Withholding Palestinians’ remains not befitting Israel
Caretaker Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, perhaps trying to maximize his time in office, has offered up discarded ideas on security that put Israel in the position of violating human rights and dignity.
Israel’s political right is convinced it has the solution to terrorism and that implementing it will wipe out, once and for all, the security threats the country faces without making peace with the Palestinians. Their would-be solutions have encompassed a variety of ideas, including instituting the death penalty for convicted terrorists, demolishing the family homes of assailants captured or killed while committing terrorist acts, sealing off attackers' homes, and to top it off, threatening to withhold the bodies of perpetrators from their families.
Israel’s caretaker defense minister, Naftali Bennett, appointed Nov. 10 after eyeing the post for several years, has probably asked himself how he can make his mark in the short time at his disposal, before a new government is formed and he finds himself out of a job. This appears to explain why he declared on Nov. 27 that Israel would no longer return the bodies of assailants to their families unless the Palestinians hand over the remains of two Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza. An exception for the bodies of minors might be considered, Bennett said.
Bennett’s idea is neither original nor new. It has been debated and discarded several times, even though, according to Israel’s interpretation, it does not violate international law.
Over the years, politicians primarily from the hawkish side of the political map, though not solely, have sought to promote “absolute solutions” to the scourge of terrorism. The army and Shin Bet have generally opposed their ideas as being ineffective in terms of deterrence as well as potential triggers for violence among the Palestinians.
