Kalila H. – KTH Delegate

I often find myself consuming news through quick headlines. While clearly this isn’t ideal, it’s the case for a lot of us—we don’t have the time or motivation to read comprehensive articles, to compare sources, to critically evaluate different perspectives. And so, we absorb information selectively, forming impressions based on just a few words. This makes terminology incredibly powerful—especially in conflicts where language shapes perception.

One striking example is the distinction between “prisoners” and “hostages.” A recent New York Times headline read: “Hamas Frees 4 Israeli Hostages in Exchange for Palestinian Prisoners.” The Times has consistently used this terminology, and they’re not the only ones—most major American media outlets describe Israelis held by Hamas as hostages, while Palestinians detained by Israel are labeled prisoners.

But what do these terms really mean? The word hostage implies an unlawful abduction. A prisoner, on the other hand, suggests legal detention—someone convicted or accused of a crime within a judicial system. These word choices carry deep, often unexamined assumptions about guilt, innocence, and legitimacy.

To fully understand the implications of this linguistic divide, we must examine who these individuals are, why they are held, and how the legal and moral frameworks differ on both sides. By critically analyzing these distinctions, we can move beyond media shorthand and towards a more nuanced understanding of the realities on the ground.

Because the word prisoner has this association with crime, we may feel that, on some level, a prisoner deserves his fate. And yet, these Palestinian “prisoners” include thousands of people held without charge. In the aftermath of October 7th, Amnesty International documented the huge increase in the IDF’s use of “administrative detention”—that is, detention for no stated reason, that can be renewed indefinitely.

These Palestinian “prisoners” also include hundreds of children—320 of them, Al Jazeera reports, before the ceasefire deal in January. (The Western media sometimes calls these children “minors” or “people under 18”—another trick of language.)

Then there are the prisons themselves, where Palestinians are routinely tortured: beaten, blindfolded, forced to strip, humiliated, sleep deprived—this article from the BBC lays out all this and more.

The average reader isn’t taking the time to go deep on what’s happening in Palestine—they’re reading the headlines, seeing “Israeli hostages” and “Palestinian prisoners” over and over again. And that word choice pushes the reader towards greater sympathy with Israel. The word “prisoner” doesn’t suggest a twelve-year-old arrested for throwing stones, or a man tortured by the IDF after being detained for no reason at all.

Kalila H. is a proud Palestinian American who embraces her identity with passion and conviction. As a KTH delegate, she is dedicated to advocating for peace and justice, using her writing as a powerful tool to express and uphold her beliefs.