It's a steep price to pay but one that the Israeli government felt was worth it to save the life of a single soldier.
By JPOST EDITORIALA boy playing the role of a prisoner has his hands tied during a rally marking Palestinian Prisoners' Day April 17, 2019.(photo credit: RANEEN SAWAFTA/ REUTERS)
In October 2011, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet approved a deal to release 1,027 Palestinian security prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for Gilad Schalit, an IDF soldier who had been abducted by Hamas five years earlier.It was a steep price to pay but one that the Israeli government felt was worth it to save the life of a single soldier.It wasn’t the first time that Israel had released prisoners in exchange for soldiers. In 2008, two years after the Second Lebanon War, Israel released five prisoners in exchange for the bodies of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, the two reservists who were abducted in the attack that sparked the war with Hezbollah. Among those released was Samir Kuntar, responsible for one of the most notorious terror attacks against Israel.And in 1985, Israel made what became known as the “Jibril Deal,” under which it released 1,150 prisoners in exchange for three Israelis, taken captive a few years earlier during the First Lebanon War.To stop this pattern, in 2008, then-defense minister Ehud Barak established a commission – led by the late Supreme Court justice Meir Shamgar – to make recommendations what Israel should do the next time a soldier is abducted. How should it negotiate and what price should it be willing to pay? In 2012, Shamgar submitted his 100-page report full of new recommendations but until today, they have not been made public.In 2014, Naftali Bennett, then a newly-elected minister, demanded that Netanyahu present Shamgar’s findings to the security cabinet. What came of that meeting is still unknown.This is all relevant because on Wednesday, Bennett, now defense minister, announced that Israel would no longer return the bodies of dead Palestinians to the Gaza Strip. Bennett’s office said that the minister has instructed the IDF and the defense establishment to completely stop the release of bodies and that exceptions would only be made in extenuating circumstances and at the discretion of the defense minister.The motivation for this policy change is the deadlock in negotiations to try and secure the release of the bodies of the two Israeli soldiers – Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul – which have been held in Gaza since the war there in the summer of 2014.“It is inconceivable that while the soldiers are in the hands of Hamas, we will continue to release dead or living terrorists. Freeing terrorists is a prize that Hamas cannot be given while holding on to our soldiers and civilians,” Leah Goldin, Hadar’s mother, told The Jerusalem Post.She expressed confidence that such a policy would serve as deterrent for further action by the terrorist group.“Look how nervous they have become about it,” she said.We hope Goldin is right. Nevertheless, this is a complicated issue. On the one hand, holding onto a body and denying its burial in a religious ceremony by family members appears to be unjust. On the other hand, it makes sense when the adversary is a terrorist organization. Israel needs leverage in order to secure the release of Goldin and Shaul as well as Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed who are being held in Gaza, and this is one way to create some.Other ways, include suspending benefits to Palestinian security prisoners held in Israeli jails. Nowhere in the Geneva Convention does it say that the prisoners needs satellite TV and the ability to pursue a bachelors degree while behind bars. Letting prisoners study might be in Israel’s interest if it moderates them. But if it doesn’t, why should they be afforded these benefits when Israel doesn’t even know the status of the people being held in Gaza.It is time that Israel decides on a clear policy for how to manage these situations. It is expected that the families of those in captivity will do everything they can to secure their loved ones’ release. However, Israel does need a policy so it can stop the expectation that terrorist groups can get what they want by emotionally manipulating the Israeli public.Here is one first step. Publicize the Shamgar Commission’s recommendations.
