Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian terrorist currently serving five life terms in an Israeli prison, can be seen eating, violating a self-proclaimed hunger strike, in a video released by the Israel Prison Service, The Times of Israel reported Monday.
A spokesman for the Israel Prison Service said that the video, which includes incidents from April 27 and May 5, “speaks for itself.”
In the second portion of the video, beginning at about 3 minutes into the recording, Barghouti can be seen moving into the bathroom area of his cell, sitting on the toilet fully clothed, unwrapping something and putting it into his mouth. After he is done, he went to the sink and washed himself off.
Barghouti announced the hunger strike three weeks ago in an attempt to pressure the Israel Prison Service into granting more rights to Palestinians incarcerated in Israel. Initially, 1,500 Palestinian inmates reportedly refused food, but according to Israeli officials only 800 prisoners remain on strike.
The Israeli government has dismissed the strike as a political act. Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan called Barghouti a “hypocrite.”
“As I said from the very beginning, this hunger strike was never about the conditions of the convicted terrorists, which meet international standards. It is about advancing Marwan Barghouti political ambitions to replace Abu Mazen,” Erdan said, referring to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas by his nickname.
“Barghouti is a murderer and hypocrite who urged his fellow prisoners to strike and suffer while he ate behind their back. Just like he lied to the world when he wrote in The New York Times that he decided to strike in order to protest ill-treatment, he lied to the Palestinian public when he claimed to be striking. Israel will not give in to extortion and pressure from terrorists,” Erdan added.
The New York Times came under heavy criticism for publishing the op-ed by Barghouti announcing the hunger strike and identifying him as a “a Palestinian leader and parliamentarian,” but not mentioning that he had been imprisoned for murder and terrorism. The Times later emended the identification to acknowledge that he was convicted of “five counts of murder and membership in a terrorist organization.”
Jamal Barakat, brother of Sgt.-Maj. Salim Barakat, a Druze Israeli police officer who was killed in a 2002 Tel Aviv terrorist attack approved by Barghouti, last month called him “a man who plans, who assists, who sends terrorists to hurt those who are innocent.”
[Photo: Haaretz.com / YouTube ]