Palestinian dead become Israeli bargaining chip
Israel buries bodies of Palestinian dead in what is known as the “Cemetery of Numbers," a poorly managed site where many bodies reportedly have been lost mainly due to negligence.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel is proposing the release of a number of Hamas prisoners it arrested in Gaza, along with a number of bodies of Palestinians, in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers in Hamas custody, according to a July 16 story in the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. The news raises once again the issue of the bodies of Palestinians held by Israel.
Palestinians believe that Israel is seeking through this proposal to blackmail Palestinians with their dead in order to recover the bodies of its soldiers. Issam Aruri, general director of the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, which launched a national campaign to recover the bodies, said that “with the new changes in Israel’s politics, after the war on Gaza and after Israel declared that Hamas has the severed limbs of two of its soldiers, [Israel] is now trying to recover the bodies through negotiations on the Palestinian martyrs' dossier, exercising a type of political blackmail, although it had previously pledged to release them.”
Yedioth Ahronoth, on the other hand, said Hamas is holding the Israeli soldiers' bodies to pressure Israel to release more Palestinians.
The family of Nasser al-Buz, the leader of Fatah-affiliated Black Panther groups in the first intifada in the city of Nablus, is still waiting to learn the fate of their son, who has been missing since August 1989. During the first intifada in 1987, such Black Panther groups were active against those collaborating with Israel and hung them. The groups also carried out suicide attacks against the occupation forces, which prompted Israel to persecute, assassinate and arrest the groups’ leaders before the 1993 Oslo Accord. For example, founder Ahmed Awad Kamil was arrested in 1992 and released in December 2013.
