Ramallah, West Bank – A lawyer for a Palestinian detainee on a hunger strike for over two months says he has ended his fast.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Attorney Sahar Francis says Bilal Kayed, 34, stopped his protest Wednesday after 71 days of fasting, and that there is an agreement that will see him freed in December.
Kayed’s relatives say he began the fast in June after Israel ordered him held for six months without charges, immediately following completion of a 14-and-a-half-year prison term.
He was arrested in 2001, at the height of an armed Palestinian uprising against Israel. Kayed, a Palestinian policeman at the time, was convicted of shooting at Israeli troops.
Palestinian prisoners have used hunger strikes before. Fearing a fasting detainee’s death could spark more violence, Israel has at times acceded to their demands.
Perhaps Bibi should set parole terms similar to those set by the US for Jonathan Pollard. Then the world will scream bloody murder and All the Knesset has to say is “we will gladly drop the terms of release when the US drops Pollard’s conditions”