Subscribe to Print Edition | Thu., November 08, 2007 Cheshvan 27, 5768 | | Israel Time: 06:38 (EST+7)
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Prisoners or criminals?
By Amira Hass

The rallies in support of the abducted soldiers and their families, as a means of applying pressure on politicians, are hinting at a healthy development: The Israeli public is casting doubt on the motives and ability of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government with respect to the three captives. It used to be that the belief in politicians' concern for prisoners of war was tantamount to a sacred cow. No longer.

But the doubt that has been cast is not sufficient, just as rallies do not suffice. Even if the latest media reports that are again talking about progress in the negotiations to release Gilad Shalit are correct, the predominant discourse is that of the defense establishment and its overseers in the government. This is the very same defense establishment that failed so resoundingly in the mission to release the soldiers, and that led to two blood-soaked military attacks using the usual excuse of fighting terror: the one against the Gaza Strip and its civilians and the other against Lebanon and its civilians. The targeted killing of armed Palestinians and Hezbollah pales in comparison to the civilian victims, the dead and the wounded in Gaza and Lebanon, and the damage to the civilian infrastructure. These attacks only decreased the chance for release and added months of suffering to the abducted men and their families.

The failing political and security mechanisms are the ones that for years have formulated the axioms in Israel concerning the Palestinian prisoners. The first axiom is that every Palestinian security prisoner is a criminal. Even during the Oslo period, Israel did not free itself from this definition and did not recognize the Palestinians as prisoners of war to be released as an integral part of a peace process. Israel did release many thousands, but it did this as a gesture from the ruling side. It also demonstrated a racist approach when it released people who had been convicted of murdering Palestinian collaborators, but not those who had been convicted of murdering or injuring Jews (among them soldiers).
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Thus, to this day, nearly 400 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israel who were convicted of crimes (which is how the occupier's law book defines it) that were committed before the signing of the Gaza-Jericho agreement in May 1994. Those responsible for these prisoners, from Yasser Arafat through Yasser Abed Rabbo to Mohammed Dahlan, spent many hours in negotiations and at cocktail parties with Israeli representatives. But those under their command are supposed to serve out their prison terms (of several decades) to the end or remain in life imprisonment, which for Palestinian prisoners is also until their death, in shocking contrast to Jewish prisoners, especially Jewish settlers in the occupied territories convicted of murdering "out of nationalist motives" who are quickly released after their punishment is reduced.

Among the Palestinian prisoners there are prisoners who have come down with serious illnesses, and the vengeful Israeli system is refusing to release them. Family members of most of the prisoners have not been allowed to visit them for long periods. All of them, and this too is an axiom, are discriminated against in their conditions of imprisonment, as compared with the Jewish prisoners. Since the signing of the Oslo agreement, most Israelis have been denying the fact that we are the citizens of an occupying state. They define the current intifada as a war that has been declared against us by the fictive Palestinian state. And even though this is defined as a war, the prevailing axiom is that the Palestinians are always "terrorists," even when they act against soldiers and not civilians. The companion axiom to this is that only on our side are there "soldiers," even when they are sent to act against an occupied civilian population.

