The survivor of a suicide attack in Israel fights with the release of the client

The survivor of a suicide attack in Israel fights with the release of the client

Haifa, Israel - the last memory of Oran Almog before losing his eyesight are five members of his own family. A suicide bomber had ignited an explosive belt in a restaurant in Haifa and thereby killed Almog's father, brother, grandparents and cousin.

traumatic memories

"I remember that we were sitting at the table and ordering something to eat. And the next thing I remember is that I was lying on the floor," said Almog in an interview with Cnn.

At this terrorist attack, 21 people were killed and 60 more injured, including Almog, who blindly blind on October 4, 2003. Now, more than two decades later, the man who commissioned the assassin - Sami Jaradat - was released from Israeli prison as part of an armistice and an agreement on the release of hostages that were reached between Hamas and Israel in January 2023

The controversy around the release

Jaradat is part of 1,735 Palestinian prisoners who were released during the ceasefire in exchange for 33 Israeli hostages. Although most of the released prisoners were not convicted of a crime and only a third was convicted of murder or attempted murder, the government and media in Israel describe all prisoners as "terrorists", which influenced the public perception of the agreement.

The news about Jaradat's release left Almog speechless and shocked. "I would never have thought that he would come out of prison ... I was speechless. It was really deep pain. I was not angry and not disappointed, but just felt that something was broken in my heart," he said.

an unexpected price

But soon Almog recognized the "price" of this agreement and said that it was a value. "I understood that if Sami Jaradat would stay in prison forever, my family, who was murdered in the terrorist attack, would never return alive. But the living Israeli hostages can come back, and that was important to me," he said.

Shortly after the release of Jaradat's release, Almog wrote a opinion articles in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in which he asked the Israelis to put the differences of opinion aside over the price and to focus on the essentials - the release of the hostages.

protests and disagreements

Jaradat and 109 other Palestinians were released on January 30 after the release of the Israeli hostages Arbel Yehoud, Gadi Moses and the Israeli soldier Agam Berger, who were taken in captivity during the attacks on October 7. Almog remembered the moment when his cousin Chen Almog-Goldstein, which was also taken hostage with her surviving children on October 7, was released during the first short-lived ceasefire and the hostage of hostages in November 2023.

"I will never forget this evening when they got the first hug from our family ... I understood the joy and happiness of the Israelis who returned home," he reflected.

But Almog's perspective does not coincide with the many Israelis. Many, including a small number of families of hostages, which belong to the rights tikva forum and gvura forum rejected a ceasefire from the start. Days after the announcement of the Agreement on January 15th, hundreds of demonstrators of these two forums went to the streets in Jerusalem and scanded: "Do not make a deal with the devil!" And "Sinwar was also released in a deal!"

historical comparisons

You remember how Yahya Sinwar, the late Hamas leader and architect of the attacks on October 7, 2011 together with 1,027 Palestinians in exchange for the captured Israeli soldiers Gilad Shalit from Israeli detention. Yehoshua Shani, the father of an Israeli soldier killed on October 7, referred to this story and called all the released Palestinians "evil murderers". "The price of this deal has already been determined, we just don't know who will pay for the price," he said.

Some Israelis reject the release of Palestinians from Israeli prisons and instead indicate that the defeat of Hamas should be a top priority for Israel due to military measures to bring the hostages back. As part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, which was agreed between Israel and Hamas, which lasted 42 days and ended last weekend, 33 Israeli hostages were released in an exchange for 1,735 Palestinian prisoners and imprisoned.

a ‘leverage’

According to information from the Israeli prison service and the Palestinian Society for Prisoners, most of the persons intended for the release were imprisoned without indictment and were not brought to court or were given the opportunity to defend themselves. About 15% of the 1,735 Palestinians were convicted of murder of Israelis, including civilians and soldiers. Most of them were detained during the first and second intifada, the uprisings of the Palestinians against the military occupation of the western Bank by Israel. Another 18% were convicted of attempted murder.

Almost two thirds of the total number were detained without a trial, including 1,000 Palestinians who were captured in the Gaza Strip during the war. The rest had been sentenced to a "forbidden organization" or "incitement" due to a lesser charges such as belonging - a vague indictment that was used to detain Palestinians for contributions in social media, express solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip

public perception and support for the ceasefire

This detail is often not understood in the Israeli public, the political analyst and columnist of Haaretz, Dahlia Scheindlin, told CNN. "The Israelis believe that a Palestinian who is in Israeli detention - solely because of his detention - must be a terrorist," she said.

Palestinians who live in the occupied West Bank fall under the military court system of Israel, of which human rights groups report that the conviction rate is over 99%. Human rights organizations have this system serves to maintain the control of Israel via the Palestiners.