Folks, buckle your seat belts this weekend if you live in Judea or Samaria or in any of the Jerusalem “seam line neighborhoods.” Our erstwhile “peace partner,” Palestinian Authority and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, is calling for another ‘Day of Rage.”
After all, TGIF, right? And Arab violence is the best way to celebrate the sanctity of the holy Islamic Sabbath on a hot summer’s eve, isn’t it?
The “Excuse of the Week” for this Friday’s bash is brought to you by the star of the Palestinian Authority street, former leader of the Tanzim terrorist faction of Fatah, Marwan Barghouti. He’s a five-time murderer sitting in the Israeli slammer who has been sentenced to remain there for the rest of his life, times five and then some. Despite the fervent desire of the Arab street for him to become the next PA leader, he is now referred to simply as a popular “Fatah leader” by most Israeli media.
But Barghouti will be leading an encore hunger strike by popular demand, insisting that officials of the Israel Prison Service improve prisoner conditions (read: visitation, medical care, “amenities” and so forth) for inmates from Fatah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hamas and other groups.
(The last time he did this, he was caught sneaking a candy bar when he thought no one was looking, albeit on a security camera.)
Mind you, no one has yet heard from the three live hostages who are still on hold in the gentle clutches of their Hamas captors in Gaza. Their location and physical, mental and spiritual condition is not known, nor has there been any sign of life from them since they wandered into the region by accident more than a year ago, each of three diagnosed with mental health issues. In addition, the bodies of two IDF soldiers were also captured during a battle in the final days of the 2014 summer war, Operation Protective Edge, and have yet to be returned to their loved ones.
Barghouti will be reportedly be leading more than a thousand inmates in Israeli prisons as they carry out a “mass hunger strike,” at least from the start of the day until cameras and lights are turned off, to protest their current conditions – the regular visits they already enjoy, the food they eat, the generous monthly salaries they are allowed to receive without disruption from the Palestinian Authority Prisoner’s Authority, free medical care and other amenities.
Citizens of the Palestinian Authority who are outside the prisons — those who have not yet managed to win a salary by killing or wounding an Israeli — are being urged by Fatah to stream towards the “friction points” (crossing with Israel) to start trouble there.
Abbas reportedly has said he is continuing his suspension of all contacts at all levels with the State of Israel, despite the removal of the metal detectors at the entrances to the Temple Mount compound, in accordance with the demands of the Arab world.