“A suspended mourning” is the description given by the National Campaign to Retrieve the Bodies of Martyrs and Prisoners’ Institutions to the situation that hundreds of Palestinian families are living in as a result of the occupation forces holding the bodies of their sons.
The committee said in a documentary report, a copy of which was obtained, that the issue of withholding the bodies of martyrs, along with the issue of the missing, remains one of the most brutal manifestations of Israeli crime, as it represents a violation of the rights of the martyrs and their families, and deprives them of knowing the fate of their sons, bidding them farewell, and burying them.
The campaign and the prisoners’ institutions added in a joint report on the eve of the National Day for the Recovery of the Bodies of Martyrs that the available data, in light of what Israeli media revealed about the detention of the bodies of about 1,700 martyrs, indicates that the number of martyrs whose identities are known to the campaign and the institutions is 799 martyrs, the last of whom was the martyr Fathi Khazem from Jenin, who was executed inside his home, and whose body was later detained.
She explained that among the 799 martyrs whose identities are known, there are 256 martyrs held in numbered graves, 99 martyrs who were prisoners, 81 children under the age of 18, in addition to 10 female martyrs.
Hussein Shuja’iya, coordinator of the National Campaign to Retrieve Bodies, that the people’s demonstrations are both a demand and a reminder regarding this important issue for all segments of Palestinian society.
Shuja’iya continued, “We remind ourselves and the world of this important humanitarian and national issue, which has intensified and escalated with the war of extermination on the Gaza Strip, where 1,700 lives are being held in numbered graves, secret sites, refrigerators, and the Tzede Teiman camp.”
Shuja’iya stressed that the national campaign documents the pain of the families and martyrs whose bodies are being held, and it is a great pain and suffering that the whole world must stand up to, as it is a humanitarian issue and is related to the families of thousands of martyrs.
Shuja'iya said that holding bodies produces a prolonged form of loss, during which families live in a state of "suspended mourning," unable to bid farewell to their sons and bury them, nor to close the circle of loss and begin the natural course of grief.
He added that the absence of the body deprives families of farewell and burial rituals according to religious and social beliefs, and keeps the question of fate present on a daily basis.
He pointed out that the shock may be compounded in cases where bodies are delivered frozen or bearing signs of injury or disfigurement, making the moment of retrieving the body, which was supposed to be the end of the wait, a new extension of the pain.
He stressed that the impact of withholding the body does not stop at the victim, but extends to his family, who are deprived of their right to mourn, burial, and farewell, and remain under the burden of waiting, conditions, and imposed procedures.
National Day for the Recovery of Martyrs' Bodies
The Palestinian governorates in the West Bank commemorated the National Day for the Recovery of the Bodies of Martyrs, with official and popular participation.
The national campaign pointed out that these figures reveal the wide scope of the policy of withholding bodies, and that it is not an occasional practice or related to specific cases, but rather a continuous policy that has been used for decades, and has worsened dangerously in the context of the aggression against the Gaza Strip and the accompanying widespread killings, enforced disappearances, withholding of bodies, and depriving families of knowing the fate of their sons.
She stressed that these figures cannot be considered final, given the incomplete documentation of the extent of the crimes, especially in the Gaza Strip, the continued existence of thousands of missing persons, the difficulty of accessing the victims' locations, and the ongoing policy of enforced disappearance.
She stressed that this places Palestinian and international authorities before an urgent task to uncover the fate of all the victims, identify them, and document the circumstances of their deaths and the places where their bodies are being held.
The campaign and prisoners’ institutions said that holding the bodies of martyrs represents one of the most cruel forms of control, as it transfers the act of punishment from the life of the Palestinian to after his death, and makes the body a means to keep the effects of the crime alive, and deprives his family of their right to bid him farewell and bury him according to their beliefs.
She added that this policy does not stop at holding bodies, but is accompanied in many cases by conditions and procedures imposed by the occupation authorities when handing them over, including burial at night, restricting the number of mourners, imposing an intensive security presence, requiring financial guarantees, or transferring the body to places far from the family.
She pointed out that farewell and burial ceremonies thus become an additional space for reproducing control and oppression, even in the most sensitive human moments.
In this context, the campaign and prisoners’ institutions raised the issue of the bodies of the martyrs of the Gaza Strip that were handed over, numbering 930 bodies according to the campaign’s documentation, demanding an investigation into the conditions of their detention and handling, and whether they were subjected to violations that affect the sanctity and dignity of the dead, including what was raised regarding the possibility of organ theft.
She called for an independent and transparent investigation, ensuring access to relevant medical and forensic evidence and data, and that the case not be closed before the full truth is revealed.
The campaign explained that the policy of withholding the bodies of martyrs dates back decades, noting that thousands of Palestinians have been buried since 1967 in what are known as “cemeteries of numbers,” which are secret sites about which families do not have enough information.
She added that in 2004 a directive was issued that temporarily restricted this practice, but it has returned on a wider scale since 2015, based on the British Emergency Regulations of 1945.
She noted that the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that there was no sufficient legal basis for withholding bodies, but it postponed the implementation of its decision and gave the government an opportunity to provide a legislative basis for this policy.
In 2018, the so-called “Counter-Terrorism Law” was amended to grant the police the authority to detain the bodies of Palestinians, before the Israeli Supreme Court returned in 2019, following a petition submitted by the Jerusalem Legal Aid Center, to permit the detention of bodies for “bargaining” purposes, according to the statement.
She considered that these developments reflect the shift of the practice from an exceptional and temporary procedure to a policy in which military orders, legislation and judicial decisions are integrated, thus consolidating control over the martyr’s body and turning it into a bargaining chip even after his death.
The campaign and prisoners’ institutions stressed that the detention of the martyrs’ bodies and concealing their fate affects human dignity and raises multiple violations within the framework of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including obligations related to respecting the dead and dealing with bodies with dignity, enabling families to know the fate of their relatives and respecting their religious beliefs and practices.
She stressed that the continued detention of large numbers of bodies, in conjunction with the thousands of missing persons in the Gaza Strip, imposes a double responsibility on the international community to ensure independent mechanisms for investigation, documentation, identification of victims, disclosure of the locations of bodies, and ensuring their recovery and handover to their families.
She said that every unidentified body means that the crime has not been closed, and that its effects are still felt in the lives of families waiting for truth and justice.
The National Campaign to Retrieve the Bodies of Martyrs and Prisoners’ Institutions demanded an end to the policy of withholding bodies, the immediate disclosure of the fate of all missing persons, the identification of the locations of the bodies and the identities of their owners, and ensuring their retrieval and delivery to their families.
It also called for independent investigations into the circumstances of the death, detention, and handling of the bodies, including any suspicions of desecration or tampering with the body.
She stressed that recovering the bodies of the martyrs is not just a demand of families waiting for their sons, but a matter of truth, dignity and justice, emphasizing that respecting the dead, recovering their bodies and the right of their families to bid them farewell and bury them should not be subject to compromise.
She called for turning the issue of bodies and missing persons into an urgent international issue, and for mobilizing broader Palestinian and international action to end this policy and hold those responsible accountable, and to guarantee the right of every family to know the fate of their son, to retrieve his body and bury him in a way that preserves his dignity and the dignity of his family.
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