Negotiating for Prisoners in Israel
Sepi Termechi | Jan 18, 2010 | Comments 5
Gilad Shalit, a staff sergeant in Israel’s defense force, was seized by Hamas, a militant Islamist group, in a cross-border raid in June 2006. He has been held in Gaza since then.
Shalit has been in the hearts of most Israelis and his story has been followed in the years since his capture.
The Israeli government has gone to many lengths to bring him and many of its other soldiers back home. Israel seemed close to concluding a trade with Hamas to return Gilad Shalit on November 20. In exchange for Shalit, Hamas requested that Israel release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, most of whom are terrorists and murderers. Such prisoners include Marwan Barghouti, who received five life sentences in 2004 for his involvement in killing Israelis. Barghouti is one of the West Bank’s most popular leaders and the potential successor to Mahmoud Abbas, the current Palestinian president.
However, the release of numerous violent fighters and the possibility of Hamas gaining more political power over the Palestinian Authority have made this trade incredibly complicated for Israelis. The group has made clear its intention to destroy Israel since its inception in 1948. Hamas has also made negotiations increasingly difficult by requesting the release of some Israeli Arabs; this means that there would be the possibility of Hamas gaining even more clout and support among the 20 percent of Israeli citizens who are Palestinians.
It seems that Israel’s hands are tied — double knotted, in fact. There is no question that Israel wants to bring Gilad Shalit home, but should it be at the cost of returning not one, but hundreds of violent individuals, who are intent on destroying Israel? This is not Israel’s first attempt to learn about Shalit’s status and return him to his family. In fact, the video of Shalit that was recently released came at the price of releasing 20 Palestinian female terrorists from Israel’s jails. On a larger scale, Israel has made various efforts to cater to the Palestinians’ grievances, the most recent being Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement to halt new residential construction in West Bank Jewish settlements for ten months. Settlements have been and continue to be a controversial issue with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Netanyahu’s announcement is a gesture to move toward peace to the Middle East.
Israel, like every other country in the world, has the right and obligation to defend itself and its citizens. But by releasing so many prisoners, Israel puts itself at risk. It knows that these prisoners, who were captured for being potential suicide bombers and for throwing rockets into Israel, will resume their actions once they are returned to the arms of Hamas. Upon visiting Sderot, a city south of Israel in 2008, President Obama witnessed the unfortunate situation himself. He was quoted as saying, “If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.”
So the question becomes: what should Israel do? Should it negotiate with Hamas, an organization who clearly opposes its existence and is responsible for the deaths of numerous Israeli citizens, many of them children? Personally, I would find it extremely difficult to make deals with a militant group who not only does not represent its nation-state, but also has unfailingly used terror as a weapon to further its goals? It is time for Hamas to stop its vicious games and commit to being a legitimate political party. It needs to make a positive stand and strive to make constructive change by giving the Palestinian people an honest voice. Hamas has denied the Palestinian people their basic civil rights and continues to do so. For example, when aid was being sent to Gaza, much of it by Israel, Hamas seized available resources and auctioned them to the highest bidder, denying care to the poor.
What would you do?
If you save one person, it is the same as saving the world. Israel is currently in the process of negotiating a deal to save one of its children, one of its soldiers. It seems that Israel agrees with me.
Sepi Termechi is a fourth-year psychology major. He can be reached at stermech@uci.edu.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Filed Under: Opinion
Dear iLgiz,
I appreciate your response, but I am very disappointed that you did not understand my article. In response to the “starvation of 1.5 million Gazans” I believe there is no other to accuse but Hamas. Israel has been one of the top donors of food and aid to Gaza, even though as of 2005, it has completely withdrawn from Gaza. Why are Gazans still starving? Why is Israel the only one being held accountable, when the Rafah border crossing has existed all along? Could it possibly be because Hamas has placed these necessities on the black market and provides resources only to a select few? It is unfortunate that so many innocent civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian, have become victims of Hamas’ tireless campaign. That said, one life lost is just of a tragedy to Israel as hundreds—every life is valuable. Which leads me to ask, would it make it right if 10,000 Israelis were captured to equate the 10,000 imprisoned Palestinians? Gilad Shalit is of no threat to the Palestinian people; these 10,000 you mentioned, however, are.
