BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The director of the Palestinian prisoners’ club, Qadoura Fares, said the decision of an Israeli court not to release hunger-striker Samir Issawi showed the Israeli government was a "mafia."

"The Israeli court sentences Issawi to eight months in prison under the charge that he went to Ramallah, so Ofer military court will look at this as a 'violation,' if we are to call it a violation."

He said the possibility he might be returned to prison for decades for that "a judicial farce that only happens in Israel."

Fares said that Issawi would continue the strike until he is released.