Article published in The Daily Telegraph, 9 April 2025. © Richard Kemp

As the IDF intensify their campaign in Gaza while 59 hostages remain in Hamas captivity it is time for some fresh thinking. Eight thousand Palestinian prisoners held by Israel should be committed into deradicalisation programmes outside the country. Their families can go with them. In return – release all the hostages. On its face that might sound crazy, but such programmes have worked elsewhere and, if successful, large-scale deradicalisation of prisoners could also pave the way for wider stability, beyond the failed Western ‘solutions’ which have been no such thing.

The Israel-Palestinian conflict is not a war over land, sovereignty or civil rights. That would be a lot simpler to deal with. Throughout history, societies and nations at war have adapted and reconciled, learning to live in peace with neighbours with whom they have fought vicious, long term conflicts. The root of today’s problem in the Middle East is a radicalised Palestinian population that for decades has been indoctrinated to hate Jews and taught that they have a religious duty to exterminate them and destroy their state.

This has come from within Palestinian society and across the Middle East, often wittingly or unwittingly encouraged by the Western world. In truth the Palestinian Arabs have been used and abused as a weapon against the Jewish state and that remains the case today. Consequently, the Palestinians are now one of the most radicalised societies on earth.

How often have we heard the lazy aphorism that you can’t defeat an ideology? Tell that to the Nazi Party and Imperial Japan. As they were, Hamas and its fellow jihadists in Gaza are in the process of being militarily defeated, and when that is complete their ideology will no longer have the direct capability to inflict harm on their enemies. But the ideology itself will remain and what is left of its leadership will do their utmost to rearm and rebuild what they have lost. The same is true in the West Bank.

So rather than wringing our hands and repeating decades-old and demonstrably unachievable peace formulas, the civilised world should now unite in a concerted effort to deradicalise the Palestinians. Arab states have a particular interest in doing so, as the festering hatred is destabilising in their own countries. Yes, of course it would be a monumental undertaking: significantly more challenging than the successful denazification of Germany, given the deep religious motivations, the much longer term indoctrination and a Middle Eastern culture resistant to authority and order. But what is the alternative? Even more decades of pointless peace processing with its innate appeasement of radical thinking, leading only to ever more violence and death.

What better place to start than with the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails? Over the years Israel has released thousands of terrorists early in exchange for Israeli hostages or at the end of their criminal sentences. Many have returned to terror, often forming the backbone of jihadist groups. Perhaps most notably, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was released in 2011 as part of the deal to free IDF hostage Gilad Shalit. Sinwar went on to organize and lead the 7th October massacre. This pattern of recidivism has also been common among released jihadists in many other countries including former internees at Guantanamo Bay and convicted terrorists in the UK.

Many countries have tried deradicalisation initiatives, with varying degrees of effectiveness, including the UK, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Algeria and Egypt. Singapore seems to have had the greatest success in their endeavours to rehabilitate Jemaah Islamyia terrorists.

Specially tailored programmes around the Muslim world, perhaps based on Singapore’s, would be the destination for thousands of Palestinian prisoners. Joined by their families, they could subsequently be released and resettled on satisfactory completion of the programme.

Yes, there would be outrage from human rights groups and practitioners of legal warfare against Israel. Many of the prisoners are likely to resist, as would Palestinian leaders whose priority is to perpetuate the conflict rather than secure a better life for the communities they have kept under their ruinous heel for so long.

It would also be a quandary for Western political leaders who have allowed themselves to be convinced over many years that the problem is Israel and not the radical Islamists who seek its destruction. Accepting the reality would be a bitter pill for these individuals to swallow. By falsely blaming Israel for this conflict and making zero demands on the actual aggressors, they have encouraged the Palestinians to keep up a fight they should not be fighting. Continuation of the present misguided approach will not only cause further bloodshed but also condemn the Palestinians to a never-ending existence of unresolvable limbo, poverty and deprivation.

There is only one viable way to break this malignant cycle and that is the reform of the Palestinian population, primarily by moderate clerics and younger, forward-looking leaders if such can be found. To show them that their vicious war against Israel can never be won while holding out the prospect that they can live prosperously, side by side with their Jewish neighbours if they can bring themselves to accept Israel’s existence. In other words, the opposite of the thinking of generations of peace processors whose untenable schemes have been constantly exploited by hard-line Palestinian leaders. The Abraham Accords sowed the seeds here, demonstrating to the Palestinians that their Arab brothers could live in harmony while dealing and trading with Israel. The extension of that initiative to Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries will give greater strength to this cause but it will not be enough on its own.

In addition, the malignant and all-pervasive anti-Israel education, propaganda and preaching, often subsidised by the West, has to be ended. Counter-intuitively perhaps, deradicalisation of Palestinian prisoners, who are among the most radicalised, could serve as the model for wider reform. They are literally a captive audience, and they have the most to gain by accepting reality and an understanding that their future can be brighter if they are willing to move away from hatred and violence.

With international support and cooperation from the Islamic world, such a project could become a reality rather than a utopian dream. Despite the predictable objections, giving deradicalisation a chance has to be better than just repeating what has been done before and hoping for different results.