The fifty international participants in the mission Welcome to Palestine announced on Monday they were beginning a hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners day on Tuesday, April 17 and to demand their basic right again to move freely to the occupied West Bank, including to Bethlehem.
All prisoners, including nearly 40 French people, are apparently being detained at the prison in Givon, near Tel Aviv. As of Monday at midday, they have partially achieved the acceptance of their demands that be allowed to make a phone call. All of their communication via cell phone indicates that their morale is high, that there is a disorderly confusion within the Israeli police apparatus, and the awareness that ultimately the hardships they are experiencing are minor compared to the daily suffering of the Palestinian people. The members of our group are sharing their cells with the young Canadian, Charlotte Gaudreau, 18, for whom, ironically, the flight to Bethlehem was … her first.
