Karim Younis

Karim Younis, born in the Israeli town of Ara in 1957, was appointed to Fatah’s Central Committee by Mahmoud Abbas in May 2017. He is a Palestinian citizen of Israel and the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail.

Younis was arrested in 1983 for allegedly carrying out an attack on an Israeli soldier in the occupied Golan Heights, and sentenced to life imprisonment (later reduced to 40 years). He was to be included in a fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners to be released as part of the 2013 mediated peace negotiations mediated by John Kerry; however, Israel ultimately refused to release them, leading to the breakdown of negotiations.