Jerusalem: A growing number of desperate young Palestinian men are deliberately getting themselves arrested at Israeli checkpoints so that they will be sent to Israeli-run prisons, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
The youths, mostly teenage boys, are taking the dangerous measure in part because they said it is easier to study for exams in an Israeli prison than it is at home in the West Bank. Some also want to escape family hardship and deepening poverty.
Since January, when the phenomenon was first identified, Israeli army officials said at least 80 young men have either turned up at checkpoints and asked to be arrested or else carried knives and other weapons to ensure they are detained.
Palestinian civil affairs workers said the number may be far higher than 80 and is on the increase as rumours spread among young men about the potential benefits of being imprisoned.
Hijazi Abdul Rahman, 18, who lives in a village near Jenin, in the northern West Bank, went to a nearby checkpoint with his friend Malek a month ago in an attempt to be arrested. Abdul Rahman carried a small knife and Malek, who would not give his family name, openly carried a badly wired bomb.
They were detained by Israeli security forces and sent to a holding cell but released 25 days later after it emerged under interrogation that they were not a serious security threat.
For Abdul Rahman it was a grave disappointment.
"I lost my chance," he said, speaking at his home.
Detentions rose ahead of Palestinian exams in March and are expected to do so again before exams in June.
