Terrorists will not receive the standard privileges in Israeli prisons under a new law being reviewed Sunday by the Knesset Legislative Committee. The proposal is intended to bring their conditions into parity with those being experienced by kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
Shalit has been held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza since his abduction in a cross-border raid on June 25, 2006, and has not been allowed any visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), his family or any other international representative, to ascertain his condition. The sole sign of life received by the State of Israel in recent months was a videotape released by Hamas terrorists a few weeks ago, that showed Shalit holding a current Arabic-language newspaper, in which he identified himself, said he was being treated well and expressed his hope that he would soon be allowed to return home.
Terrorists being held prisoner in Israel, by contrast, receive a monthly salary from the Palestinian Authority, in addition to food packages, gifts and visits from their family members and sometimes other important visitors as well.
The proposed legislation states that any prisoner who belongs to a terrorist group holding an Israeli citizen hostage, would lose the privileges normally accorded to an inmate in the Israel Prison system. The terrorist inmate would, however, still be granted the rights accorded him by international law.
The proposed bill would "do justice by ending the irrational situation in which Israeli citizens and soldiers are kidnapped by terrorist organizations and held in sub-human conditions, while at the same time prisoners who are members of the same organizations who participated in murderous attacks on innocent civilians, are held in superior conditions," according to the text.