Israeli Court Warns: Prison Policy Risks ‘Guantanamo’ Image

Sharp exchanges erupted inside Israel’s High Court of Justice during a closed-door session on Monday, as justices grilled National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over his decision to block Red Cross visits to Palestinian prisoners, including those convicted of the October 7 massacre.

Justice Yitzhak Amit warned that Israel’s international image is at stake. “Right now, what the world sees is that Israeli prisons are Guantanamo,” he said. “Reports abroad speak of starvation, of dozens of prisoners dying, of an ‘Israeli Guantanamo.’ And you are placing this Court on the front line.”

Justice Dafna Barak-Erez also took aim at Ben Gvir, arguing that Israel is violating long-held principles of transparency.

“Families of terrorists, even in Gaza, don’t know their relatives are imprisoned; they are ‘X prisoners,’” she said. “They committed heinous crimes, yes, but to conceal entirely that they are in Israel? Even in the darkest times, this never happened. A writ of habeas corpus requires information, and until now, this was always respected. Suddenly—zero information is passed on.”

Turning to the head of Military Intelligence, Barak-Erez pressed further:

“Are you truly such a weak organization that you cannot handle even a single representative of the Red Cross from the United States?”

The intelligence chief countered that even news of the court hearing itself had already spread inside prisons.

“The terrorists are discussing it,” he said. “They are hoping you will allow the Red Cross to visit them.”

The petition, filed by rights groups, challenges Ben Gvir’s directive to bar the International Committee of the Red Cross from entering Israeli prisons to monitor conditions of high-profile security detainees. The High Court is expected to issue a ruling in the coming weeks.