Thoughts on thoughts on the release of Palestinian prisoners

Submitted by Stephen E. Connor (United States), Jul 28, 2013 at 14:05

I am concerned that I have seen no figures on the status of the prisoners to be released. I often hear them characterized as murderers or terrorists but often times, Palestinians held in Israeli detention have not been convicted and many times they have not been charged. The exchanges seem much less unequal when the numbers of prisoners held without charge in indefinite administrative detention are included. Often Israeli officials have prisoners that they do not consider dangerous and, in fact, have no desire to continue detaining. It is merely an unnecessary cost to the State.

In such cases, it is not a "cost" to Israel to release such prisoners, it is a benefit. I tried to find references to the status of the most recent 104 prisoners but found none. It is too easy to react to such seemingly uneven swaps when all of the relevant details are not known.

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