• CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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    7 months ago

    I mean, having a hostage generally implies your intent is to hold that person captive in exchange for a demand being fulfilled, after which point you at least claim that you will release them. Presumably, Israel doesnt intend or claim that it will release those it has imprisoned even if it gets what it wants, so calling them hostages wouldnt really be accurate. One could call the people held by Hamas prisoners too I suppose, since that just implies them to be held against their will, but as they are explicitly being held in order to be used as a bargaining chip, calling them hostages adds more information about the situation than just calling them prisoners too would.

    • GrymEdm@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      You make sense, and I sort of agree so I won’t downvote and just add my bit. The “prisoners” are definitely being used as negotiation leverage in every discussion with Hamas.

      • SuckMyWang@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        I know this goes against the grain of what is being portrayed but a prisoner is also someone who has done something wrong where a hostage is totally innocent

        • idiomaddict@feddit.de
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          7 months ago

          In that case, given that many of the people kept by Israel have never seen the inside of a courtroom, that would be a biased use of “prisoner.”

          • SuckMyWang@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            I agree there would be more innocent people than average in those prisons. I’m not under any illusion there aren’t some really awful people in there too.

            • idiomaddict@feddit.de
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              7 months ago

              There definitely are, but that doesn’t mean Israel is justified in locking them away without due process.