Israeli jailed soldier joins Palestinian hunger strikers

Xinhua
2012-6-18 11:15:31
By Agencies

An
Israeli soldier, jailed for refusing to perform mandatory reserve
service, went on a hunger strike on Sunday, joining the Palestinian
prisoners in the Jewish country fasting to protest their detaining
conditions.
Yaniv Mazor, a 31-year-old Israeli, was sentenced to imprisonment
last week after deciding not to continue the mandatory reserve service
in protest against Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Mazor started the hunger strike in support of the Palestinian
prisoners' "battle of the empty stomachs," which decries Israel's policy
of administrative detention, under which Palestinians can be held in
jail for years without a trial.
Last month, some 1,600 fasting Palestinians in Israeli jails agreed
to end an almost month-long hunger strike, which threatened to break the
fragile peace in the West Bank, as Israel feared that the death of any
prisoner could spark violence in the region.
Mazor's hunger strike aims to protest the administrative detention of
Mahmoud Sarsak, a former soccer player, who has been hunger striking
for 90 days, and Akram Rikhawi, who has not eaten anything for 66 days.
"I decided to start a hunger strike in solidarity (with the
Palestinians), and in order to raise awareness of the issue of
administrative detention, and not to prompt my own release," Mazor told
the Ha'aretz daily.
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/715573.shtml