HYPOCRISY?

Video: Hunger Strike Leader Secretly Ate

Activist group behind Palestinian prisoner calls video a fake.

A surveillance video purporting to show a Palestinian hunger-strike leader secretly eating food in his prison cell in Israel is fueling accusations of hypocrisy—as well as charges it is a fake. Israel’s prison service released a video that purports to show Marwan Barghouti, who was convicted on murder charges in 2004, eating cookies inside his cell on April 27, and then another item on May 5. Barghouti’s wife disputed the authenticity of the footage, calling it a fabrication intended to discredit those taking part in the hunger strike—nearly 900 prisoners who are demanding better conditions. “This hunger strike was never about the conditions of the convicted terrorists, which meet international standards,” said Gilad Erdan, Israel’s public-security minister. “Barghouti is a murderer and hypocrite who urged his fellow prisoners to strike and suffer while he ate behind their back.” Qadoura Fares of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club told the Associated Press that Israel was waging “psychological warfare” against those participating in the hunger strike.