“Locked up for 24 years, release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees sparks joy and sorrow” was the title The Guardian newspaper ran for one of its stories about Palestinians being freed from Israeli prisons under the Gaza peace deal.
The prisoner to whom the title was referring was Saber Masalma. The Guardian detailed how much weight Masalma had lost in prison, and quoted his family member as saying, “He looks like a dead body.”
The rest of the article continued in the same vein: Descriptions of “difficult” conditions and “inadequate food” in prison, and an undeniably sympathetic tone when discussing the “emotional reunions” between the security prisoners and their families after two years of no visits following Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
Why was Masalma in prison for 24 years, one may ask? Because he was sentenced to life in prison for conspiracy to cause death and for placing explosive devices.
Then there was the BBC’s portrayal of Aida Abu Rob discussing her brother’s impending release from prison and her fears she may not recognize him after spending 20 years apart.
“Aida has waited 20 years for her brother Murad to be released from a jail in Israel,” the reporter said, omitting why he was there in the first place.
The Murad in question, Murad Muhammad Ridha Ahmad Abu al-Rub, was supposed to be serving four life sentences for his role in the Kedumim West Bank suicide bombing, which killed four Israelis in March 2006.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism condemned the BBC’s coverage, writing that the broadcaster “seemed desperate to humanize the terrorists being released from Israeli jails as part of the Jewish state’s devil’s bargain to retrieve its hostages.”
But The Guardian and the BBC were not unique in their deplorable coverage: Reuters quoted Mohammad Al-Khatib, who served 20 years for killing three Israelis, as saying, “We have always had hope, that’s why we continued to be steadfast.”
The Spanish paper El País ran a piece titled “Israel-Hamas corpse exchange muddies Gaza ceasefire.” Furthermore, both the BBC and The New York Times depicted the swap as “an exchange of hostages.”
Various media outlets wrote sympathetic portrayals of Nahid Faraj Jadoa Al-Aqra returning to Gaza without his legs.
Why does Aqra have no legs? Two decades ago, he tried to blow himself up, killing three Israelis in the process. That is how he lost his own legs.
Aqra was saved by Israeli medics, operated on, and kept alive in prison. Arab media described him as having endured “unbearable suffering day and night under dire conditions,” but remaining hopeful he would be released.
The absence of justice for victims of terror
These security prisoners should not have ever had hope for their release. They were serving life sentences for a reason. This is not some sob story. A suicide bomber does not and should not deserve the media’s pity.
The people who deserve our empathy right now are the families of the victims of these prisoners who have been released back into society, free to commit more crimes against humanity.
Justice has been ruptured for the families of the victims; nothing can be more offensive or morally reprehensible than the attempts of international news sites to create some moral equivalency between Israel’s hostages and inmates serving time for committing horrific crimes.
As the American Jewish Committee (AJC) wrote, “The Palestinians held in Israeli jails made an active choice to commit a crime, while the only ‘crime’ committed by the Israelis and other foreign hostages was that they were Jewish or were in Israel.”
“The Israelis and foreign nationals now being released include people who were stolen from their homes, kidnapped while celebrating at a music festival, studying abroad, or courageously defending their families and neighbors from Hamas’s brutal terror rampage on October 7,” the AJC said.
Among the 250 prisoners released who were supposed to be serving life sentences were those who carried out lynchings, bombings, shootings, and stabbings.
And, of course, there is then the question of why any civil society would be begging for such individuals to be returned in the first place? If you were to ask most people if they wanted bombers, rapists, and murderers back on the streets, they would probably think you were being facetious.
The key to this can be found in the way the Associated Press described this: “The fate of the prisoners is a sensitive issue in Palestinian society, where almost everyone knows or is related to someone who Israel has imprisoned. Palestinians view them as freedom fighters.”
It is not news that the majority of Palestinian society venerates and deifies terrorists, considering them to be heroes of the resistance, martyrs, and victors.
What is striking is that international media has somehow – whether knowingly or subconsciously – parroted this narrative with its creation of moral equivalencies and sob stories about released terrorists.
The unsuspecting reader will view such content and feel terribly sorry for the hardships experienced by Mr. Masalma. Meanwhile, the families of those he killed now must live with the knowledge that he is a free man.
None of this is to say that Israel is not rejoicing for the return of our brothers and sisters. Very few in this country have done much else but watch the reunion videos over and over again over the last few days. It is a wonderful and joyful thing to have family members return.
But to try to paint the release of prisoners and hostages in the same brushstroke, as if both were one and the same, is not only weak journalism, it also feeds into a discourse implying that the terrorists are on the same moral high ground as their Jewish victims.