Karim Younis, this Thursday in the city of Ara, shortly after his release from prison. DPA via Europa Press (DPA via Europa Press)
Karim Younis, one of the longest consecutive Palestinian prisoners in an Israeli prison, was released early Thursday morning after serving a 40-year sentence. The release of the 66-year-old man, known as the “Dean of the Prisoners,” comes days after the most right-wing government in Israel’s history took office, which has vowed to tighten crackdowns on Palestinian inmates. Some of their ministers have proposed measures such as deprivation of citizenship or even the death penalty in the most serious cases.
Originally from Ara, a predominantly Palestinian town in northern Israel, Younis was arrested with two relatives in 1983 and charged with the kidnapping and murder of an Israeli soldier in the occupied Golan Heights three years earlier. The Palestinian was initially sentenced to death, but his sentence was later reduced to life imprisonment and eventually increased to 40 years. According to the Commission on Affairs of Palestinian Prisoners and Former Prisoners, Younis was the Palestinian prisoner who has served the longest time in Israeli jails, followed by his cousin.
Younis told Qatari chain Al Jazeera after leaving prison that Israeli prison officials came to his cell this morning to tell him he was being released. Several Palestinian and Israeli media outlets have reported that the trial was conducted at dawn to avoid celebrations around the prison north of Tel Aviv where he was serving his sentence. And with the same intention, the Palestinian was released at the bus station in a nearby town.
The Palestinian was received a few hours in his hometown by relatives and numerous supporters, and videos broadcast on the networks show him arriving amid cheers and songs on another man’s shoulders, draped in the emblematic black and white keffiyeh. In other images, he appears raising the Palestinian flag. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh have celebrated his release in two statements collected by the official WAFA news agency.
Karim Younis celebrates his release, this Thursday in Ara.DPA via Europa Press (DPA via Europa Press)
“I have offered 40 years of my life as a sacrifice for my people and all prisoners have the strength and devotion to offer this for the freedom of their people,” Younis said in one of his first statements to the media to which WAFA has reported. Younis also addressed words to the Palestinians who are behind bars: “I came out of prison and left my heart with my fellow prisoners who carry their bodies on their backs and walk with the death that walks with them.”
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Commitment to the struggle of the Palestinian people
During his time in prison, Younis earned degrees in political science and Middle Eastern history, wrote two books, and remained deeply involved in the struggle of the Palestinian people and the cause of his imprisoned compatriots. He is also known for taking part in many of this group’s actions, including hunger strikes, the last of which lasted 42 days, in 2017. Palestinian media have also highlighted how Younis saw life behind bars pass during that time In 2013 his father died first and then his mother six months ago. In both cases he was not allowed to attend their funerals. In 2017, Abbas appointed Younis to the Central Committee of the Fatah formation.
Younis was set to be released a decade ago under a deal brokered by then-US Secretary of State John Kerry that included the phased release of Palestinian prisoners long held in Israel. However, most of those released by the Israeli authorities were Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, while most Palestinians from Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, like Younis, were never released, Palestinian media recalled.
“These moments are indescribable and my feelings are so hardened that I no longer feel what I feel. I can’t express my feelings; It’s my first time seeing outer space and I see the world in it changing. I came to a different world than the world I left,” Younis said after his release.
His release from prison comes days after the formation of the most right-wing government Israel has ever known, which has vowed to take even tougher action than the current ones against Palestinian prisoners in the country. There are currently around 4,700 Palestinians in Israeli jails, including 150 minors and more than 800 without charge or trial, according to a census by the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
The new interior minister, the ultra-Orthodox Aryeh Deri, this Tuesday raised the possibility of Younis having his Israeli citizenship revoked, claiming he is using it to harm the country. In the same vein, a group of MPs elected in last November’s general elections is finalizing a bill that would allow convicted terrorists to have their citizenship revoked.
The Minister of National Security, the Ultra Itmar Ben Gvir, who oversees the police and who sparked controversy and several international condemnations last Tuesday for walking through the sensitive esplanade of Jerusalem’s mosques, has even suggested applying the death penalty to Palestinians found guilty for killing Israelis.
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