Israeli soldiers guard along a fence leading to Judea and Samaria, as part of search efforts to capture six Palestinian terrorists who escaped from Gilboa Prison earlier this week, by the village of Muqeibila in northern Israel, September 9, 2021. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo

Another Palestinian libel bites the dust.

For decades, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has demonized and libeled Israel, claiming that terrorist prisoners are tortured, medically experimented on, and deliberately neglected.

However, according to the people who know — the terrorist prisoners themselves — Israeli prisons were normal, complete with ammenities.

Two released Palestinian terrorists have told official PA TV that life in the Israeli prisons was “a normal, regular life” with “everything available — TV, radio, and daily communication with their families. In fact, they both describe prison life as so strikingly positive that  the imprisoned terrorists were the ones who ruled, making demands of the Israeli prison guards.

One released Palestinian terrorist, Khaled Abu Amsha, bragged that before the Oct. 7 war, the prisoners controlled the Israeli prisons and the guards, “commanding them” and “giving them orders”:

Official PA TV host: “Khaled [Abu Amsha], what message do you wish to convey to our prisoners [i.e., terrorists] inside the prisons of the occupation [i.e., Israel]?”

Released terrorist Khaled Abu Amsha: “In the period before the [Oct. 7] war, the prisoner was actually the jailer. He would give orders to the [Israeli] jailer himself: ‘Open this door for me, put me in here, take me there.’ He was the one commanding the jailer. He was the jailer, and the jailer was the prisoner. Today the situation is different, but with Allah’s help, it will return to that state.”

[Official PA TV, I Call You, May 24, 2026 and July 12, 2026]

Earlier, another released terrorist prisoner, Shadi Barghouti, similarly bragged that before Oct. 7, the Israeli prison guards and the police were the terrorists’ “servants,” willingly fulfilling their demands in exchange for quiet:

Released terrorist prisoner Shadi Barghouti: “Our condition [in Israeli prison] before Oct. 7, 2023 was a normal, regular life. True, it was imprisonment, but we had a living space, we communicated [with the family].” …

Official PA TV host: “There are televisions.”

Shadi Barghouti: “There are televisions. There’s everything. Everything is available.”

Host: “Radio.”

Shadi Barghouti: “In the prisons, the prisoners had the control. We had the upper hand. We controlled the Israeli Prison Service or the prison management and the police. They were our servants. They looked for us to be satisfied, [saying:] ‘The most important is we just want quiet.'”

Host: A stable situation.”

Shadi Barghouti: “Yes, quiet for quiet. We in the prisoners’ movement knew [that] if you [the IPS] want quiet, give us our rights and [what we want]. The achievement that we especially succeeded with was the cell phones… Every day there was contact with the family in spite of them, why? Because they knew what the response of the prisoners’ movement would be [if not]. But after Oct. 7, everything changed.” [emphasis added]

[Official PA TV, War Documents, Feb. 15, 2025]

The truth is now out. Not only aren’t terrorists suffering in Israeli prisons — but they live a routine life. It’s true, Israel has cut back on some of the luxuries since Oct. 7, but taking away luxuries is the way it should have been for terrorists in the first place.

And according to these released terrorists who spent more than 20 years in Israeli prisons and many other terrorists’ testimonies, before Oct. 7 they did whatever they wanted.

In their words: “He [the prisoner] was the one commanding the jailer. He was the jailer, and the jailer was the prisoner.”

The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.