An Israeli minister has called for the execution of prominent Palestinian prisoner Marwan Bargouti, as more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners have been since Monday on a hunger strike in a bid to improve their conditions in the Israeli jails.
Intelligence and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said Tuesday that Barghouti , is currently leading the hunger strike, should have been given the death penalty instead of life imprisonment.
Katz tweeted Monday night that carrying out the death penalty “would have prevented the hunger strike.”
“When a despicable murderer like Barghouti protests in prison for improved conditions, while the relatives of those he murdered are still in pain, there is only one solution — death penalty for terrorists,” Katz wrote.
Speaking to 103.fm radio Tuesday, Katz said “the current law allows for the death penalty to be applied to convicted terrorists but prosecutors have consistently refrained from seeking the punishment.”
Meanwhile on Tuesday, Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan vowed not to negotiate with Palestinian hunger strikers, saying that Barghouti had been moved to another prison and placed in solitary confinement.
“They are terrorists and incarcerated murderers who are getting what they deserve and we have no reason to negotiate with them,” Erdan told occupation army radio.
He said Barghouti had been placed in solitary confinement because calling for the hunger strike was against prison rules.
Earlier on Monday, around 1,300 prisoners went on a hunger strike on the Palestinian Prisoners Day.
Some 6,500 Palestinians are currently in Israeli jails. Of those, 62 are women and 300 are minors. Some 500 are held under administrative detention, which allows for imprisonment without charge.
Barghouti’s call for the strike has given it added credibility, with the 57-year-old serving five life sentences over his role in the second Palestinian intifada or uprising.
“Decades of experience have proved that Israel’s inhumane system of colonial and military occupation aims to break the spirit of prisoners and the nation to which they belong, by inflicting suffering on their bodies, separating them from their families and communities, using humiliating measures to compel subjugation,” Barghouti wrote in a New York Times opinion piece.
“In spite of such treatment, we will not surrender to it.”
Source: Agencies
