What hope of freedom for thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails?
JVL Introduction
Western media reports about the ceasefire focus almost exclusively on Israeli hostages being freed by Palestinian militants in Gaza.
An occasional mention like this from Associated Press, noting “dozens of freed Palestinians, all looking frail in stained gray Israeli prison jumpsuits” [like Khalida Jarrar pictured above – JVL Ed], is twinned with a comment suggesting that “the images dredged up trauma for Israelis whose loved ones were killed by some of those released.” No reference to the thousands of Palestinian detainees languishing in Israeli jails without charge or trial.
The report from Friends of Sabeel North America (FoSNA) that we publish below correctly uses the term “hostages” to describe these prisoners and detainees, whose numbers have risen to an estimated 13,000 since October 2023.
It says: “More and more Palestinians are arrested, continuously, including the medical staff of hospitals in Gaza and ordinary Palestinians in the West Bank.”
NWI
This article was originally published by Friends of Sabeel North America on Fri 24 Jan 2025. Read the original here.
The Other Hostages
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Our establishment mainstream news is horribly hypocritical and biased. I have seen for myself the overwhelmig emphasis on the few Israeli hostages but only a passing mention of the vastly bigger numbers of indigenous Palestinians held as hostages in Israeli jails. Thousands of Palestinians are held in Israeli jails after sham trials. Thousands more Palestiniians are kept as hostages in Israeli jails indefinitely without any trials taking place. All of our mainstream news media is biased towards a predominantly Israeli stance.
Has there been any news of Dr Hassam Abu Safiya?
Sadly none to date
Wow. A very powerful article. The western media did little to highlight the abuses of Palestinian hostages. Treating people like this does not help to secure peace.
Peter: “Treating people like this does not help to secure peace.”
It doesn’t but then to Netanyahu and Co. it’s a terrible distortion of ‘peace’ they have aimed for since god knows when. Israel’s aim peace means as openly claimed Gaza must be reduced to rubble and empty of Palestinians of any description. And the rest of the world give at the very best, vocal support. In almost all other asymmetric ‘wars’ such as this some form of military aid/intervention would have taken place months ago. But not if the US is the friend of the aggressor.