Over one week after beginning a one-man hunger strike under Jerusalem’s Bridge
of Strings to free Jonathan Pollard, Michael Foa, 52, a member of Likud, remains
resilient, and has been joined by another protester who is also foregoing
food.
Sitting with two young supporters at a table flanked by a sheet
with US President Barack Obama and Jonathan Pollard’s opposing images stenciled
on it, along with the words “Yes you can!” Foa looks considerably thinner and
slightly pale compared to the previous week.
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“I feel like I have
succeeded, but I wish I had succeeded more,” said Foa, who said he has only
consumed water and grape juice over the past week. “It made headlines in The
Jerusalem Post and New York Times, but I did hope for more.”
An adviser
to former communications minister Moshe Kahlon, Foa said that while only one
other person has joined him in the hunger strike, he is gratified by the support
he has engendered.
“Lots of people have come to visit me,” he said.
“Policemen come to say kol hakavod, [well done] as well as random people,
friends and family. I’ve had many well-wishers.”
One of them is
Ahron Horovitz, 28, a social work student from Beit- El, who joined Foa’s
protest and stopped eating four days ago.
“This is an issue that’s in my
bones,” said Horovitz. “[Pollard’s treatment] boils my blood because I view it
as a very big moral failure and crime against humanity to keep him in jail. It’s
torture on a personal level – and even more than that, it bothers me that Israel
betrayed him. It makes me ashamed to be an Israeli.”
While police removed
Foa’s tent from under the bridge several days ago, both men said they plan to
continue their hunger strike indefinitely.
“We are sleeping at the homes
of family from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., but come back here every day,” said Horovitz.