Freed terrorist: ‘Israeli wardens are our prisoners’

Palestinian solidarity has led to jails becoming universities for the prisoners in Israel, who feel they are in charge the country, Karim Younes told an Arab paper.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A Palestinian terrorist just freed from an Israeli jail told an Arab paper Sunday that the security prisoners are the ones in charge there, due to their strength and solidarity.

Interviewed by al-Araby al-Jadid, Karim Younes, who served 40 years for the murder of IDF soldier Avraham Bromberg, said, “Today, the warden has become a prisoner of the prisoner. In the beginning, the jailers used to impose themselves on us, as they controlled our daily lives…. [They] wanted to tame us.

“But the prisoners’ struggle was able to restore their collective life through organizations and unified leadership inside the prison, and they were able to confront this jailer to the point where the jailer became our prisoners.”

A prime example he gave of the excellent conditions enjoyed by the terrorists is their opportunity for continuing education.

“We have turned prisons into colleges and universities,” said Younes, 66, who obtained both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Regional Studies and Israeli Studies. He also published two books in his name from inside prison in 1990 and 1991, titled respectively The Political Reality in Israel and Ideology and Settlement.

The prison administration did put its foot down and prevented him from publishing research dealing with the structure of Israeli intelligence, he conceded.

Israel has allowed prisoners, including those convicted of serious security offenses, to take long-distance university-accredited courses for decades, from both Israeli and Palestinian institutions. At times the government forbade them from receiving academic degrees while serving their sentences, such as after the 2011 kidnapping of Gilad Schalit, the inmates managed to continue studying through Palestinian universities.

In 2018, then-Internal Security minister Gilad Erdan sought to take away many of the terrorists’ privileges, including higher education. Considering the severity of their crimes, he said, toughening their conditions was the right thing to do.

He also hoped that such a move would cause them to pressure Hamas to ease their conditions for the release of Israeli captives Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed and the bodies of IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin.

Erdan’s plan never came to fruition, in part because many in Israel’s security establishment doubt that the plan would succeed. Furthermore, the prison service almost invariably backs down whenever prisoners threaten to riot, over lack of privileges.

This state of affairs lends credence to Younes’ boast about who is in charge.

Younes and his cousin Maher Younis, who participated in Bromberg’s kidnapping and murder and was released two weeks after Karim, are Israeli Arabs from the town of Ar’ara. The Interior Ministry is currently working to revoke their citizenship and deport them.

Both are unrepentant regarding their murderous crime. Upon his release, Karim spoke of how “proud” he was for having “made sacrifices for Palestine,” and police took Maher in for questioning Saturday night over new social media posts inciting terrorism.

Arab terrorIsrael Prison ServiceKarim YounesPalestinian prisonersprison conditionsSecurity prisoners