October 03, 2007

In a perfect world, little could be comparable to the joy of receiving a son, daughter, father or husband from the clutches of Israeli incarceration. Even in the terribly distorted world of Palestine where absolutes do not exist and every political move is dissected, analyzed and reanalyzed, the release of a handful of Palestinian political prisoners from Israeli prisons is still a joyous event.

On October 1 and 2, as a show of "goodwill", Israel released 57 prisoners from the West Bank and 29 from the Gaza Strip. The scenes of homesick prisoners returning to their families would pull at anyone’s heartstrings, especially knowing the conditions under which these prisoners lived. Israeli prisons are infamous for their harsh treatment of Palestinian political activists, including inhumane hours of interrogation, torture, sleep deprivation, solitary confinement and family visits, which are almost never consistent if not cancelled altogether.

So, let there be no mistake. Any Palestinian who is freed from Israeli shackles is one less prisoner behind those oppressive bars. Still, the euphoria of their homecoming is painfully incomplete. While these 86 Palestinians can finally join their families at dinner at the end of a long day, there are approximately 11,000 others who will not get that chance. For every Palestinian Israel decides to release as a "goodwill gesture" to President Abbas, it turns around and arrests ten others.

Israel’s ongoing arrest of Palestinian activists is just one manifestation of the control it continues to remind the Palestinians it has over them. Even the elation of the prisoners’ release did not take place without being punctuated by oppressive Israeli measures. For example, the release of the West Bank prisoners on Monday was marred by hours-long delays at military checkpoints. The next day, thousands of Gazans stood for hours at the Beit Hanoun [Erez] Crossing waiting for the prisoner bus to arrive only to be shot at by Israeli occupation forces when several people wandered into the buffer zone between Israel and the Gaza Strip. A 14-year-old boy and a photojournalist were among the injured.

In any case, like just about everything in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, this "gesture of goodwill" must also be taken with a grain of salt. It is a well-known fact that Israel, along with the United States, is doing its best to marginalize Hamas in the Gaza Strip while drumming up support for President Abbas’ government in the West Bank. Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming majority of those released are Fateh affiliated, with a few prisoners from the smaller leftist Palestinian groups. None were even remotely affiliated or supporters of Hamas.

In reality, such "gestures" put the Palestinians in a very unenviable position. While it would be counterproductive to refuse the release of any prisoner, accepting such minor spurts of prisoners at uneven intervals does not come without repercussions. Israel released these prisoners, not out of its concern over the well-being of these men, but in order to further its political agenda. To the world, Israel is cast in a positive light – releasing Palestinians before their sentences are finished (although most were close to the end of their terms), even though their own kidnapped soldier, Corporal Gilad Shalit, still remains captive somewhere in the Gaza Strip.

However, more important than Israel’s perceived "generosity" and support for Abbas, such a move might prove detrimental to Hamas. While average Palestinians are highly politicized in general, when push comes to shove, their personal lives take precedence over mundane political rhetoric or hidden agendas. This is to say that if a mother of a prisoner perceives that it was President Abbas who helped secure the release of her son rather than the deposed government of Ismail Haniyeh, it is not difficult to envision a shift in loyalties. If this same Abbas government also helps find her husband a job and puts food on her table when Hamas and his disgruntled ministers cannot, it will take more than fiery words during Friday prayers to guarantee the people’s votes next elections.

So, if Israel continues to mobilize support for Abbas through these backdoor gestures, Hamas cannot hope to be in "control" of Gaza for much longer.

There is however, a flipside to this scenario. What the people must be extremely vigilant of is not to fall into the trap of these enticements. It is easy to slip into the mentality of "the safety of my own head" – as the popular Arabic saying goes – but this comes at a heavy price. Whether our people want to support the Abbas government or not is their own democratic and free choice. This is not an issue for dispute. However, having said this, the people should not be swayed to support this government or that only because of the personal gains they might receive from it at the expense of national aspirations.

Granted, delivering to the people is a fundamental duty of any government and one which should not be belittled or overlooked. However, it seems that in the Palestinian arena, these benefits are being used as leverage for swaying the people into ridding the political map of Hamas. The people should be able to choose freely whether they want to be governed by this or that movement, by both or neither for that matter. They should not be coerced into a decision because they were tempted with the release of their son or an extra food package at the end of Ramadan.

It is a very fine line we have here, and one we need to tread on lightly. Limited prisoner releases, financial aid or humanitarian assistance are all positive in and of themselves. But what the Palestinians – both people and leadership – must realize is that these "gestures" are far from our demands and from our national aspirations. Eighty-six prisoners is hardly an "achievement" when 11,000 others who also served their country continue to languish in Israeli cells. Allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza should not be hailed as an "accomplishment" when over 60 percent of Gazans live under the poverty line, mostly because Israel has sealed off the Strip from the outside world and has clamped an economic embargo over the entire Palestinian territories.

On the human level, we are all happy for those prisoners who returned home. Still, until every Palestinian political prisoner is free from Israeli jails, this homecoming can be nothing but bittersweet.

Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Programme at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mip@miftah.org.