In Israel, Terrorism Is a Meal Ticket
Toward the end of season two of Fauda, Hamas commander Walid Al Abed says in Shin Bet custody:
“In a few weeks they’ll get sick of me and put me in prison, where I’ll be treated like a king. Perhaps I’ll study for a degree, and in a few years’ time I’ll be released as a hero in the next prisoner swap.”
This attitude is likely shared by the killer of Staff Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky, Hy”d. A manhunt continues for the person who dropped a marble slab on the 20-year-old’s head last week during an arrest raid of terror suspects near Ramallah.
Amidst the mourning for yet another dead soldier, there is a sickening reality: Along with financial rewards by the Palestinian Authority, conditions in Israeli prisons invite such bloodshed. “Israel a ‘prisoners’ paradise,’ says American cable series,” read a headline from 2012, noting:
“…more than one convicted Hamas terrorist has been known to post on Facebook from a personal 3G smartphone, showcasing an upgraded cell with soccer banners, pets and stereo equipment. When not enjoying satellite Arab television, other ‘security’ inmates use smartphones to help friends pick out clothes to bring them in prison.”
A prison officer commented this year:
“You see gourmet meals, you see the chickens, the beans, you see the crazy amounts of food that they receive. Whether it’s truckloads of meat, or television with a thousand satellite channels…From the simplest activities of how to run the jail, and what punishments are, everything is coordinated with them. There’s no atmosphere of authority.”
The Almagor Terror Victims Association sums up the situation:
“As a result of the benefits received by imprisoned terrorists, there is ridiculous de facto discrimination whereby terrorist murderers receive conditions far better than Israelis who have been imprisoned for relatively minor offenses — and even better than the living conditions of many law-abiding Israeli citizens.”
The Fauda character’s remark about being “released as a hero in the next prisoner swap” brings to mind Yahya Sinwar. Sentenced to four life terms in 1989 and freed in the 2011 Shalit deal, Sinwar now heads Hamas in Gaza. He recently said about the attempted invasions of Israel from Gaza, “We will tear down their border and tear out their hearts.”
As for the character’s remark about studying for a degree, a former prisoner said in January on Palestinian Authority television:
“We have succeeded in turning the prisons into a revolutionary academy that turns out fighters and academics — there has been a rise in the level of the guidance within the prisons, full praise to Allah, in addition to Al-Quds Open University that we honor and appreciate. There has been learning there and it still continues; a number of prisoners are in third and fourth semesters and are preparing for a fifth semester…”
Thus the recent assessment of Dr. Hagi Ben-Artzi:
“Since the Jibril prisoner exchange thirty years ago [under Shimon Peres in 1985], we have had no deterrence. All the murderers know that jail is a joke. Thousands of terrorists sentenced to life sentences were freed after five years.”
When terrorists view prison as a luxurious sojourn, more brazen attacks should be expected. How many lives would be saved if they thought capture meant execution or lifelong deprivation?
