Although Turkish officials repeatedly assured them that Turkey was ready to provide a second home to those who were recently deported from Israeli prisons through Egypt, arriving in Ankara shortly after midnight on Tuesday, Palestinians are concerned that the 11 are still in captivity since they were not able to go back to their homelands.
“Those people [11 Palestinian exiles in Turkey] are not in Turkey of their own will. They were forced to go there by Israel,” the head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, Qaddora Fares, noted in an interview with Today’s Zaman on Wednesday. “It [the release] is not a reward but a punishment for those Palestinians; they are in exile after all,” he stated and added that it was an Israeli plan to miniscule and overshadow the great success Hamas obtained over the Israeli administration.
Although Fares said it was not clear to him why these specific people were chosen to be deported, he expressed his belief that Turkey was chosen due to “the constructive role it played all along.” With regards to the exiled Palestinians, Fares said he was sure they were people who fought for their nation just like the other Palestinians and speculated that Israel chose to deport them because “they acted as leaders for the rest of their friends in Israeli prisons.” Fares said it was highly probable that they were people who helped their friends, especially weaker ones, stay alive in prison despite the conditions.
Fares also noted that it was not clear how long they would remain in Turkey, but it would be a difficult phase for them, since they would not be going back to their families, friends and homeland. “Maybe this process will continue until the day Palestine earns its freedom,” Fares said.
