Uri Avnery, who himself was once an underground fighter, writes about Israel’s reaction to the Palestinian prisoner hunger strike.
“Years ago, when the Hebrew underground organizations were fighting the British regime in Palestine, we demanded that our prisoners be accorded the rights of POWs. The British did not accept this, but in practice prisoners were generally treated as if they were POWs. The captured underground fighters could enrol for correspondence courses, and in fact, many of them completed their studies in law and other professions in British prison camps.”
“One of the prisoners at that time was Geula Cohen, Tzahi Hanegbis mother. It would be interesting to know how she and her Stern Group comrades would have reacted if a British police commander had declared that he didnt give a damn if she died in prison. Probably they would have tried to assassinate him. Fortunately, the British behaved otherwise. They even brought her to a hospital for treatment (where she promptly escaped with the help of Arab villagers.)”