The images of fervent joy that accompanied the exchange of prisoners between Palestine’s Hamas and Netanyahu’s Israel have dominated the front pages of the news these past two days. I wish to bow my head to the Macchiavellian planners (though I doubt they would enjoy comparisons to Florence’s dastardly product) in Netanyahu’s entourage who must have convinced him to OK the exchange.
One man Gilad Shalit – a youth of 25 who has survived 5 years of prison “without seeing a human face” – was released in exchange of a 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. The exchanged occurred in Egypt and was purportedly the last chance Israel and Palestine had to make use of Egyptian mediation before the Muslim Brotherhood takes over the land of the Pharaohs. Netanyahu surprised many by accepting this exchange that seemed – on the face of it – hugely unbalanced in favour of the Palestinians. It was after all one man for one thousand. Wasn’t Israel short changed?
Not really no. Just following the news you will notice that this is a victory of sorts for Israel. Aside from the banale calculation that one French-Israeli is worth a thousand Palestinians there is a much more meaningful mediatic victory to ponder upon. Gilad Shalit. The man has a name. He has a story to tell. His five year ordeal of “not seeing a human face” has won precious airwave time reinforcing the image of a brutal imprisonment in the hands of the Hamas gaolers with faces covered. His emaciated look tells stories about the conditions of his hardship and much like the Chilean miners a few months back his personal, human story will hit home to many. And that story is the story of an Israeli conscript.
Contrast that with the busloads of Palestinian prisoners hanging out of the windows. This was a faceless herd. A rabble almost. Even the welcoming ceremony seemed to be improvised and there were few individual stories to be told.
Will we ever know their name? How many of us will be told that some of them have been hanging around Israeli prisons since 1993 and the Oslo Peace Accords? Yes. That’s 1993. Arafat and Rabin were alive and Bill Clinton was US President. It’s not 5 years ago. It’s more like 18. Sure. Some of them were imprisoned for committing heinous crimes and not abducted in an across the border raid. Not all of them though.
How many of us know that back in 2006 when Gilad Shalit was a fresh kidnapee, Israel refused to exchange all Palestinian women and children in prison for his release? What changed in the last five years?
One man for a thousand faceless prisoners. A bargain. Surely.
Picture source: BBC IMAGE
