from around 80 to over 200 days, as they have repeatedly refused treatment and been denied regular access to independent doctors. They are taking water but refusing medicines and nutrients. The worsening condition of one, Samer Issawi, sparked the latest round of unrest between protesters and Israeli troops. His hunger strike has drawn international attention and concerns from notables such as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Issawi, who is said to weigh less than 50kg, could be freed as early as next month, but with no indications that he plans to end his hunger strike, will he still be alive by then? While Issawi may not want to become another Bobby Sands, the Irish activist who died in 1981 following a similar hunger strike, the Israeli occupation regime may be giving him little choice.
