Why Israel has so many Palestinian prisoners

Inside Israel’s dual criminal justice system.

Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO

Israel has been engaged in harrowing negotiations to recover the roughly 240 hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza following the October 7 attack. In exchange for their release, the Israeli government has a bargaining chip that is extremely valuable to Palestinians: the thousands of Palestinian prisoners locked up in Israeli prisons.

Each one of these Palestinian prisoners has been processed by Israel’s military court system, which exists completely separate from the civilian court system that Jewish Israelis interact with. This system and the military orders that govern it have their origins in the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967.

In this video, two experts explain Israel’s military court system, why it’s been a focus of outcry from human rights organizations and why hostage negotiations have historically involved the exchange of Palestinian prisoners.

Vox policy correspondent Abdallah Fayyad wrote about Israel’s military court system for Vox’s site:
https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/11/22/23972908/palestinian-prisoners-israel-administrative-detention

For statistics on Palestinian prisoners, we relied on the work of Israeli human rights organization Addameer:
https://www.addameer.org/statistics

We relied on B’Tselem as a source and some of the footage you see in the video:
https://www.btselem.org/militarycourts

For a list of our other sources:
https://www.hrw.org/report/2010/12/19/separate-and-unequal/israels-discriminatory-treatment-palestinians-occupied

https://www.btselem.org/download/19670827_order_regarding_prohibition_of_incitement_and_hostile_propaganda.pdf

https://www.adalah.org/uploads/oldfiles/Public/files/English/Publications/Review/5/Adalahs-Review-5-65-Baker-Definition-Security-Prisoners.pdf

https://www.btselem.org/statistics/detainees_and_prisoners

https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/5141/2022/en/

https://www.hrw.org/reports/pdfs/i/israel/israel946.pdf

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/briefing_note/join/2013/491484/EXPO-AFET_SP%282013%29491484_EN.pdf

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/unchilded-birth-un-expert-calls-decisive-protection-palestinian-children

Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what’s really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com.

Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE
Follow Vox on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o
Or Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H

Written by Vox