Days of Palestine – Ramallah

Israeli occupation continues to violate the Palestinians’ rights even after being killed as they detain the bodies of the martyrs as a means of exerting pressure on their families – and subjecting the Palestinian people to the measures of occupation.

Not only does the Israeli occupation arrest the bodies of the Palestinians who were killed, but in most cases, they are going to demolish their homes, and arrest their families, moreover they are also attacking their mourning procession, as happened a few days ago at the funeral of the slain Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

On Friday, 13 May 2022, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) forcibly prevented a funeral march for Shireen Abu Akleh, the Al Jazeera journalist who was killed by IOF while reporting in the occupied West Bank, by attacking mourners carrying her casket outside of a hospital in her hometown of Jerusalem.

Not enough killing the Palestinians, and depriving their families of them, but also the Israeli occupation practices the collective punishment against them in the most egregious form of the practice of terrorism against civilians.

Happened in February 2022, Israeli occupying forces stormed the Shufat camp and demolished the home of the martyr Fadi Abu Shakhidam, which is located in an apartment building on the third floor.

The Bodies of Palestinian Martyrs Are Hostages in Occupying Refrigerators

The Israeli occupation forces are still holding the bodies of 105 Palestinian martyrs in refrigerators, in addition to 256 martyrs in the Numbers cemetery, including 9 children, 3 martyrs, and 8 prisoners who have spent various periods in the prisons of the occupation, according to the Ministry of Information.

In a report published by the Ministry in April 2022, they confirmed that the number of the bodies of the martyrs detained since the beginning of this year, according to data from the national campaign to recover the bodies of the martyrs, reached 13.

“The detention of the bodies – which constitute “premeditated killings of Palestinian citizens”, and are “crimes of extrajudicial execution “- in the graves of numbers and refrigerators of the occupation constitutes” an affront to the human dignity after his death, as well as collective punishment and is contrary to the principles of international humanitarian law and relevant international norms,” the Ministry stressed.

The Ministry stated that the Israeli occupation used the detention as a means of blackmailing the families of the martyrs, who were living in anxiety, fear, and anticipation for the fate of their sons, with the hope of meeting the latter even to say Goodbye.

Doubts about Israel Stealing Bodies of Palestinian Martyrs

The Palestinian families, whose sons’ bodies have been detained by the Israeli occupation, are waiting for a long period of time to bury the remains of their relatives without conducting an autopsy, as this is not possible with the frozen bodies.

Bassim Abdel Rahman Salah was one of the cases in which the occupying Power refused to carry out an autopsy when he was killed by IOF in the occupied city of Jerusalem.

When we first saw his body, Saad Salah (brother of the martyr Bassim) said, We were surprised by what we saw. We did not expect this. I was shocked because my brother was like a crucifying mold. Doctors could not dissect him. The families of the martyrs consider that the occupation requires that the bodies not be dissected may hide the theft of body members.

Recently, the Israeli occupation authorities have adopted a new policy of returning the bodies of martyrs to their families after being held for a period of time, and are frozen to 40 degrees below zero.

In her book On Their Dead Bodies, Dr. Meira Weiss uncovered the issue of organ theft of Palestinian martyrs and stated that between 1996 and 2002 Weiss was at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv for scientific research, where she saw organs being stolen, especially from Palestinians.

While at the institute, Weiss, an Israeli anthropologist, said I saw how they took organs from a Palestinian body, but not from the soldiers in return, adding that they took corneas, whipping, and heart valves, noting at the same time that it was not possible for unprofessional people to notice the lack of these organs, as they put the corneas in place of a plastic thing, and took the skin from the back so that the family would not see it.

In a report published by Al-Jazeera, they said that the Israeli Ministry of Health said that stealing body organs from Palestinians was happening in the past, but today they take members according to the law and with prior approval, (but the question is what approval the ministry talks about, from the families, from the court, or from whence?)

After Meira Weiss revealed what she saw behind these doors, the Israeli occupation claimed that they had stopped stealing the organs of the Palestinian martyrs, and baning autopsies for the return of the detained bodies.

Many questions for their families, because the occupation has never respected the sanctity of their neighborhoods in order to respect the sanctity of their dead.