With prisoners who have not faced trial, there is no guarantee the courts would have prosecuted them, and many would have been released anyway. Released under a deal brokered with Hamas, they are likely to suffer further legal harassment and also face a push to thank Hamas for their release.

Earlier

Standing Together, in a post on Instagram, said that “this specific plan purposefully positions these people as enemies, criminalises them for crimes they have not been convicted with, causes damage to their futures and is yet another reflection of the discrimination of Palestinian citizens in Israel and the difference in rights granted to Palestinian citizens and Jewish citizens.”

Left-wingers in Israel had advocated a hostage-prisoner exchange much earlier. +972 magazine asks: “Was it worth letting Israeli hostages, women, and children, languish in Gaza for a few more weeks for the sake of continuing to imprison a young man who dared to cry ‘God is great?’”

+972 magazine reports: “Of the indictments listed, only a few are related to the use of weapons and opening fire on Israeli forces (and even in these cases, there were no fatalities). The vast majority of incidents involve throwing stones or Molotov cocktails, shooting fireworks, and causing ‘public disorder’.”

Ten women have been released who had been held since 2015-17 for attempted stabbing attacks against Israeli security forces. Most of the women released were held for social media posts (“incitement to terrorism” or “supporting terrorist organisations”). Standing Together says many of the social media posts were just reports on what is happening in Gaza or expressing outrage at the collective punishment of the civilian population. Over 2,000 Palestinians are held in “administrative detention”. The figure has doubled since 2013, with a sharp rise in the last 18 months. Israeli human rights group HaMoked, report that Israel holds 6,809 defined as “security prisoners.” +972 adds: “2,313 are serving a prison sentence; 2,321 have not yet been convicted in court; 2,070 are being held under administrative detention (indefinitely imprisoned without trial or due process); and 105 are ‘illegal combatants’ who were arrested during Hamas’s October 7 attacks.”

Simon Nelson

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