BERLIN – After a 40-day hunger strike in front of the Israeli Embassy in Berlin, Firas Maraghy
finally sat down to lunch on Saturday. The meal marked agreements reached between Maraghy, a resident of east Jerusalem, and Israeli representatives at the consulate after negotiations mediated by Chairman of the Bundestag Committee on Foreign Affairs Ruprecht Polenz.
Maraghy (39), who is married to a German woman and is father of a nine-month-old daughter, asked Israel to
recognize his daughter as a permanent resident of Israel, even before his planned move to Jerusalem with his family.
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He declined the offer of a German passport, to which his daughter is entitled because of her German mother, and asked to start the family reunification process in Israel. Maraghy, who has lived in Germany since 2007 but does not intend to stay there, wanted the Israeli embassy to add his daughter to his pass which he holds instead of a passport because, as an east Jerusalem resident, he himself does not have Israeli citizenship.
Maraghy. Forty days in front of the embassy (Photo: Assaf Uni)
As part of the agreement, Maraghy is to meet with Amos Arbel, director of the population registration and status department at the Interior Ministry, in Israel. At the end of the hunger strike, Maraghy issued a notice saying he wanted to travel to Israel with his daughter and that he would consider accepting a German passport for her on the condition that this would not harm her chances of receiving permanent resident status in Israel.
The Israeli Embassy in Berlin said the Interior Ministry will fulfill its obligation to hold the meeting, but added that the results of the meeting were not guaranteed. The embassy clarified that accepting a German passport would not affect the baby's chances of obtaining residency.
Polenz will accompany Maraghy on the trip to Israel, which was to have taken place in a fortnight but has been postponed by a few weeks because of Maraghy's health following the hunger strike.
During the 40 days of his strike, Maraghy became a focal point for Israeli activists against the occupation and for representatives of humanitarian organizations.
Almost all German news outlets carried his story, and more recently, even German politicians began pressing the Israeli embassy to meet Maraghy's demands. The embassy responded finally with an offer to hold a meeting in Israel between Maraghy and Arbel.
Maraghy said he agreed to the meeting after he received assurances that it would be held in good faith and would be a genuine attempt to obtain permanent residency status for his daughter. "I never intended to change the entire political situation," he wrote.
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