Since the daring escape by six security prisoners from Gilboa Prison, the airwaves have been flooded with hysteria, incendiary rhetoric, calls for revenge, demands that heads roll and horror scenarios. As if what happened at the beginning of the week, in the dark of night, just before Rosh Hashana, is an unparalleled event with massive implications. That is not the case.
What happened at Gilboa Prison was a tactical incident and not a matter of strategic importance. The Zionist project will not come crumbling down on account of it, although the Palestinians could certainly use it to try to break the diplomatic impasse. Israel, meanwhile, can and should do what it has declined to do in the past: leverage the prisoners’ issue in its favor. With or without them, it will remain the strongest power between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
The Prison Service is not solely at fault for the spectacular failure at Gilboa Prison. The fiasco is a consequence of many years of neglect from all of Israel’s governments, an outgrowth of faulty priorities, and the “trust me” culture of doing things in a hasty, slipshod manner. The “It’ll be fine” mentality is still very much present in our lives. The debacle shouldn’t only be blamed on the guard who fell asleep in the watchtower, on the dozens of prison guards who failed to notice the tunnel being dug, or on the Prison Service intelligence officers who completely missed the plot being cooked up right under their noses. Responsibility for the fiasco goes higher, to prison warden Freddy Ben-Sheetrit and to Prison Service Commissioner Katy Perry. They should draw the necessary conclusions, regarding their own positions as well. In the same breath, it must be said that the zeal for finding guilty parties at all costs, and in the narrowest possible sense, is another typically Israeli trait.
The Prison Service is the stepchild of the defense establishment. Those who serve in it do not enjoy the same special aura, prime work conditions and layers of support enjoyed by the Mossad, the Shin Bet Security Service, Unit 8200 or the IDF special units. Even firefighters and police, who work in two agencies just as sorely in need of improvement as the Prison Service, enjoy more prestige than prison guards. The profession of jailer, and it truly is a profession, is not very coveted, to put it mildly, with the result being that the level of personnel is generally lower than in the rest of the security agencies. Even so, the Mossad, Shin Bet and the highly lauded units, which have such lengthy and exacting admissions processes, have also seen their share of debacles – computers have gone missing, secrets have been stolen, betrayals and espionage have been exposed, there has been more than one Prisoner X – and in some cases, people have paid with their lives.
Prisons are destined to be broken out of. History is replete with tales of daring escapes by fugitives-turned-heroes. In its 73 years, Israel has experienced dozens of escape attempts, including by murderers and rapists. Palestinian prisoners have also tried (and mostly failed) to escape, from Gilboa Prison and other places. The most famous incident occurred in 1958, when an inmate revolt broke out at Shata Prison (near Gilboa), and 11 inmates and two guards were killed during the ensuing escape attempt. So, the current prison break should be analyzed in a colder and more calculated way, and not straight from the gut.
Israeli security forces in the Arab village of Na’ura during a search for six escapes prisoners, earlier this week.Gil Eliahu
It is also okay to admit that the brazen escape by the six, brutal terrorists though they are, captures the imagination, evokes awe and attests to a great deal of creativity, courage, willingness to sacrifice and, above all – a fierce desire for freedom. Between 1945 and 1948, Lehi and Irgun prisoners who were exiled to camps in Eritrea and Kenya tried eight times to escape, mainly by using tunnels they dug. The British considered them terrorists. Most were caught, but some, including Yitzhak Shamir and Aryeh Ben-Eliezer, made it to the shores of Djibouti and from there to France.
In the three days since the escape took place, the security establishment has leaked assessments that the six fugitives were liable to commit terror attacks. The six are indeed dangerous, and planned and oversaw lethal attacks in the past (though none of them directly murdered anyone). However, the last thing that fugitives want is to tangle with the law again. They will only turn violent if they get desperate and see no other way out. Moreover, presumably the four who have not been captured have already found refuge in the West Bank or managed to flee to Jordan or are trying to reach the border.
Security failures, sleeping guard: How did six Palestinians manage to escape heavily-guarded Israeli jail?
Fear and elation reign in Jenin after six of its own escape from an Israeli jail
Prison break has already derailed Palestinian and Israeli plans, and could end a precarious quiet
It is unlikely that either the Palestinian Authority or Jordan will turn them in, despite their close cooperation with the Shin Bet and the IDF. At most, if Jordan finds out that the fugitives are hiding in its territory, especially the five who belong to Islamic Jihad, it may expel them to Iraq or Syria and then inform Israel. That way, Amman can enjoy the best of both worlds.
The leaks to the effect that the six may commit terror attacks, combined with the message that the security establishment is seeking to catch them “dead or alive,” could be meant to serve a further purpose: a desire to see the six killed, even if the rest of them are found unarmed and turn themselves in. This must not happen – not just because it is against the law but because it could ignite a major conflagration in the West Bank and Gaza, causing the putative disaster scenarios to become reality.
The status of security prisoners is the most important issue in Palestinian society. It unites all the different factions and overrides all political and ideological disputes. According to the Prison Service and Hamoked – Center for the Defense of the Individual, there are more than 4,500 such prisoners in Israel. Of these, 2,520 are serving sentences, 1,474 are detainees who have yet to be convicted and 500 are administrative detainees being held without trial. In addition, there are over 100 Arab Israeli security prisoners and some Jewish security prisoners, such as Yigal Amir.
A policeman stops a car at the entrance to Beit She’an during a search for six escaped prisoners, earlier this week. Gil Eliahu
The security establishment and the media tend to create unwarranted panic and to paint things in the worst possible light. This serves their agenda. But the major debacle of the prison break, and the ensuing riots in prisons housing security prisoners, actually presents an opportunity to launch a broader move that includes dialogue with the PA and discussions about possibly releasing some of the prisoners, especially the older and sick ones.
Creative, outside-the-box thinking should lead the government and the army to realize that this unexpected crisis has also created an opportunity to dissolve the impasse and put the issue of the prisoners on the Israeli agenda, too. Not as reaction or surrender, but as an Israeli initiative. For example, Israel could propose releasing dozens of prisoners who have already served 20 years in return for certain arrangements with the PA and even with Hamas.
In the absence of any chance for peace, even small gestures such as this could have a calming effect and signal to the Palestinians that Israel is aware of the issue’s importance. But with the prime minister saying there will be no peace negotiations and his coalition partners unwilling to rock the government’s boat, there is very little chance of this happening.
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