Joshua Mitnick
Christian Science Monitor
May 14, 2012
Israel bowed to the demands of thousands of Palestinian prisoners who staged a weeks-long hunger strike to lobby for better jail conditions, with Egypt helping to mediate the breakthrough.
The deal will end a 77 day fast that had stoked local and international concern about the potential for Palestinian unrest if one of the hunger strikers had died. Some 2,000 prisoners had joined the fast in late April, encouraged by a hunger striking prisoner who won release from Israel in March.
The involvement of Egypt’s intelligence service as a go-between highlights the ongoing trust with Israel even as uncertainty rises about the future of Israeli-Egyptian ties after the fall of Hosni Mubarak’s regime and the strength of Islamist parties in subsequent elections.
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