Dozens of coalition MKs, ministers call on Herzog to free Jewish security prisoners

Members of Likud, Shas, Otzma Yehudit, Religious Zionism and UTJ make demand in response to Israel’s release of Palestinian terrorists under ceasefire deal

By Sam Sokol 28 October 2025, 5:57 pm

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Sam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"

Fifty-five coalition lawmakers and ministers signed a letter Tuesday calling on President Isaac Herzog to pardon Jewish security prisoners held in Israelis jails in the wake of the recent ceasefire deal, which saw hundreds of Palestinian terrorists responsible for dozens of deadly terror attacks freed in return for the release of hostages.

The letter, an initiative of far-right Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech, said that while its signatories do not in any way agree with the actions of those on whose behalf they are advocating, it is wrong that they remain imprisoned while Palestinian terrorists are allowed to return to their families.

The letter was signed by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock, Transportation Minister Miri Regev, Culture Minister Miki Zohar and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, among others.

Among the lawmakers who signed the letter are members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, as well as the Religious Zionism, Otzma Yehudit, Shas and United Torah Judaism parties.

“In recent days, the government of Israel has been releasing thousands of terrorists. It goes without saying that none of us desires the release of the terrible terrorists who have harmed so many families in Israel. However, the failure to release the Jewish prisoners constitutes a policy of discrimination against them,” the letter stated.

“A high percentage of released terrorists return to the path of terrorism while none of these Jewish prisoners have ever committed similar acts,” it claimed. “We call on you, Mr. President, to act immediately to release this handful of Jewish prisoners and to remedy this injustice.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (left) and MK Limor Son Har-Melech arrive for a court hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, on the petition of Adalah Human rights organization and MK Ahmad Tibi asking to allow the visit of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, on September 11, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

According to reports in August, Herzog was considering commuting the prison sentence of convicted murderer Ami Popper, who massacred Palestinian workers at a bus stop in Rishon Lezion in 1990, as a form of “balancing out” the potential mass release of Palestinian terrorists.

The president’s office did not respond to a request for comment regarding the lawmakers’ letter.

According to the Ynet news site, which first published the letter, it was the initiative of both Son Har-Melech and the Honenu legal aid organization, which advocates on behalf of multiple Jewish security prisoners, including Amiram Ben Uliel, who was convicted in 2020 of killing three members of the Palestinian Dawabsha family in a 2015 arson attack.

Son Har-Melech has previously called Ben Uliel a “holy righteous man” and said his imprisonment was a “crime.”

Honenu declined to comment when asked if it was connected to the initiative.

Asked if she was advocating for Ben Uliel’s release and if she supports freeing others convicted of murder, Son Har-Melech did not reply.

President Isaac Herzog speaks at the funeral of slain hostage Yossi Sharabi in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 27, 2025. (Paulina Patimer)

Instead, she sent The Times of Israel a statement arguing that “if murderous terrorists are released who return to terror time after time, including the murderer of my husband Shuli, and when it is clear to everyone that the terrorists released in this deal will also return to terror, there is no moral justification to keep Jewish prisoners in jail who, even if they erred in their ways, pose no danger to the public upon release. The time has come to correct this injustice.”

Shuli Har-Melech was murdered in a terror attack in the West Bank in 2003.

Asked why UTJ chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf signed a letter calling for the release of convicted criminals, Motti Babchik, a senior adviser to the lawmaker, replied that he “wouldn’t call them criminals.”

“When cruel, mass-murdering terrorist prisoners are released, there must be a corresponding release of Jewish security prisoners,” Likud MK Tally Gotliv asserted when asked about the initiative.

Netanyahu’s right-wing government has come under criticism for failing to stem violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

A masked Jewish extremist swings a slingshot while hurling stones at Palestinians who had gathered for the annual olive harvest season, during an attack by Israeli settlers on the Palestinian village of Beita, south of Nablus in the West Bank, on October 10, 2025. (Photo by Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP)

The Israel Prisons Chief commissioner and a close aide to Ben Gvir’s chief of staff were questioned under caution in September in connection with an investigation into a senior police officer who is suspected of deliberately failing to conduct proper investigations into Jewish extremism in the West Bank, in order to curry favor with Ben Gvir.

Last November, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced an end to administrative detention orders for West Bank settlers, meaning Israel would only use the controversial policy of holding suspects without charge against Palestinian terror suspects.

In January, Katz freed all West Bank settlers held under administrative detention orders, tying the move to the release of hundreds of Palestinian terror convicts as part of a previous hostage-ceasefire deal signed with Hamas.

“It is better for the families of Jewish settlers to be happy than the families of released terrorists,” he said at the time.