Fury over prisoner release agreement
Israel’s cabinet has approved a release of Palestinian prisoners, fulfilling the Palestinian demand for a significant concession from Israel before restarting negotiations.
Cabinet ministers approved the decision, which looks set to release 104 terrorists who have mostly been in prison since the first intifada, by 13 votes to 7. As they were taking the vote, protestors gathered in Jerusalem declaring outrage at the plan.
Many of the 100 objectors were relatives of terror victims, who voiced strong opposition to killers being freed. “I wouldn’t say I’m surprised, but I’m disappointed that my Prime Minister doesn’t count me, that I’m transparent to him,” Ron Karman, who lost his 17-year-old daughter Tal in 2003 in an attack on a Haifa bus, told The AJN.
He said: “I paid the dearest price – I lost a daughter – because of political decisions that failed, and now they are releasing more murderers.”
Asked if he opposes the resumption of talks, he said: “We should go to peace talks but we don’t have to pay a price to sit at the table.”
Israel’s Prime Minister, who has long spoken of resuming peace talks “without preconditions”, defended the decision to release the prisoners, saying: “This moment is not easy for me. It is not easy for the ministers. It is not easy especially for the families, the bereaved families, whose heart I understand. But there are moments in which tough decisions must be made for the good of the country and this is one of those moments.”
Tzipi Livni, Israeli negotiator and Justice Minister, echoed his view, saying that the decision “involves great grief, but needs to be made”.
But Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home party, called the prisoner release a “disgrace”, saying that Israel is showing weakness by not only releasing prisoners for live and dead Israelis – as it has in he past – but for “a process”. Opposition also came from within Netanyahu’s own Likud party, with Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz calling the move an “insult” to bereaved families.
NATHAN JEFFAY
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