Judges, especially military judges, are careful not to criticize the line taken by political leaders and restrict themselves to interpreting the law. But in the case of the terrorist Karim Ratteb Younis Awis, they acted differently. Awis, who had been sentenced to life in prison, was released prior to the Second Intifada as a gesture to the Palestinians. Shortly thereafter, in November 2001, he issued orders to the two terrorists who carried out a shooting attack at the central bus station in Afula that claimed the lives of Michal Mor and Noam Gozovsky, and wounded 84 others.
Awis also handled the two terrorists who murdered Yitzhak Cohen and Gadi and Tzippora Shemesh in an attack on King George St. in Jerusalem in March 2002 – an attack that left another 81 civilians wounded. The judges in his case noted that "After his previous conviction for murder, it was clear how dangerous he was … and that the need to keep him away from human society forever was also obvious. After his release, he proved that the gesture was unwarranted, and many Israeli families paid a heavy price."
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Awis was neither the first nor the last terrorist released as a "gesture" to the Palestinians or as part of a deal with terrorist organizations who went back to the ways of terrorism. According to estimates from the defense and security establishment, about half of the some 14,000 terrorists whom Israel has granted early release over the past 35 years resumed their terrorist activity. Many of the 1,027 who were freed in exchange for captive soldier Gilad Schalit also went on to commit more attacks, despite assessments in Israel that they could be prevented from doing so.
Now that Israel is weighing another release of terrorist prisoners in exchange for the bodies of fallen soldiers Lt. Hadar Goldin and Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul, who were killed in Operation Protective Edge in 2014, and Israeli captives Avera Mengistu and Hisham a-Sayed, bereaved families who lost loved ones to freed terrorists are trying to keep it from happening.
Devorah Gonen, whose son Danny was murdered near the Samaria settlement of Dolev five years ago by two released terrorists, rejects any deal to release terrorists: "With or without blood on their hands, for reasons of justice and morality," she says.
"There are a lot more tactics that haven't been tried to bring the boys [Shaul and Goldin] home, but Israel has consistently avoided using them," Gonen says.
"Hamas in Gaza gets electricity and fuel and metals and money and food and other goods from Israel. All these are leverage that hasn't been used. I don't think that because we need to bring the boys home – and there is no argument that we need to – that means making accepting more bereaved families. We released Gilad Schalit and got 10 more bereaved families, whose loved ones were murdered by terrorists freed in that deal, or with their help," Gonen adds.
Gonen says she knows "absolutely" that the Goldin and Mengistu families oppose the release of terrorists.
"I wouldn't want to be in their place, but I don't what to be in my place, either, and I don't want other families to be where I am. The political leadership finally has to realize that by releasing terrorists, you are sending innocent civilians to be executed, if not tomorrow, then the day after … If I sound bad, then I apologize, but it's not a price I'm willing to let the country pay. Even the families who want to bring the boys home aren't willing to pay that price," she says.
Hadas Mizrahi, the widow of Baruch Mizrahi, who was murdered on Passover Eve of 2014 by Ziad Awad – another prisoner freed in the Schalit deal – back up what Gonen says. Mizrahi says that not only do freed prisoners go on to carry out more acts of murder, but that "their very release gives terrorism a tailwind, expands its scope, and invites other abductions."
Mizrahi wants the death sentence for terrorists who kill, and for Israel to enact the law that allows it to deduct the amount the Palestinian Authority pays terrorists and their families from the tax money Israel collects for the PA.
"What I went through and am still going through is a lifelong trauma. Baruch was murdered. I was very seriously wounded. My children, who were in the car, were also wounded. These are sights that never leave us, and I'm asking/pleading that the decision-makers not release any more terrorists, because they'll commit more murders," she says.
Yet another Schalit deal prisoner, Ahmad al-Najar, was involved in the shooting murder of Malachi Rosenfeld in June 2015. Al-Najar, a Hamas member, planned the attack from Jordan. Al-Najar had been in prison in Israel for his involvement in terrorist shootings that killed six Israelis. Malachi's father, Eliezer, wants Israel to reinstate its policy of an even exchange of bodies.
"If they don't agree to that, we need to show Hamas strength. No fuel, no metals, no money, no medicine, no electricity, no water; they will be given nothing, until the boys are home," Rosenfeld says.
Recently, Rosenfeld, Gonen, and Mizrahi, along with dozens of other families, established a group to fight deals that free terrorists. Its ranks include a few organizations that represent bereaved families as well as legal scholars and security experts who share their views.
One is Lt. Col. (res.) Maurice Hirsch, who until four years ago served as the IDF's chief military prosecutor for Judea and Samaria and spearheaded the process that founded up many of the recidivist terrorists who were freed in exchange for Schalit. He instituted the process after Mahmoud Kawasme, another prisoner freed in that deal, helped orchestrate the abduction and murder of three Israeli teens in June 2014.
