Palestinian political prisoner and resistance icon SAMER ISSAWI was released today (23-12-13) after spending over 17 months in an Israeli prison. He's said to be the "the longest hunger striker in history".
Alhamdulillah he's free to go and upon his release, he says "Now, we need to fast for the others. Never forget, Zionists hold dozens of men and women without charge, many still on hunger strike".
All those who campaigned for his release will now realise that all their efforts and support for him, paid off. But it doesn't stop here... Free Free Palestine!!
Comments
I am not familiar with this individual's views or works.
What makes him special?
Can people like me who are clueless in all things Issawi please be given an introduction?
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
As far as I remember, originally, Samer Issawi did commit a crime against Israel but he was released as part of an agreement in 2011 (this prisoner exchange thing). He was then re-arrested in July 2012 but with no pressed charges.
To fight against the injustice he went on a 200+ day hunger strike and Alhamdulilah finally got released.
Valkyrie's summed it up for you but if you want to know additional details then -
Basically, he was sentenced to 26 years in prison in 2002 for being involved in a series of shooting attacks at Israeli police cars and students at the Hebrew Uni.
But in 2011, he was released as part of a prisoner swap in exchange for Gilad Shalit who was a kidnapped IDF soldier.
Under his term he wasn't allowed to leave the Jerusalem area but in 2012 he went to the West Bank claiming that he wanted to get his car repaired but an official thought he had gone to establish terror cells so he went back into prison.
Now if you're a political pirsoner and you commit a new offence which would lead to a new sentence, there's a law which states that you're other sentence can come back, so in this case, the full 26 years.
Then he went on a hunger strike and a lot of international activistis sprung up and people campaigned to have him released. Earlier last year they said that he'd come out before the end of the year and they stuck to their word and released him.