Palestine

Israel is reportedly forcing over 150 Palestinians freed from Israeli prisons as part of the ceasefire deal into exile, in a move that experts say is a violation of international law.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office says that at least 154 Palestinians released on Monday will be exiled and deported to an unknown country, per Al Jazeera. Almost all had been residents of the occupied West Bank.

As Al Jazeera reported, families rejoiced upon hearing of their loved ones’ release, only to be devastated to hear that they would not be reunited with their family members, many of whom have been imprisoned for decades in Israel’s prisons and torture camps.

This is a violation of international law, experts said.

“Forcing Palestinian prisoners into exile in Gaza or abroad as a release condition, or expelling them post-detention, is a war crime under international law. This is exile, not freedom,” wrote Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor legal head Lima Bustami on social media.

Bustami noted that, with Israel controlling all of the borders of Palestinian territory, Israel has also prevented families from traveling abroad to see their exiled family members.

“Exile here is turned into a whole system of collective torture, to punish, to isolate, and to erase human connection itself,” Bustami said. “Exiling Palestinian prisoners is the continuation of captivity by other means…. This is not security; it is the anatomy of apartheid.”

“It goes without saying it’s illegal,” said Tamer Qarmout, public policy associate professor for the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, to Al Jazeera. “It is illegal because these are citizens of Palestine. They have no other citizenships. They’re out of a small prison, but they’re sent to a bigger prison, away from their society, to new countries in which they will face major restrictions. It’s inhumane.”