In February-April 2013,
HaMoked filed ten petitions to the High Court of Justice (HCJ) demanding that Israel return to the families the bodies of Palestinians it has been holding for many years. These petitions joined HaMoked's previous petitions filed, starting from 2001, on behalf of other families waiting to receive their loved-ones' bodies, some of which are still pending.
Following the petitions,
the State announced on May 20, 2013 that the Minister of Defense, Moshe Ya'alon, had instructed the security establishment, with the Prime Minister's consent, "to resume negotiations with all relevant entities at the Palestinian Authority,
in order to speedily hand over to the Palestinian Authority all of the terrorists' bodies in Israel's possession" (emphasis in the original).
In a later statement to the Court, of August 15, 2013, the State Attorney's Office reiterated the defense minister's instruction to "act for the return of terrorists' bodies" and added that "in recent weeks, extensive staff work has been carried out, as part of which, inter alia, various aspects are examined relating to the manner of the bodies' exhumation and transfer, the identification level of the various bodies, and the question whether there is a need to improve the identification level and so forth." The State requested an additional extension from the Court, until November 2013, in order to submit another update on the matter.
In August 2013, it was reported in the
Ynet news website that "as part of the easing measures to the Palestinians, in view of the resumption of diplomatic negotiations, [...] Israel has consented to hand over to the Palestinian Authority the bodies in its possession." HaMoked wishes to recall that respect for the dead is part of the constitutional right of human dignity – established in both international law and the HCJ's case-law – and that respecting the rights of the families, seeking to bury their sons according to custom, is not a "diplomatic gesture" or an "easing measure", but rather Israel's obligation, and that in this context, political or diplomatic considerations are of necessity extraneous and illegitimate.
