Does solidarity activism prioritise symbolism over resistance?

The military court at Israel’s Ofer Prison in Betunia has reinstated the prison sentences of five political detainees released as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in 2011. The five detainees are Mahdi Assi from Nablus, Khaled Makhamreh and Nayef Shawamreh from Hebron, Wa’el Abu Jalboush from Jenin, and Samer Issawi from Jerusalem; all were rearrested in 2014 during the prelude to Operation Protective Edge, in a sweep called “Operation Brother’s Keeper”.

The Palestinian Authority facilitates the arrest of former political prisoners through its security coordination with Israel. Hence, its complicity should also extend to the military court’s reinstatement of jail sentences. PA officials know full well that in July last year, Ze’ev Elkin drafted bill in Israel that sought to imprison Palestinian ex-political prisoners on the regurgitated pretext of “eliminating terrorism”.

According to the International Solidarity Movement’s Facebook page, a protest about this was held yesterday in Gaza which was attended by representatives of a number of Palestinian factions, including Sami Abu Zuhri from Hamas, Mariam Abu Dakka from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Khaled Al-Batch from Islamic Jihad. The PA has, so far, remained largely silent about the issue, relegating the consequences imposed upon Palestinian resistance efforts to nothingness. In contrast, in 2013 PA Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad Al-Maliki declared Issawi’s administrative detention to be a “war crime” and one of the cases that would be submitted to the International Criminal Court, should Palestine become a signatory.

However, in a recent talk organised by the Maltese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the University of Malta, during which both the two-state compromise and accession to the ICC were discussed, Al-Maliki stated that “partial justice” is all that the Palestinians could ever aspire to achieve at the international institution. In doing so he affirmed the degree of acquiescence that the PA has endorsed through its existence and negotiations with the settler-colonial state.

Issawi’s hunger strike protest against the unjust prison sentence and administrative detention enforced upon him by Israel garnered international attention, with petitions and pleas eventually paving the way for discussions that led to his release. His family, however, were still persecuted by Israel; Issawi’s sister, Shireen, a lawyer who campaigned tirelessly for her brother’s release, remains in detention, as does his brother Samer.

Palestinian prisoners and the unjust reality of administrative detention seem to have elicited a much less outraged response this time, raising concerns about whether it was actually the legal violation of human rights that captured the world’s attention the last time round, or the fact that such symbolism was embodied by Issawi; thus was the process rendered into a drama rather than a brutal reality affecting Palestinian families. Various other hunger strikes were initiated by other political prisoners, in solidarity with other Palestinians facing human rights violations and as a protest against prisoners’ conditions in Israeli jails. These, however, were reported as a routine event worthy of just a few isolated mentions, whereas Issawi was catapulted to global prominence by solidarity campaigns.

For all the alleged international solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners, though, it seems as if activism in the name of human rights and freedom is now also in peril of being manacled to sensationalism. Issawi may have benefited temporarily from the global hype, yet the possible absence of another hunger strike initiated by him might provide specific insight as to how solidarity activism willingly falls into the trap of prioritising symbolism over Palestinian resistance.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.