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| Ouda Tarabin's Israeli ID card |
An Israeli man imprisoned in Egypt has announced today that he began a hunger strike in order to gain back his freedom, according to press reports in the United States.
The Israeli, was jailed in Egypt on suspicion of spying for Israel.
Ouda Tarabin, 32, said his decision is a protest against the lack of action by Israel and Egypt for his freedom.
"Israel has not done enough to secure my release even though I was innocent," he said in a letter to the Israeli ambassador to Egypt, Yaakov Amitai. "I ask the honorable gentleman, by virtue of his being an ambassador of the State of Israel and the prime minister’s representative in Egypt, to pass this information about my hunger strike to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi," he told an Israeli based newspaper.
Tarabin was arrested by the Egyptian authorities in 2000 after he allegedly crossed the border illegally. He was tried in absentia on charges of spying for Israel by an Egyptian military court, and he was sentenced to 15 years in jail when he was caught.
“At a time when we ask for the release of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard we must also remember all Israeli spies who are imprisoned all over the world, and Tarabin should also be remembered,” Yitzchak Horn, 39, of San Diego, California told YourJewishNews.com after learning about Tarabin.
Tarabin was 10-years-old when his family moved from Egypt to Israel, where he was granted Israeli citizenship. The Egyptian government denied that Tarabin began a hunger strike today.