The publication of two opposing opinion pieces in La Voz regarding the Israeli-Palestinian prisoner exchange of one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners has cause a wave of controversy and dialogue on campus. But anyone who thinks that Israel is a beacon of humanitarianism is living in a fantasy world.

While it may be logical to conclude that the large number of Palestinian prisoners exchanged for one Israeli prisoner is due to the fact that Palestinians commit more crimes and therefore are terrorists, this could not be further from the truth. In fact, most of these prisoners are political prisoners, arrested because Israel criminalizes any form of opposition, and who were tried in military tribunals that do not conform to international standards.

In 1999, following pressure from seven human rights organizations, the Israeli High Court of Justice ostensibly banned the use of torture during interrogations, yet maintained a provision allowing its use in the “necessity of defense” and in situations where a detainee is deemed a “ticking time bomb,” the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise reported. Let it be known that Palestinian detainees have continued to be tortured and have even died while in custody of Israel security forces as a result of torture, a fact documented by the Guardian and Los Angeles Times newspapers. Moreover, confessions extracted through torture are admissible in Israeli court and military tribunals. 

Not all Palestinian prisoners have been released either. As of last week, 477 of the 1,027 prisoners have been set free, Addameer reported. Additionally, not all of the prisoners were from the Gaza Strip, where the democratically elected government of Hamas presides. 

Additionally, out of the first 477 prisoners released, 205 of them were not reunited with their families and instead were deported or transferred, such as the case with political prisoner Christian Al-Bandak, who has now been exiled to the Gaza Strip from his home in Bethlehem according to the International Solidarity Movement. Additionally, 18 prisoners from East Jerusalem and the West Bank, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority, will be transferred to the Gaza Strip for a period of three years while an additional 146 will be forcibly relocated there on a permanent basis.

These terms violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states: “Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the occupying power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive.”

Additionally, the prisoner exchange is overshadowed by the continued imprisonment of more than 4,000 Palestinian political prisoners. Also note that Israel holds more than 200 Palestinian children under the age of 18 as prisoners. 

One final note is that the word “terrorist” is a racist term used only against Arab or Muslim people and should not be used so freely. How often do you hear that term being used for anyone of European-decent in the media? But it is not only Muslims who commit acts of “terror.” Yet the state of Israel commits acts of terror against Palestinians on a daily basis.