The common denominator of these axioms is the distinction between blood and blood and person and person. The Jew is always worth more, much much more, when he is a victim, when he is a soldier, when he is a POW. This distinction plays a significant role in Palestinian support for the tactic of abduction. If political logic, diplomatic negotiations and a basic premise of equality have not led to the release of Palestinian prisoners, the abduction of Israelis will do this. The fact is that only when soldiers are abducted is the existence of the Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners remembered. But the rallies in support of the abductees are not questioning these axioms, and therefore the rallies are still ceremonies aimed at pleasing those who hold them.
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And again...
Olmert was voted the most corrupt politician for the 2nd year in a row.
Political transfer
Lieberman wants to outlaw the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee.
  1.   UNJUSTICE IN THE HIGHEST LEVEL 09:29  |  indrajaya 11/04/07
  2.   A very good article 09:40  |  Cord H. Kaldrack 11/04/07
  3.   Hass` usual Orwellian fantasies 09:58  |  David Teich 11/04/07
  4.   The value of Jewish life 09:59  |  Swiss (Dino) 11/04/07
  5.   Criminals of course 10:11  |  Maria Montserroti 11/04/07
  6.   Trade Hass and Gideon Levy for Shalit 10:54  |  Ken Jurist 11/04/07
  7.   Nice Amira. Are you running for Hamas or Hezboullah leadership? 10:56  |  Chanan 11/04/07
  8.   For Mata Hari Amira All Palestinian prisoners are boy scouts 10:59  |  Shalom Freedman 11/04/07
  9.   #4 Swiss 11:12  |  Willy 11/04/07
  10.   Amira who are them 11:19  |  Aby 11/04/07
  11.   Amira you forgot.......... 11:24  |  Nerys 11/04/07
  12.   HAARETZ-THE AL JEZERRA OF ISRAEL 11:29  |  Reuven 11/04/07
  13.   all palestinians are criminals 11:30  |  ephraim 11/04/07
  14.   When the truth bothers some of you. 11:31  |  Peter Mall 11/04/07
  15.   Amira Do shalit relatives has the right to visit him? 11:33  |  Aby 11/04/07
  16.   Amira If it is not war then what it is 11:39  |  Aby 11/04/07
  17.   BLOOD, BLOOD EVERYWHERE 11:42  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 11/04/07
  18.   #5 11:48  |  SJ 11/04/07
  19.   NOT ALL HA`ARETZ JOURNALISTS ARE INTELLECTUALLY HONEST 11:54  |  Ben 11/04/07
  20.   Whats wrong with it. 11:58  |  Aby 11/04/07
  21.   Thank you for being there, as you are... 12:15  |  zeynep 11/04/07
  22.   Readers ! lets go to II, you write and you see in a second :) 12:21  |  Atilla Karagozoglu 11/04/07
  23.   # 9 Willy 12:27  |  Swiss (Dino) 11/04/07
  24.   # 17 Cipora Julianna Kohn 12:49  |  Swiss (Dino) 11/04/07
  25.   Israel legalised abduction of the arabs 12:52  |  Marilyn 11/04/07
  26.   100:1-Dino#4 13:03  |  nina 11/04/07
  27.   Dino # 4 13:04  |  ChanahS 11/04/07
  28.   THANKYOU AMIRA,this still doesn`t tell half of it 13:09  |  alan 11/04/07
  29.   Prisoners or criminals 13:10  |  Mitch Cohen 11/04/07
  30.   #4, #24, Dino 13:12  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 11/04/07
  31.   25 MARYLIN,see the Israeli Human Rights stats for 2006 13:16  |  sara 11/04/07
  32.   How come Hass isn`t kidnapped by the pals,like Johnston? 13:24  |  Absolute Sweden 11/04/07
  33.   ISRAEL NEEDS THE DEATH PENALTY 13:27  |  TIM 11/04/07
  34.   # 26 Nina 13:30  |  Swiss (Dino) 11/04/07
  35.   a good ploy make the deal impossible AS THEY DONT HAVE SHALIT 13:35  |  paul harris 11/04/07
  36.   # 27 Chanah S 13:43  |  Swiss (Dino) 11/04/07
  37.   Aby 13:48  |  Factual 11/04/07
  38.   great analysis 13:59  |  11/04/07
  39.   THANKYOU AMIRA,at last someone has the courage 14:01  |  mildred 11/04/07
  40.   # 30 Cipora Julianna Kohn 14:06  |  Swiss (Dino) 11/04/07
  41.   MilDRED 14:22  |  Nerys 11/04/07
  42.   What criminals? They are freedom fighters. 14:31  |  Gene 11/04/07
  43.   #19- MOST OF THEM ARE 14:48  |  MARCO 11/04/07
  44.   On the list 14:56  |  Nerys 11/04/07
  45.   42GENE your fine distinctions are quite abstract 15:01  |  lakshmi 11/04/07
  46.   #4 DINO; chill out and take a time-out! 15:07  |  Alicia 11/04/07
  47.   29MITCH COHEN,some elaboration might be in order 15:07  |  alan 11/04/07
  48.   # 7 Not very nice Amira 15:14  |  Zvi M 11/04/07
  49.   Absolute Sweden #32 15:26  |  FOX 11/04/07
  50.   Nerys in Rishon and that long, long list 15:31  |  Factual 11/04/07
  51.   Amira Hass is a traitor (together with Gideon Levy) 15:32  |  Vittorio 11/04/07
  52.   HAARETZ: Atem Tzrechim Liror ke Atilla Karagozoglu MESHUGA MAMASH 15:35  |  Vittorio 11/04/07
  53.   #17 C J Kohn 15:38  |  Boycott 11/04/07
  54.   #46 Alicia - the conscience cleaner 15:38  |  leyla 11/04/07
  55.   Don`t forget the Hamas lawmakers, in prisoner for no crime 15:56  |  Clickfool 11/04/07
  56.   TERROR SUPPORT From the anti-Jewish FANATIKS 16:00  |  B 11/04/07
  57.   DINO; WHY don´t you condemn the abduction? 16:02  |  Alicia 11/04/07
  58.   lanksmi #45 16:05  |  Gene 11/04/07
  59.   55CLICKFOOL,couldn`t have said it better,look out for fake Sara 16:10  |  sara 11/04/07
  60.   Dino # 36 16:13  |  ChanahS 11/04/07
  61.   # 52 Leyla in Ankara 16:22  |  Alicia 11/04/07
  62.   Madarilyn #25 & Silly sara #31 on stats! 16:37  |  Ari ben Yisrael 11/04/07
  63.   #32 Absolute Sweden on why HESS isn`t kidnapped 16:40  |  Ari ben Yisrael 11/04/07
  64.   # 46 / # 57 Alicia (1) 16:45  |  Swiss (Dino) 11/04/07
  65.   Release those proven to be innocent. 16:46  |  Alon Fisher 11/04/07
  66.   Amira, I missed you. 16:58  |  Timothy 11/04/07
  67.   # 46 / # 57 Alicia (2) 17:00  |  Swiss (Dino) 11/04/07
  68.   Factual what kind of equality are waiting between the parties 17:15  |  Aby 11/04/07
  69.   Loving the Israeli responses.... 17:18  |  Gaza Mo 11/04/07
  70.   # 60 Chanah S 17:21  |  Swiss (Dino) 11/04/07
  71.   Sara, Your life =? My life 17:32  |  Aby 11/04/07
  72.   I read the B`Tselem reports, and Gisha 17:37  |  Marilyn 11/04/07
  73.   proof 17:39  |  pvdh 11/04/07
  74.   They are freedom fighters 17:44  |  17 11/04/07
  75.   To: Dino and his beloved Dog 17:45  |  Alicia 11/04/07
  76.   58 GENE, not sure of your premises or your logic 17:49  |  lakshmi 11/04/07
  77.   lashmi: ignorant or purposefully manipulative 18:01  |  jk 11/04/07
  78.   Trials for All Prisoners 18:08  |  Jane 11/04/07
  79.   Aby & internal sovereignty pt. I 18:14  |  Factual 11/04/07
  80.   Gone with the Wind revisited 18:14  |  natan 11/04/07
  81.   77JK.,let me clarify,yes Israel is in illegal Occupation accordin 18:19  |  lakshmi 11/04/07