Israel released over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in 2011 within the framework of the Shalit prisoner-exchange deal. In return, Hamas released Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier Gilad Shalit, who was abducted five years earlier. But in July 2014, after the abduction (and murder, as it was later discovered) of Israeli youths Gil-Ad Shaer, Naftali Frenkel and Eyal Yifrach in the West Bank, Israel re-arrested several dozen of the released prisoners. On March 3 of this week, 31 of these Hamas prisoners appealed to the High Court of Justice (HCJ) through their lawyer, Avigdor Feldman, against their imprisonment.

Feldman argued that Israel re-imprisoned these people because of political reasons, even though none of them had committed a security offense or threatened the security of the state. It was also argued that the second incarceration violated the agreement signed by the government.

As proof of their arguments, the prisoners submitted their appeal together with a post that had been circulated Feb. 4 by the founders of the New Right party, Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, in which it was argued that the re-incarceration was designed “to inflict pain on the terrorists and pressure their families.” The post also claimed that by virtue of Bennett’s actions in the security Cabinet, the IDF and the Shin Bet re-arrested 60 prisoners released in the Shalit deal after the 2014 kidnapping of the three youths. Meanwhile, half of them have been released already. The remaining 31 now have appealed to the HCJ.

In the appeal, Feldman explains that Israel indicted the prisoners for violating the terms of their release because they accepted money from associations that were declared illegal. Feldman also claims that this excuse was supposed to provide legal backing for the re-arrests after they had been released in an agreed-upon deal backed by Egypt.