Palestinian political prisoner Samer Issawi is reportedly near death, shackled to his bed, after six and a half months on a hunger strike in an Israeli prison - the longest hunger strike in history. He was imprisoned under Israel's criminally vague administrative detention for entering Jerusalem, an alleged violation of earlier release conditions. He was never tried. Despite international protests and a Free Samer Issawi Campaign, the mainstream media and even Amnesty International has remained almost silent - because, critics say, he is Palestinian, and thus largely invisible. In his last letter, he writes that he derives "my power and steadfastness from the people of Palestine."