Israeli captives get headlines, Palestinian prisoners get graves

The international response to prisoners in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reveals a glaring hypocrisy. Israeli captives in Gaza receive global media coverage, diplomatic pressure, and urgent appeals for their release. Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinian prisoners—including children, journalists, and medical professionals—are held without charge, subjected to torture, and even killed in Israeli custody, all while the world remains indifferent.

This blatant double standard is no accident; it is a calculated bias that reinforces Israeli supremacy while silencing Palestinian suffering.

Death in Israeli custody: A silent massacre

Since October 7, 2023, at least 59 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli custody under suspicious circumstances. Their names barely register in international media, while Israeli officials operate with impunity. The world watches in silence as Israel's prison system turns into an execution chamber for Palestinian prisoners.

One of the latest victims is Musab Hani Haniyeh, who was killed by his Israeli captors a few days ago. His death is not an anomaly - it is part of a systematic policy of abuse that includes severe beatings, starvation, exposure to extreme temperatures, and deliberate medical neglect. Yet despite these grave human rights violation, no Western government has called for an independent investigation.

Contrast this with the response to Israeli prisoners in Gaza. As soon as reports of their conditions surfaced, the United Nations, the US and European powers rushed to condemn Hamas, calling the detentions a "war crime”.

Where are these voices when Palestinians are tortured and murdered in Israeli cells? Where are the emergency UN meetings when Palestinian bodies leave Israeli prisons in coffins?

The torture chamber

The Israeli prison system does not simply detain Palestinians, it crushes them. Administrative detention, a draconian policy inherited from British colonial rule, allows Israel to imprison Palestinians indefinitely without charge or trial. And it’s a policy that disproportionately targets activists, students, and professionals.

Take Dr. Husam Abu Safiya, a medical professional who was abducted from his workplace at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. Arresting healthcare workers in conflict zones is a blatant violation of international law, yet Abu Safiya's ordeal barely made a ripple in the Western media. The world watches in silence as Israel turns hospitals into hunting grounds for political persecution. Palestinian doctors and journalists are routinely arrested, accused of vague “security threats,” and subjected to horrific conditions.

But those who survive imprisonment often leave with scars - both visible and hidden.

Consider Mohammed Abu Tawila, a recently released Palestinian prisoner. His body bears the gruesome marks of hot-iron burns, electric shocks, and deliberate facial disfigurement. These are not the actions of rogue officers; they are part of an institutionalised policy of torture well documented by human rights groups such as B'Tselem, Addameer, and Human Rights Watch.

Israel's use of torture, prolonged isolation, and forced confessions is in direct violation of the Convention Against Torture, to which it is a signatory. Yet the same Western governments that lecture the world about human rights continue to fund, arm, and shield Israel from accountability.

A death that should have rocked the world - but didn't

In May 2023, Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan died after an 86-day hunger strike - a desperate act to resist his indefinite administrative detention. A political prisoner, Adnan chose to fight his oppressors with the only weapon he had left: his body. He was left to die in his cell, denied medical care until his organs shut down.

His death should have sparked outrage. It should have led to international calls for sanctions, investigations and accountability. Instead, the world's institutions remained frozen, their silence louder than any statement they could have made. Within months, his story was buried beneath the headlines of Israel's war on Gaza, fading into the void of forgotten Palestinian suffering.

Compare this to the immediate global mobilisation for Israeli prisoners. When an Israeli soldier is captured, governments around the world demand his immediate release. When a Palestinian prisoner dies in a cold, dark cell after 86 days without food, the world shrugs its shoulders.

Politics of prisoner release

Another glaring difference between the treatment of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners lies in the politics of their release.

While international pressure often leads to the release of Israeli prisoners, Palestinian detainees are only freed in exchange for steep political concessions—usually after massacres and intense military offensives.

Each exchange is preceded by mass arrests, bombings, and brutal crackdowns on Palestinian communities. The world never demands that Israel release unlawfully detained Palestinians, despite clear violations of international law. This is not diplomacy - it is a ransom paid in blood.

This discrepancy is further reinforced by media narratives. Israeli prisoners are labeled “hostages” or “kidnapped soldiers,” evoking sympathy and urgency. Palestinian detainees, even if they are children or humanitarian workers, are branded as “terrorists” or “security threats.”

This manipulation of language is deliberate. It is designed to criminalise any attempt by Palestinians to resist the occupation by stripping them of their legal status as political prisoners. The goal is clear: to ensure that Palestinians are seen as criminals, never as victims of an occupying power.

Media bias

Israeli prisoners receive constant Western media attention. We see them on our screens sitting for in-depth interviews with their families; then there are the emotional appeals from world leaders, and urgent calls for action. Meanwhile, Palestinian prisoners - who endure far worse - are reduced to nameless statistics, if acknowledged at all.

This selective coverage is not only biased - it is part of the war on Palestinian existence. If a Palestinian prisoner is tortured in an Israeli cell and no one reports it, does the crime even exist?

But it’s not just the media, human rights institutions have also failed Palestinians with their double-speak.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has jurisdiction over crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, yet it has done nothing to address Israel's systematic torture of prisoners. Similarly, the United Nations, the European Union, and Western human rights organisations frequently condemn abuses worldwide - but when it comes to Palestinian prisoners, they remain complicit in their silence.

This is not ignorance. It is a calculated refusal to hold Israel accountable.

The path to justice

If international law is to mean anything, it must be applied equally. Justice cannot be selective. The path to justice is clear, and it begins with a global reckoning.

Human rights organisations and independent journalists must prioritise Palestinian prisoners in their reporting and advocacy. Governments that claim to uphold human rights must impose real consequences on Israeli officials responsible for torture and extrajudicial killings. News outlets must be challenged for their biased reporting, and the suffering of Palestinian prisoners must be made as visible as that of any Israeli prisoner. The same international pressure that dismantled apartheid in South Africa must be brought to bear on Israel's apartheid prison system.

The hypocrisy in the world's treatment of Israeli and Palestinian prisoners is a moral failure of staggering proportions. While Israeli prisoners are humanised, fought for, and rescued, Palestinian prisoners are ignored, demonised, and left to rot.

How many more Palestinians must die in Israeli custody before the world stops looking the other way?