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Netanyahu wrong to blame Abbas for kidnapping

Israel should rethink its Palestinian prisoner detention policy.
A Palestinian protester returns a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops, during a protest in solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah June 13, 2014. Some 120 Palestinians held by Israel began refusing food on April 24 in protest at their detention without trial. Since then the number has risen closer to 300. Israel's Prisons Service says 70 have been hospitalised. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNRES
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It’s been almost two months since a group of Palestinian administrative detainees went on a hunger strike April 24. A significant number of the hunger strikers have been behind bars for years without being told what they're accused of and without being put on trial. A hunger strike is a drastic step, but is considered a legitimate nonviolent tool in most of the Western world. None of the Israeli authorities have signaled any willingness to negotiate with the strikers or even to offer a conciliatory gesture to restore calm, as they have done in such instances in the past.

The debate became narrowly focused on practical, operative aspects: on the one hand, Shin Bet is pushing to speed up legislation that would allow force-feeding to prevent hunger strikers’ deaths — which could ignite a third intifada. On the other hand, the military objects to force-feeding and claims it can contain "local insurrections" that would result from a detainee's death.

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