HaMoked has been fighting a lengthy
legal battle to have Israel return the bodies of Palestinians it is holding to their families so that they may be brought to proper burial.
On May 20, 2013, as part of proceedings in petitions HaMoked filed on this issue,
the state announced that the Minister of Defense had instructed security officials to "resume negotiations with the relevant officials in the Palestinian Authority,
with a view to transferring to the Palestinian Authority all the bodies of terrorists in Israel's control as soon as possible (emphasis in original). Over the next two months, progress was made and most of the bodies regarding which HaMoked had made requests were forensically identified.
On January 19, 2014,
the state notified HaMoked that the first body would be transferred to the Palestinian side along with the results of the tests that verified the deceased's identity.
HaMoked hopes that the process of returning the bodies will be completed, ending a legal battle that has lasted many years. HaMoked stresses that respect for the dead forms part of the constitutional right to human dignity, which is anchored in both international law and the rulings of the High Court of Justice. Upholding the right of families who wish to bury their loved ones in accordance with custom and tradition is not a "mitigating measure", or a "political gesture", but rather a duty on Israel's part. In this context, political and diplomatic considerations, weighed by Israel in the past, are inherently extraneous and unacceptable.
