Four thousand five hundred Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails went on a hunger strike Sunday to protest the death of Arafat Shalish Shahin Jaradat in Megiddo Prison the day before, amid a wave of clashes in the West Bank that has been stoking Israeli concerns of a third Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
Palestinian officials on Sunday morning warned that another popular uprising was indeed unfolding, but asserted that protesters would stick to the path of nonviolence. “The death of the prisoner is the culmination of an already tense situation,” Kadoura Fares, a former PA minister and the head of the Palestinian prisoner’s club, told Maariv. “All of the incidents reveal a clear trend – we’re facing an intifada. The hunger-striking prisoners and the tense demonstrations, the violent clashes during which Palestinian civilians are killed, and the frozen peace process – all indicate that we’re sitting on a barrel of dynamite.” “It may very well be that Jaradat’s death will turn out to have been the match that lit it,” he added.
A Palestinian protester stands next to a burning tire during clashes with Israeli security forces next to Ofer prison, near the West Bank city of Ramallah
Jaradat, 30, died of an apparent heart attack Saturday afternoon, according to Prison Services spokeswoman Sivan Weizman. Following the announcement of Jaradat’s death, prisoners briefly rioted in the Ofer Prison in the West Bank. In Hebron, Palestinian protesters clashed with security forces, who dispersed them using teargas. One soldier and two Palestinians were lightly injured.
The Israeli government categorically demanded from the Palestinian Authority that it calm the West Bank unrest, Israel Radio reported. Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s special envoy to the Palestinians, Yitzhak Molcho, conveyed the message. The prime minister also reportedly instructed the government to transfer millions of dollars in tax money collected by Israel on the PA’s behalf last month,so that the non-transfer of funds couldn’t be used as a pretext for allowing the riots to continue.
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