The jailbreak of six Palestinians who tunnelled out of an Israeli prison earlier this month has taken the lid off of the mass imprisonment of Palestinians by Israel. Thousands of Palestinians had passed through a military justice system which was designed for a temporary occupation. The system resulted in imprisoning hundreds and thousands of Palestinians, which has existed for six decades now.
Under Israeli rule, imprisonment has been widely recognised as one of the most painful aspects of life and nearly each and every Palestinian has a close relative or family member who had been locked up in the system at some point.
The escape of the six prisoners, who were recaptured eventually, points out the conflicting views that Israelis and Palestinians hold regarding imprisonment. Every act of opposition to the military rules are seen as criminal offence, by Israel, while many Palestinians recognises the people who opposes the military rule by the slightest of their actions as heroes.
The Palestinian authority has been granted limited autonomy by Israel, to administer cities and towns in the West Bank. But Israel has regularly carried out arrest raids all across the country even in the areas run by Palestinian authorities.
Israel has released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as part of political negotiations or in exchange of captured Israelis. Palestinians have organized protests inside the prison demanding several rights and concessions. The only link for the prisoners to the outside world has been the lawyer’s visits or the visits of family members all these years, even though some have managed to smuggle cell phones in to the prison.
Most of the prisoners are jailed for violating Israeli military orders that have been governing the 2.5 million Palestinians living in West Bank. Hundreds of minors have been arrested each year charged with stone-throwing. The ‘illegal’ activities which could get Palestinians imprisoned even include taking part in demonstrations.
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