Al-Monitor Discovers Israelis Hold Palestinian Prisoners
Al-Monitor, citing Reuters, reports that negotiators exchanged lists of prisoners and hostages, implying the existence of 'prominent Palestinians' held in Israeli jails as a recent development. This pristine observation sidesteps the fact that Israel routinely holds thousands of Palestinians as political prisoners, many under 'administrative detention' without charge or trial. According to the
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, over 9,000 Palestinians were held in Israeli prisons as of February 2024, including more than 3,400 administrative detainees. The media, with its uncanny ability to discover facts only when they serve a particular narrative, treats these prisoner lists as a transaction, rather than a glimpse into systemic occupation. One might wonder why the
detention of thousands of people, including children, for decades didn't warrant a 'factbox' before Hamas took hostages. Perhaps the plight of Palestinians only becomes newsworthy when it can be framed as a reciprocal inconvenience rather than an ongoing human rights crisis.