Palestinian prisoners launched a hunger strike to protest new Israeli restrictions intended to pressure Hamas to release Gilad Shalit.
Palestinian hunger strikes are a great story with elements of individual protest, personal struggle and sacrifice, against faceless Israeli jailers. But let’s keep things in perspective. The restrictions we’re talking about deal with reduced family visits, less access to books, and certain prisoners being separated from the general population.
Since he was abducted five years ago, Gilad Shalit hasn’t had any visitors — not from the Red Cross, and certainly not any reporters interested in his living conditions. If Shalit’s ever launched his own hunger strike, own, we’ll never know.
