Hunger Strikes in 1989 South Africa and 2012 Israel/Palestine

[June 2012] 'History Repeats Itself’ reflects on the adage’s relevance to human rights abuses. In 1989 apartheid South Africa, over 700 black prisoners went on hunger strike to protest the practice of administrative detention, in which detainees are held without charge or trial for months or even years. 23 years later, some 2,400 Palestinian prisoners began a hunger strike for the exact same reason. Although differences exist between the situation of black South Africans during apartheid and those of Palestinians today, the repetition of nonviolent protest against the same practice forces viewers to look closer at the similarities.