Hunger striking soccer player threatens Israeli-Palestinian deal

Soccer players in Mahmoud Sarsak's Gaza hometown of Rafah call for his release

By James M. Dorsey
A Palestinian soccer player on the 75th day ofhis prison hunger strike threaten to unhinge a two-week old Palestinian-Israelideal to improve conditions for Palestinian prisoners and add to challenges towhat amounts to a historic albeit tacit Israeli-Palestinian understanding on along-term peaceful arrangement.Mahmoud Sarsak, a 25-year old player for the Palestiniannational soccer team, together with Akram al-Rekhawi, an imprisoned diabetic,refused to join hundreds of prisoners in ending their hunger strike on May 14because they were not included in an Egyptian-mediated deal. Human rightsgroups said Israeli officials had promised to release Mr. Sarsak on July 1 ifhe agreed to end his hunger strike, but refused to put the offer in writing. Israeliofficials did not respond to requests for comment.
Israel agreed as part of the deal to more family visits, anend to solitary confinement and limits to a controversial policy that allowsIsrael to imprison people for years without charge. Militant Palestinian groupspledged in exchange to halt all attacks on Israel.
Mr. Sarsak’s continued hunger strike amid reports that hishealth is rapidly deteriorating focuses attention on the plight of severalimprisoned Palestinian soccer players and threatens to dash Israeli efforts toprevent a potentially explosive situation that could be sparked by Palestiniansdying in Israeli custody.
Mr. Sarsak’s protest puts a dent in an evolving tacitunderstanding between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian group thatcontrols Gaza, to abide by a long-term ceasefire rather than seek todefinitively resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel has taken varioussteps that strengthen Hamas at the expense of its rival, the Al-Fatah-controlledPalestinian authority in the West Bank headed by President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israel last year released more than a 1,000 prisoners in adeal with Hamas while at the same time strengthening controversial Jewishsettlements in the West Bank. Mr. Abbas has refused to restart peace talks withIsrael as long as it rejects a halt to its settlement activity. Hamas has longcalled for a long-term ceasefire while Israel effectively blocks the restart ofstalled peace talks despite maintaining that it is seeking to negotiate adefinitive end to its decades-old dispute with the Palestinians.
As if Mr. Sarsak’s deteriorating health in the clinic ofRamle prison wasn’t enough of a threat to the Israeli-Hamas understanding thatwas strengthened by the May 14 prisoner deal and a shift in power within Hamasfrom exiled leader Khalid Mishal to Gaza leader Ismail Hanniyeh, Israeli defenceminister Ehud Barak has potentially thrown in a monkey wrench of his own. Mr.Barak suggested this week that if the Palestinians continue to refuse to returnto the negotiating table, Israel could withdraw unilaterally from occupiedparts of the West Bank if Palestinian in a move that would amount to Israel determiningthe borders between Israel and Palestine.
Mr. Sarsak’s death in a nation passionate about soccer wouldlikely spark mass protests and confrontations between Israeli security forces.It could also put pressure on militant Palestinian groups not to adhere totheir ceasefire with Israel. Mr. Sarsak’s death would link Palestinians’passion for soccer to the deep-seated emotions that the fate of prisoners evokesamong Palestinians who virtually all know someone who has spent time in anIsraeli jail. Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets of the West Bank andthe Gaza Strip during the mass hunger strike that ended on May 14 todemonstrate solidarity with the inmates.
“If you degrade the national team you degrade the idea thatthere could ever be a nation,” pro-Palestinian United Nations specialrapporteur on Palestinian human rights Richard Falk quoted Palestinian Olympicsoccer team goalkeeper Omar Abu Rwayyes as saying.
Israeli security forces arrested Mr. Abu Rwayyes, an allegedmember of Hamas, in February on charges of involvement in a shoot-out withIsraeli troops. A second soccer player, Ahmad Khalil Ali Abu El-Asal, who playsfor the Aqabat Jaber Palestinian refugee camp soccer team, was arrested a daylater. The Israeli military said the two men were among 13 people arrestedfollowing an attack on Israeli troops in January in the Al Amari Palestinianrefugee camp near the West Bank town of Ramallah. The Palestinian FootballAssociation (PFA) has called on FIFA to intervene on the players’ behalf.
Mr. Sarsak was detained in 2009 at an Israeli checkpoint ashe was leaving his native Gaza to join the Palestinian national squad on the WestBank. He has been held since then as an illegal combatant without charge ortrial. He went on hunger strike on March 19 to demand fair treatment.
Human rights groups who recently visited Mr. Sarsak inprison as well as the player’s father warn that he has lost his sight andhearing as a result of the hunger strike and that he is in a criticalcondition. In a statement, the groups – Addameer Prisoner Support and HumanRights Association, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and Al-Haq – said thatIsrael was refusing to allow independent doctors to visit Messrs. Sarsak andAl-Rekhawi in violation of an Israeli court order and had failed to transferthem to civilian hospitals.
The statement said that Mr. Sarsak’s health had allowed himonly to speak for a few minutes with an Addameer lawyer who visited him on May.23
Speaking in a BBC interview, Mr. Sarsak’s father chargedthat his son’s detention was designed to destroy Palestinian soccer.
In a letter to world soccer body FIFA president Sepp Blattercopied to Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president Zhang Jilong andInternational Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacque Rogue, PalestineFootball Association (PFA) president Jibril Rajoub, a former Palestiniansecurity chief, described the arrests of Messrs. Abu Rwayyes and Abu El-Esal as“another Israeli transgression against Palestinian players.”
PFA officials have however failed in the past to respond toquestions about the background and political affiliations and activities of detainedplayers.
“Mahmoud hasn’t done anything. He's not with one side or theother. Mahmoud is simply a top footballer," Mr. Sarsak’s father said.
James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. RajaratnamSchool of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University inSingapore, author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle EastSoccer, and a consultant to geopolitical consulting firm Wikistrat.  ]]>