what is the point of living? Israel falsely states that currently the prisoners are allowed a visit once a month but most of the time the visits are not allowed and families are not granted permits. For example, I have not been able to see my father for two years."The other demands are also more than reasonable. "Rather than demanding release from jail, they are, for example, asking for phones to be installed in prisoner wings so they can speak with their families while supervised. They also want permission to register for academic study and matriculation exams, a solution to cell overcrowding, the installation of air conditioners, and routine annual medical exams for all prisoners."That is why Israel preferred not to descend into a third Intifada and instead listened to the prisoners.Israel avoided as long as possible to meet the prisoners' demands, but the risk of attracting international attention was too high, as was of a third Intifada, as the IDF - Israeli occupied forces was brutally suppressing non-violent protest from a captive population.Why Israel waited 40 days to talk to the prisoners?Because meeting the prisoners demands means addressing the occupation as a whole. The prisoners demands are actually demands all the people in Palestine can relate to. Like the prisoners, Palestinians want the freedom to see their families in neighboring cities in the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem, and other restricted areas.Israel was more interested in asserting and maintaining its power over Palestinians in general than in offering a measured, politically strategic response to the strike.But Israel lost once more. Peace can not be achieve through blackmail and oppression.Palestinians won't give up their land without putting up a fight. On May 31st Marwan Barghouti issued his first statement since the end of the strike. The Palestinian leader said the strike could resume after the close of the Ramadan holiday if planned negotiations with Israel's prison service are not successful.Samidoun posted Marwan Barghouti's statement in English.On 17 April, Palestinian Prisoners Day, 1500 Palestinian prisoners out of nearly 6500 imprisoned in Israeli jails launched their strike for a series of demands. These demands were straightforward, focusing on the restoration of family visits, the right to education, access to media and health care. Among the accomplishments of the strike is the restoration of the second monthly family visit, cancelled last year by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) under the pretext of budget cuts, despite pledges from at least August 2016 to cover the costs of the second monthly visit for Palestinian prisoners.It is appalling that it should take a 40-day mass hunger strike for the Palestinian prisoners have ONLY family visits restored, after being taken away by an international agency that should be motivated by the rights and well-being of the prisoners. Far from a neutral bystander, the ICRC was in fact a party to this strike and a participant in the confiscation of the rights of Palestinian prisoners. This raises once again sharp questions about what really provoked the cut in family visits for Palestinian prisoners and the level of Israeli