Israeli Arabs Demand: Include Our prisoners in Shalit deal

Published March 16, 2009 @ 08:06PM PT

A number of Israeli Arab movements are calling for Hamas to include Arab Israeli prisoners in the list of prisoners to be released in exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. Among these movements are Abnaa el-Balad (Sons of the Village), whose secretary Mahmoud Kna'aneh was held prisoner in an Israeli prison for a security-related crimes in the past and today his brother is serving time in an Israeli prison.

"This is not an internal Israeli issue." Kna'aneh said. "These prisoners are in jail because of the occupation and because they are Palestinian. We are sons of one nation, whether they want this or not."

There are currently 140 Arab-Israeli prisoners serving time in jails throughout the country for security-related offenses. About one third of these prisoners acted for the benefit of Hamas and the rest on behalf of other organizations. A number of these prisoners have been held for over 20 years.

Such is prisoner Karim Yunes. Arrested when he was only 17 years old, Yunes is serving time in an Israeli jail for over 25 years. He is accused of attempting to harm Israel's security while acting on behalf of Fatah. His father, Abu Karim is calling for the Palestinian representatives who negotiate with Israel to take responsibility and include Israeli Arab prisoners in the list.

It seems that the families of these prisoners, who still don't know whether or not their sons are included in the list, feel that they are falling between the cracks. On the one hand they live under a government which deprives them of their rights and threatens to deny their citizenship, on the other hand, Palestinian organizations in the Occupied Territories (Hamas/PA) aren't championing their cause.

Source: Ha'aretz article in Hebrew.

(by Roni Henig)

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Charles is a nonprofit professional with 20 years of experience working with nonprofit organizations in Israel, Palestine and the U.S. For the past few years, he's been specializing in online organizing.