Today, Hirsch heads the legal department for the watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch and offers this insight: "Every wave of releases gnaws away at our deterrence, and freeing terrorists leads to more terrorism that leads to more victims."
Q: Has anyone ever looked into the number of terrorists who are freed early who go back to terrorist activity?
"I spent a lot of years in the system, and my clear sense is that no one wants to know the answer to that question. I was involved in putting terrorists in prison, and I was involved in almost all the releases, and I don't know of any orderly work [on the matter] conducted in the past 20 years. Only when we started re-imprisoning terrorists freed in exchange for Schalit who went back to terrorism did we realize how widespread a phenomenon it was.
"I was amazed at the numbers. The deal itself was in two parts – at first 475 'major' terrorists, mostly to Gaza or abroad, with a few, about 130, returned to Israel and Judea and Samaria. About half of those returned to our territory resumed terrorist activity, as dozens of the 550 terrorists who were freed in the second part of the deal were re-arrested. Many others haven't been arrested because there wasn't enough evidence against them.
"It's terrible that the decision-makers still don't understand that the terrorists you release today will sooner or later return to murdering Jews. A lot of the freed terrorists are out there in Gaza or the world, committing terrorism, leading terrorist activity, and up to their necks in terrorism. The entire command chain of Hamas in Gaza, and this is well known, is comprised of terrorists released in the Schalit deal. It's an awful reality: terrorists in prison don't realize that what they did was morally unacceptable, and they certainly aren't 'rehabilitated.'"
While, as Hirsch says, there has been no systematic study of terrorists who go back to their old ways after being released, some data is available:
Since 1985, Israel has released thousands of terrorists as gestures, exchange deals, and in the framework of peace plans. About half of them resumed terrorist activity. Thus far, hundreds of Israelis have been murdered and some 3,500 wounded in attacks committed by these former prisoners.
The Jibril Deal of 1985 freed 1,150 terrorists who became the backbone of the First Intifada. According to a "sample" the Defense Ministry ran on 238 of those prisoners, 114 were confirmed to have gone back to terrorism.
Half or more of the 7,000 terrorists released following the Oslo Accords reintegrated into Palestinian terrorist infrastructure and took part in the Second Intifada.
Dozens of the terrorists freed in exchange for Israeli businessman Elhanan Tennenbaum also resumed their terrorist ways. As of April 2007, they murdered 37 Israelis.
Former Shin Bet security agency director Yoram Cohen, who supported the Schalit deal, stated frankly at the time that based on past experience, some 60% of prisoners released would go back to terrorism and 12% would wind up back in prison.
Dozens of Israelis have been murdered by terrorists freed in exchange for Schalit, or who helped the terrorists: Baruch Mizrahi, Gil-ad Shaer, Naftali Fraenkel, Eyal Yifrach, Danny Gonen, Malachi Rosenfeld, Rabbi Michael Mark, soldiers Yosef Cohen and Yuval Mor Yosef, and the infant Amiad Yisrael. The last three were killed in the Binyamin region in attacks that were planned from Gaza by Jasser Barghouti.
The possibility of another upcoming release of prisoners, even if they haven't committed murder or were re-imprisoned after the Schalit deal, haunts the bereaved families. A number of MKs have also taken up the banner, most notably Likud MK Maj. Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan. Dayan spoke before the Shamgar Commission, which was appointed by then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak to set policy on negotiating for the release of Israeli captives and MIAs. When the commission as founded in July 2008, it had already been decided not to publish its recommendations until after Schalit, who was abducted by Hamas terrorists on the Gaza border in 2006, was returned.
In 2012, the commission published its conclusions, but they were classified as top secret. The report has never been published in full, but some of its points have been revealed in the media, without approval from the commission. The commission determined that a captive Israeli soldier would be freed in exchange for no more than a handful of terrorist prisoners, and that a body of an Israeli casualty would be "redeemed" for one terrorist's body. According to the media reports, the commission supposedly decided on four levels of governmental obligation to Israeli citizens, in descending order: soldiers captured during a military operation; Israeli civilians captured as a result of terrorist activity; Israeli civilians who are taken captive after mistakenly crossing the border into Palestinian territory; and other civilians who mistakenly cross the border and are captured.
Dayan is currently working on a bill that would regulate the recommendations of the Shamgar Commission and warns against "an atmosphere we have already experienced, of paying insufferable prices that hurt all of us and especially many more families who become victims of terrorism, and even weakens our battle against terrorism."
"The first choice," Dayan says, "Is to free captives and hostages through military means, by force, direct or indirect, [or] if there is an operation in Gaza, even by abducting Hamas members, and I don't mean terrorists. That's what we did in the 1970s when we captured Syrian generals to free three pilots who fell into Syrian captivity.
"And one last thing, we need to leave the prime minister and defense minister some flexibility and not say that they are forbidden to do anything, because situations can develop in which terrorism is holding a live captive or captives, and I don't' think that Israel should say absolutely that we will not give up anyone in exchange for them," Dayan says.
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