PM Netanyahu raises possibility of limiting future hostages-for-terrorists exchanges by law

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again raised the possibility of implementing a years-old recommendation to legally limit the number of Palestinian prisoners the government can exchange for Israeli hostages, Ynet News reported.

The recommendations were authored by the 2008 Shamgar Committee, a commission of inquiry set up by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak to introduce legal limits on the negotiations concerning kidnapped Israelis.

Its conclusions were submitted to the government four years later but were never implemented.

On Thursday, Netanyahu reportedly raised the Shamgar recommendations during a cabinet discussion, noting that “there is no doubt that the deals to release terrorists in exchange for returning hostages during the war will incentivize kidnappings in the future.”

He also argued that “the war was extended by two years because of the hostage issue,” according to Ynet News.

Netanyahu reportedly even referred to a bill submitted by current opposition leader Yair Lapid around ten years ago, which includes the provision that “no more than one terrorist, including a terrorist convicted of murder under section 300 of the Penal Code, will be released in exchange for the return of one hostage.”

Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs expressed support for the idea of limiting future exchanges, citing the positive example of the "Elkin-Strock law," passed after the 2014 kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas.

The law prohibits releasing certain prisoners convicted of murder under aggravated circumstances, and Fuchs argued that eight prisoners initially slated for release in the recent hostage deals were ultimately not freed because of it.

The exact recommendations presented by the panel led by former Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar in 2012 remain classified to this day.

Discussions about the recommendations were reignited in 2017 when former Shin Bet official Yaron Blum was appointed as coordinator for negotiating the return of prisoners and kidnapped persons.

“I think this would help governments in the future to make healthier decisions, and to help Hamas understand that Israel won't be a sucker any longer,” Blum said about the Shamgar recommendations at the time.

According to Ynet, the recommendations included transferring responsibility for the issue of POWs and MIAs from the Prime Minister's Office to the Defense Ministry, to limit the number of prisoners released in return for a captive soldier to single digits, and to legislate that only human remains, and not living terrorists, be exchanged for the remains of Israeli citizens.

However, some have also argued against Israel imposing limits on itself during negotiations.

The family of fallen soldier Hadar Goldin, who was only recently returned, said in 2017 that the Netanyahu government had vowed it would not adopt the report “as long as there are soldiers and civilians in enemy hands.”

The families of Goldin and Oron Shaul, whose bodies were kidnapped by Hamas in 2014, said at the time that the Shamgar recommendations would mean putting an end to the IDF's image as “the army of the people.”

Yoav Gallant, who served as defense minister for most of the current war, said in 2017 while serving as housing and construction minister, “My personal view is that every soldier must be returned to the State of Israel, and a system in which you create limitations for yourself does not bind the other side. Even if the Shamgar Commission recommends and the government adopts, it could seal the fate of someone who fell captive to never be released because the other side won't agree to it.”

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