Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Video Shows Marwan Barghouti Eating In Cell During Palestinian ‘Hunger Strike’

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israel Prison Service released a video which shows Marwan Barghouti, the high-profile Palestinian prisoner leading a hunger strike, secretly eating in the bathroom of his cell.

The hunger strike launched three weeks ago with a Barghouti op-ed in the New York Times. The hundreds of Palestinian hunger strikers are calling for more favorable prison conditions. Barghouti is serving multiple life sentences for the murder of five Jewish Israelis.

The video released on Sunday shows Barghouti eating in his bathroom twice, on April 27 and May 5.

“As I said from the very beginning, this hunger strike was never about the conditions of the convicted terrorists, which meet international standards. It is about advancing Marwan Barghouti’s political ambitions,” Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan said in a statement following the release of the video.

“He lied to the Palestinian public when he claimed to be striking,” Erdan also said.

Some 850 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are still taking part in the strike.

 

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.