In June 1970, the Israeli Prison Service began collecting groups of Palestinian detainees from detention facilities across Israel and concentrating them in the Beersheba prison. From there, every few weeks the groups were taken to a desolate spot in the desert equipped with a hat, a water canteen, and one Jordanian dinar, and were sent to cross the border into Jordan – to never return. Over at least two years, Israel deported more than 800 Palestinians in this large-scale deportation operation remains hidden from the Israeli public. Today, almost 50 years later, and despite many attempts by Akevot and others, the Ministry of Defense still refuses to release documentation about Operation Patient – the name of the deportation operation.
This episode relies on documents we were able to locate in archives in Israel and abroad to – for the first time – tell the story of Operation Patient.