Prisoners’ release ‘symbolic win’ for Palestinians
Sultan Barakat, a professor at Qatar’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University, says the release of Palestinian prisoners is a “symbolic win” rather than a victory for the Palestinians, primarily showing the inhumane conditions they live under.
“Israel can capture people in the West Bank and Gaza because they all live in a confinement area under the control of Israel,” he told Al Jazeera.
He discussed the way Palestinians “are arbitrarily rounded up, taken to prison and treated badly” by Israel. Barakat stressed that the release of prisoners also “shows the unity of the Palestinians in the face of occupation”.
“The prisoners are not all necessarily Hamas sympathisers – some were at odds with Hamas for a long time,” the academic said. “But they are united in their refusal of occupation and standing up to Israel,” he added.
Several Palestinian prisoners may have been deported
We are getting reports from Israeli media that seven released Palestinian prisoners have been deported. However, we haven’t received any video or pictures, so we’re just waiting to verify that.
In Ramallah, we know that 10 of those former prisoners have now been taken to hospital. The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society says many of those were beaten about a week before they were released, and some of them have broken ribs.
The released prisoners are being greeted by friends and family but there is concern about many prisoners who have been released in the past few weeks, particularly for scabies and other skin diseases.
The Israeli captives are also being checked in hospitals, but it seems they are in good health.
Israel’s deportation of Palestinian prisoners part of ‘broader colonial policy’
Basil Farraj, an assistant professor at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank and an expert on political prisoners, has spoken to Al Jazeera about Israel’s decision to deport some of the Palestinians set to be released.
“We’ve seen Palestinian prisoners being deported to Egypt, and it’s not clear yet [whether this is] just a transitory phase,” he said. Farraj said this tactic is a way for Israel “to take revenge” on the prisoners and their families by denying them the joy of reuniting.
“This is part of a broader colonial policy of deporting Palestinians”, he said, adding that it is a way of “criminalising their resistance”.
Farraj said some of the families of prisoners released during previous exchanges and deported to Egypt have been denied the ability to leave Palestinian territory by the Israeli authorities.
This means the released prisoners are not able to see their relatives and is a continuation of Israel’s “policy of dividing Palestinians”.
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