New Law Would Prevent Family Visits to Hamas Terrorists

The Knesset has passed on its first reading a law that would prevent visits by family members of terrorists in Israeli prisons. The law, proposed by MK Oren Hazan (Likud), would prevent such visits to terrorists who are members of groups holding Israelis prisoners that deny them visits.

Terrorists in Israeli prisons are regularly visited by family members, representatives of human rights groups, the Red Cross, and others. Israelis held by Hamas in Gaza, on the other hand, are not even visited by the Red Cross, and it is not even clear if the terror group is actually holding some of the missing Israelis it claims to be holding. The law, said Hazan, would balance the situation, at least to some extent.

According to Hazan, “if we do not respect our national dignity no one will do it for us. Halting the visits of family members of terrorists is just the first step in making life more bitter for the murderers in our prisons, and thus enable us to discourage others and prevent terror. To me, the death penalty is too kind. I would put them in a one meter by one meter cell, and allow them to see the sun exactly one hour a week.”

The law, said Hazan, “will provide a response to the imbalance between the conditions terrorists have in Israeli prisons, and the conditions that Hamas has imposed on the Israelis it holds – Shahin al-Sa’id, Avraham Mengistu, Hadar Goldin, and Oron Shaul.”