HaMoked has long been acting for the return of bodies of Palestinian fatalities held by Israel to their families, to allow their proper burial according to their customs and faith. In 2014,
Israel returned 91 bodies it had been holding as part of a political gesture to the Palestinian Authority. But Israel still holds many other bodies of Palestinian fatalities, killed in differed times. Thus, inter alia, in a letter from March 24, 2015, the military admitted to holding 19 bodies of Palestinians killed during the war in Gaza in the summer of 2014.
On February 26, 2014, HaMoked was contacted by a family from Bethlehem, seeking help in retrieving the body of one of the family who had died in the perpetration of a terror attack back in 2002. The family had acted that same year to have the body returned, and in a letter to Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi, the Minister of Defense had guaranteed that the military was acting to return the body, but it had remained in Israel's possession. And so, on March 1, 2014, HaMoked wrote to the military to request the body's return.
On May 14, 2015, after its repeated letters on the issue were left unanswered,
HaMoked petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ) to instruct the military to return the man's remains to his family. HaMoked stressed that respect for the dead – regardless of the deceased's identity and actions in life – forms an integral part of the principle of human dignity, established in both Israeli and international law. HaMoked also noted that the violation of the family's right to bring the body of their loved one to proper burial in recognised cemetery had been continuing for a very long time. Finally, HaMoked argued that the military had failed to meet the tests of proportionality and proper purpose that bind the military commander's discretion in deciding not to return the body.
