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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <a
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href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-withholding-all-palestinian-bodies-killed-regardless-their-political-affiliations">middleeasteye.net</a>
<h1 class="reader-title">Defence minister: Israel to no longer
release bodies of Palestinians</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">By MEE staff - 27 November
2019</div>
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<p>Israel’s newly appointed defence minister, Naftali
Bennett, said on Wednesday that the Israeli army will
no longer release the bodies of Palestinians killed by
Israeli forces, regardless of their political
affiliations.</p>
<p>Bennett spoke to Israeli security heads, and Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the matter will be
discussed for the government's approval.</p>
<p>Israel’s policy of withholding the bodies of
Palestinians started since its occupation of the West
Bank in the 1967 Middle East war.</p>
<p>One such case is <a
href="https://www.kuna.net.kw/ArticleDetails.aspx?language=ar&id=2106078"
target="_blank">Mashhour Arouri</a>, a Palestinian
killed in 1976 whose body was released 34 years later.
He was one of 317 Palestinians and other Arab
nationals whose bodies were withheld by Israeli
authorities.</p>
<p>Mohammed Abu Sneineh, a lawyer working for Jerusalem
Legal Aid Center’s legal campaign, told Middle East
Eye that Israel has retained the bodies of at least 50
Palestinians killed since September 2015 when a wave
of attacks on Israeli soldiers in the West Bank and
occupied East Jerusalem began.</p>
<p>Abu Sneineh said that Bennett’s announcement will
legalise the Israeli security forces' practice. Some
of the cases had already been ruled on at the Israeli
Supreme Court in September.</p>
<p>The court had voted by a 4-3 majority for Israel's
right to withhold the bodies of 13 Palestinians killed
by Israeli forces in its custody and allow their
use as bargaining chips with the Hamas movement.</p>
<p>“According to the [current] Israeli law, the military
chief has the right to retain the body of the martyr
temporarily, but the date of the release is unknown,”
Abu Sneineh said.</p>
<p>He said the “legal board” to battle the Israeli
system and secure the release of the bodies of
Palestinians is becoming narrower. Abu Sneineh added
that some of the bodies have been buried in places
that can only be identified by the Israeli army, while
some remain in hospital mortuaries.</p>
<p>Adalah, the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in
Israel, said in a statement that "the instructions
issued by Defence Minister Bennett are an attempt to
trade in the bodies of deceased persons, who are
entitled to respect and burial. No country in the
world allows itself to hold and to use bodies as a
card for negotiations and political bargaining.</p>
<p>"These practices violate international humanitarian
law (IHL) and international human rights law,
including the UN Convention against Torture, which
absolutely prohibits such cruel, inhuman and degrading
treatment."</p>
<p>Bennett's announcement comes as Israel might
be gearing up for a third election if members of
parliament fail to nominate a person to form a
government in the upcoming days. Last week,
Netanyahu was indicted on corruption charges and
breach of mistrust.</p>
<p>Bennett, who was appointed by Netanyahu in early
November, has supported the <a
href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hardline-israeli-minister-calls-assassinating-hamas-leaders"
target="_blank">extra-judicial execution </a>of
Hamas leaders who rule the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>Just a few days into his new position as defence
minister, the Israeli army assassinated Islamic Jihad
commander Baha Abu al-Atta in an air strike on his
home in Gaza, leading to two days of fighting where 34
Palestinians were killed by Israeli air strikes,
including women and children, before a ceasefire was
agreed. </p>
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