Israel won’t pull the plug on Hamas prisoners’ live soccer

The High Court of Justice on Sunday rejected a petition seeking to bar Hamas prisoners incarcerated in Israeli prisons from watching the Euro 2016 soccer championship final between France and Portugal scheduled for later in the evening.

The ruling came in response to a request filed the family of a killed-in-action Israeli soldier whose remains are being held in Gaza, demanding the convicted operatives be barred from watching the Sunday night game.

“There is no legal impediment to security prisoners watching the European Championships final on Channel 2, which is a public channel, and the petitioners did not present us with any legal or factual basis to prevent a group of prisoners or anyone else from watching the game,” the court decision read.

The family of fallen IDF soldier Oron Shaul were protesting recent reported improvements to the conditions of some 3,500 prisoners from the Gaza-based terror group.

Those benefits include permission to watch the Euro 2016 soccer tournament, an increase from three to seven television channels, hard-boiled eggs at meals, and an additional NIS 200 ($51) for the canteen, according to a report by the Walla news site.

“What is the logic behind this miserable, bizarre decision?” wrote Herzl and Zehava Shaul in their petition. “Hamas continues to laugh at Israel throughout, from the hiding place of the two soldiers. The state must send Hamas a clear, unambiguous message — an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

Earlier on Sunday, the Israel Prison Service gave a similar response to the Shauls’ petition, saying that barring prisoners from watching public television was unprecedented.

“The game tonight is aired on Channel 2, and thus there is no difference between this and any other program broadcast on Channel 2, which is a public channel,” the IPS said in a statement.

Last week, the High Court shot down a petition by the Shaul family to cancel Israel’s recent rapprochement deal with Turkey, which they had sought to have conditioned on the release of their son’s body, as well as that of IDF soldier Hadar Goldin, who was also killed in the Gaza war in 2014 and whose remains were never returned.

Goldin’s family was not named in the court documents; nor that of the families of two Israelis believed to be held alive in Gaza.

The Shauls’ petition to the High Court was made after a letter sent last week to the prison services went unheeded. In a letter addressed to Prisons Service Commissioner Ofra Klinger and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, they said they were “shocked to discover” the decision to give thousands of Hamas prisoners a number of perks over the past month.

“It is unacceptable that Hamas prisoners will enjoy easy conditions and a host of benefits while the Hamas organization refuses to return our sons Oron and Hadar Goldin who were captured in Operation Protective Edge,” wrote the parents.

The families of Shaul, Goldin and Avraham Abera Mengistu — one of the captives who wandered into the Strip in 2014 and suffers from mental illness, according to his family — have rallied against a detente deal between Israel and Turkey inked two weeks ago, which allowed for the transfer of aid to Gaza via the port of Ashdod but did not stipulate the return of Mengistu and the remains of the two soldiers.

Last week, the families staged a protest at the main commercial crossing into the coastal enclave, as an initial shipment of Turkish aid was set to be transferred via the checkpoint.

The father of Hisham al-Sayed, the second Israeli held in Gaza, has called on the other families to cease their campaigns to pressure the government.

Sha’ban al-Sayed, whose a mentally ill son wandered into the Gaza Strip in April 2015 and has not been heard from since, told Army Radio on Tuesday that pressuring the Israeli government “will only hurt the interests of our boys.”