Media language in the middle east

[Perfect28]

Why are Israelis 'hostages' but Palestinians are 'prisoners held without trial'?

Also why are 20 Israeli hostages the same value as 2000 Palestinian prisoners, why do they have so much more value?

Because Palestinian lives are worth less than Israeli/ non Muslim ones at a ratio of 200:1 it seems.

Its not media language, they are definitions. Taking hostages is illegal under international law. A hostage is defined under the 1979 International convention against taking of hostages as a person seized and detained, accompanied by a threat to kill, injure, or continue to detain them, in order to compel a third party (such as a state or organization) to do or not do something as a condition for the hostage's release.
There are a whole range of Palestinians detained in Israel. Some are convicted criminals, murderers, terrorists. So not hostages. Some have been detained on suspicion of criminal activity, so not hostages. Many of them are no doubt innocent but its the intention or purpose of seizing/arresting them them that is the difference.

And yes, Israelis do place a far greater value on their citizens than Hamas do on theirs as we see time and time again.

If you are really curious about this question, you could look up the definitions of both. Then ask yourself questions such as- how were they taken? Why were they taken? Where were they taken and how were they held? How reliable is what I'm reading given the source of the information? Then you can see how the facts lead you.

As for the discrepancy in numbers... again you'd need to think about the relative value placed on the people being released by the groups negotiating on their behalf. And the balances of power. And the reasons why the power is balanced / unbalanced thus.

All you'll get on here ( which I think you probably know ) is disagreement based on opinions. Much better to research the facts and come to your own conclusions.

Start with the definitions.

And yes, Israelis do place a far greater value on their citizens than Hamas do on theirs as we see time and time again.

@SharonEllis The OP is about which lives the media places most value on so your “And yes” point makes no sense.

Out of interest, do you consider a Palestinian live to have the same value as an Israeli life?

Of course?!

The media didn't decide the numbers. The media reported the numbers.

The negotiators decided the numbers.

So its worth thinking about how and why those numbers were arrived at.

in which case that is blatant racism and Israel under the peace deal should only be allowed to release Palestinian on a one for one basis - ie 20 Israeli hostages for 20 Palestinians.

Anything else is racist.

My opinion is of no significance though. As @dairydebris points out above the significant opnions are those belonging to the people negotiating. We know Hamas cares nothing for its own citizens, after all we know that they have been murdering them over the last few days.

It doesn’t really matter what posters on MN think.
Israel was prepared to release 1900 Palestinian detainees for 20 Israeli hostages, despite some people on here saying it didn’t care about the hostages.
Would you rather it only released 20 Palestinians in return?

Because it’s all about dehumanising Palestinians. Always been the case. Never give them a name, an age or use their picture. Speak about them generally like a statistic.

Just deal in the cold, hard ‘facts’. Because sadly the world sees them as less.

But social media changed that. We know their names, their stores and about their dreams and hopes.

Exactly.

Do you know the names of the people Hamas has murdered since the ceasefire?

And we must not ever forget. The world needs to remember what they have witnessed over the last two years.

Yeah... Hamas are having a jolly old time since the ceasefire, rounding up and shooting "dissidents". They're doing a great job dehumanising Palestinians without outside participation.

But many of the pro Palestinian lobby have no problem with this as there are no Jews involved.

However I don't think it's much consolation to Gazan civilians currently being killed by Hamas.

How did you reach this conclusion? Surely it shows that Israelis are very valuable to Israelis.

I was reading this morning about one of the Palestinian prisoners on the release list - he comes across as more than just a statistic.

His name is Ahmed Mahmed Jameel Shahada, a Palestinian prisoner from Gaza convicted in 1989 for the rape and murder of a 13-year-old boy. All 250 Palestinian prisoners released yesterday were convicted for being involved in the murderer of Israelis, some were rapists too.

The Israeli hostages by contrast were not criminals they were just ordinary people (many at a music festival) who were taken hostage by Hamas.

Also apposite to refer to the release of hostage Gilad Shalit, 10/11 years ago - exchanged for 1,027 prisoners, one of whom was the lovely Yahya Sinwar.

Many, if not most, of the Palestinians released yesterday were taken from Gaza during the war and held without trial'. Their release formed part of the negotiations. I fail to see the difference.

You can't understand why Israel would have arrested a lot of people during a brutal war following a mass terrorist attack that saw over a thousand murdered and hostages taken? The fact that their release formed part of the negotiations doesn't mean they were taken as hostages.

250 of them were prisoners convicted of horrible crimes.

The difference between the others - Palestinian detainees versus Israeli hostages has been explained to you above - it's official definitions not made up "media language".

If you can't understand the difference then there is nothing anyone on MN can really do to help you with that.

So in this case you can look up 'prisoners of war' and 'hostages' and see if you can figure out what the difference is, and if these terms have been used correctly.

Unless you've already made up your mind?

This.

Start with Google definitions @Perfect28

That wouldn't go down well with pro hamas who want prisoners back, especially high profile long sentence murderers, to give positions in hamas leadership. They are rearming and killing anyone who is against hamas, so poor Palestinians who don't want hamas, have little change of genuine freedom!