Israel’s Denial of Palestinian Grief: Detaining Bodies as Bargaining Chips

Israel withholds hundreds of deceased Palestinians’ bodies as bargaining chips, depriving their families of the right to bury their loved ones and grieve. In this episode, Budour Hassan, a researcher at Amnesty International who focuses on Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, and Adalah’s General Director, Dr. Hassan Jabareen, discuss Israel’s policies and practices of detaining and degrading the dead.

 

“Since collective memory and shared public grief have always been central to the Palestinian narrative, erasing this memory and freezing grief are seen as important pillars in Israel's architecture of repression”, wrote Budour Hassan in a report she authored during her previous role at the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center. The report, titled 'The Warmth of Our Sons’, is available here.

Budour and Hassan explore the colonial origins of this policy, the legal framework that supports it, Supreme Court’s decisions on this policy and its application to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Israeli citizens. They also reflect on the impacts of this policy on the families and the Palestinian population at large.