Israel is blessed enough to have an established army to protect its citizens. This is a duty of any country and I do not see any reason why Israel should apologize for that. I sympathize with the innocent Palestinians who do not enjoy such a privilege, but unfortunately this is the price that is paid when a militant power insists on relentlessly attacking others, instead of providing for their own.
Yes, the imprisoned Palestinians are a majority civilians; however, this is exactly what Hamas and its militants are comprised of. The imprisoned have in fact been a threat to Israel, for they are responsible for using children as human shields, throwing Quassam rockets into southern Israel, and housing terrorists. I encourage you to view a few of these links: http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=1304 , http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Hamas+war+against+Israel/Hamas+exploitation+of+civilians+as+human+shields+-+Photographic+evidence.htm, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWQQFJXMrg4. I sympathize with these Palestinians, who are often forced into committing such horrifying acts. But to every action, there is a reaction, and these individuals should accept the consequences to their actions. It is time that religion cease to be the driving force behind war. We should all simply learn to accept each other, despite our differences.
I am by no means saying that anyone is perfect, including Israel. On the other hand, Israel in particular has reflected on its actions and has been able to take responsibility when required. Others, sadly, cannot and continue to ignore their wrongdoings. In addition, I would strongly suggest broadening your views to all perspectives and checking numerous legitimate resources before jumping to conclusions. Lastly, I truly believe and hope that we will see peace in the near future, where children of the next generations will enjoy a middle east without war.
to the guy hiding behind the name of the Rightly-Guided Khalif:
it seems your hatred of Muslims have blinded you to the point that you deny to us a right to exist as we see it fit. Of course, you are not alone in your hatred, for there many hate mongers who say such blatantly racist things about Muslims, that had they been uttered against any other minority, it would cause an outcry.
as long as the West, headed by US as the global gendarme, continues to occupy Muslim nations and continues to prop up petty tyrants and emergency presidents, Muslims of the world have an absolute right as human beings to resist the neocolonial subjugation called “war on terror”
I would rather apologize for my criticism in the beginning, so I am sorry, but this piece of forced student composition completely lacks any objectivity or any feeling of genuine compassion for the fate of Gilad Shalit. Rather, his detention is used by Israel as an excuse to continue the imprisonment and starvation of 1.5 million of Gazans. While Palestinians hold in captivity one Israeli, there are over 10,000 Palestinians languishing in Israeli dungeons. And if legally Gilad Shalit is a prisoner of war, overwhelming majority of imprisoned Palestinians are civilians who have nothing to do with militant groups and consist mostly of peace activists, women, adolescents and teenagers, and just simple people of the street. Their crime is not that they constitute a threat to Israel’s security, for this overused argument has no basis as Israel has no right to occupy or administer what is legally Palestinian land. The crime of these innocent people is that they engage in non-violent resistance to Israeli occupation and oppression, and through their resistance they are far more dangerous to the Zionism project than all of the rocket arsenals of Hamas and Hezbollah combined.
So, what you’re saying is, 1 Israeli life = 100s of Palestinian lives? What about the foreign human rights observers from the US, Czech Republic, and elsewhere that were illegally arrested by Oz and IDF inside Palestinian territory? Ryan Olander, an American, was arrested in a nighttime raid, and had his visa revoked for allegedly happened the following day, while he was detained.
Excellent editorial.
It is interesting to note how many of the released Guantanamo Islamists have gone back to waging Jihad against the west. Many have.
No doubt the same thing will happen if Israel releases the Islamists held in its prisons. They know no trades other than hatred. They were raised on hatred –vidoes depicting Jews and Americans and non-Muslims as vile creatures– and it’s not as if they’ll become peaceful carpenters upon their release.