Israel should have let Palestinian hunger striker die in prison: Ex-FM
Israel's ex-Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has slammed the regime’s handling of the case of a former Palestinian hunger-striking detainee, saying Tel Aviv should have allowed him to die in prison.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acted weakly in handling the case of former Palestinian hunger striker Mohammed Allan, Lieberman told a Sunday gathering of his Yisrael Beytenu party.
“Over the years … I’ve told Netanyahu that if you start something then do it all the way. … If you detain someone, then go all the way. Don’t give in to any pressure, and if he wants to hunger strike to death, let him die,” said the extremist Israeli politician.
Netanyahu “broadcasts a message of defeat, fear and indecision,” Lieberman said, adding that Allan had managed to win in the case.
Allan ended his 65-day hunger strike on August 20 after an Israeli court suspended his detention due to his severe health condition.
He had been on hunger strike to protest his incarceration without charge or trial, in a practice known as administrative detention. Palestinians and human rights groups say Israel uses the measure in violation of international law.
More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly imprisoned in 17 Israeli jails and detention centers, many of them without charge or trial.
Palestinians in Israeli prisons regularly go on hunger strike to protest their administrative detention and medical negligence.
Netanyahu failed over Iran’s nuclear program
Elsewhere in his Sunday speech, Lieberman also took a swipe at Netanyahu over Iran’s nuclear program.
“Netanyahu does not know how to make tough decisions. Instead, he continues his hollow talk which does not solve the Iranian nuclear issue, and only intensifies Israel’s isolation, and worsens our position in the international arena,” he stressed.
The Israeli premier has long been engaged in an aggressive campaign against the diplomatic efforts between Iran and the P5+1 group to find a solution to the Western dispute with Tehran over its nuclear program.
After the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program concluded in the Austrian capital, Vienna, on July 14, Netanyahu criticized the agreement between Tehran and the P5+1 -- the United States, Britain, Russia, China, France, and Germany, describing it as a " bad mistake.”
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