Imprisoned Palestinian parliamentarian and Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who has been on a hunger strike for nearly month, vowed to go ahead with the Dignity strike, calling on Palestinians to carry out acts of civil disobedience commemorate Nakba Day on Monday, which marks the catastrophe of the Zionist entity.
For the first time since initiating a hunger strike on April 17, Barghouti was allowed to meet with his lawyer Khader Shkirat on Sunday for three hours.
The attorney said his client denied the authenticity of a video released by the “Israel Prisons Service” (IPS) last week purportedly showing him secretly eating a candy bar in his cell.
Shikrat said his client told him the cell featured in the video, with a bunk bed, is much nicer than the run-down single-bed cell where he is currently held. Occupation authorities moved Barghouti into isolation at the start of the strike.
The attorney said that Barghouti had lost 13 kilograms (28 pounds) since beginning the hunger strike on April 17. The Fatah leader told his attorney that he would escalate the protest by refusing to drink water.
In a letter by Barghouti obtained by Lebanese outlet Al Mayadeen on Sunday, the imprisoned parliamentarian— who is serving five life terms— pledged to “continue the battle of freedom and dignity for Palestine” until the goals of the prisoners were achieved.
He stressed that all attempts by Israeli authorities to blackmail him or his fellow prisoners would “only increase their belief in victory.”
Barghouti also appealed to the two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, calling on them to enter into a national reconciliation agreement. At the same time, he warned against a resumption of negotiations with the Zionist entity based on the “same principles that have proven unsuccessful in the past.”
Source: Agencies
