How Trump can make Israel visit truly productive

Trump should insist on visiting the hundreds of Palestinian prisoners conducting a hunger strike against their Israeli jailers during his upcoming visit to Israel. Though harmful to themselves and their families, they're using the hunger strike as peaceful protest against what both the UN and humanitarian agencies have called torture, inhumane, degrading treatment and medical neglect. The strike, which began April 17, is in its fifth week and involves nearly a quarter of the roughly 6,000 Palestinians held under conditions prompting it. Israel's response has been to ratchet up their already horrific treatment by moving strikers to prolonged solitary confinement, force feeding them, and cutting off all family visits, a move condemned by the International Red Cross.

Of course, the chances of Trump seeking to visit the hunger strikers is zero, as is the willingness of Israeli authorities to permit it. But they can't stop him from making the first side trip ever of an American president to the West Bank or Gaza, to see first hand what our national policy of supporting Israel's Apartheid of the Palestinians, along with our $3.8 billion yearly in free money, helps enable.

Walt Zlotow

Glen Ellyn