Reciprocal release of hostages

Under the recent ceasefire deal in February, Israeli hostages held by Hamas are being released. Western media is full of pictures of the numbers of Israelis being released, the method of release, and stories of released hostages being greeted by their families.

The number of Israeli hostages taken on 7 October 2023 is about 250.

Compare this with Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons. Their number is believed to be around 7,000. Israel uses the euphemism “administrative detention” to describe their involuntary capture.

One such person is Khalida Jarrar. Over the years, Israel imprisoned her multiple times for her unwavering belief in Palestinian liberation and as a leading figure within the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

She was released on 19 January, and her appearance alarmed her family, friends and other Palestinians. She was pale, malnourished, and with white hair. She had been put in solitary confinement for six months. Detainees were repeatedly attacked, physically abused, and gassed.

The release of Khalida and other Palestinians was not covered in the media.

Professor of History, University of California Berkeley, Ussama Makdisi, pointed out, “the Israelis who are released are returning to their ‘families’ whereas the vastly greater number of Palestinians released are not given the same headline space. As if they don't have families.”

Videos of the release appeared on social media. The Israeli female soldiers released looked healthy, well-fed, and well-dressed. They reported that they had been fed, despite the fact that restrictions imposed by the Israelis on the entry of food to Gaza have made food scarce.

This contrasts starkly with the released Palestinian men and women, who showed signs of torture, malnutrition (despite no shortage of food supply), and exhaustion. One Palestinian, Mohammed Sabah, who had been incarcerated as a 14-year-old and released at the age of 20, bore visible marks of starvation and scabies.

The reports of torture, sexual abuse, rape and violence in Israeli prisons reminds us of similar reports in Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons in the early 2000s.

The Israeli hostages were forcibly taken from their families, and held in Gaza, often in tunnels.

Similarly, the Palestinian “administrative detainees” were forcibly taken from their families, and held in Israeli prisons. The great majority of them have not been charged with any crime, have not been tried in a court, and have not been sentenced. Many have spent several years in this state of limbo.

Of those that are tried, they are tried in military courts, despite not being combatants, with a conviction rate of over 99%.

This situation has been going on for many years. According to Adameer, the Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, since 1967 “more than 800,000 Palestinians have been detained under Israeli military orders. [This constitutes] 20% of the total population in the Occupied Palestinian territories, 40% of the total male Palestinian population. It also includes approximately 10,000 women jailed since 1967, as well as 8,000 Palestinian children arrested since 2000.”

Three final points:

Firstly, the 250 Israelis captured in 2023 pales by comparison with the 800,000 Palestinians captured since 1967, and the 7,000 currently being held in Israeli prisons. Should media headlines focus on the 250 or on the 7,000?

Secondly, the Israeli army has arrested more than 14,500 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 2023. This figure does not include those arrested in the Gaza Strip, whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.

Thirdly, many commentators are suggesting that, if Israeli captives are called “hostages”, then the Palestinian captives should also legitimately be called “hostages”.