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A Palestinian prisoner recently released. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners February 6, 2005 |
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Israel on Sunday signaled it will free Palestinian prisoners involved in attacks on Israelis, defusing a crisis with the Palestinian Authority ahead of a historic Mideast summit.
Last week, Israel's Cabinet approved the release of 900 prisoners, none involved in violence. Palestinian officials complained that the planned gesture, ahead of Tuesday's summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, did not go far enough, and the dispute overshadowed summit preparations.
Late Saturday, top aides of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas agreed to form a committee to study additional releases, including of prisoners involved in attacks.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to arrive for separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, in part to review the summit agenda.
In the Gaza Strip, an Egyptian delegation led by the deputy of intelligence chief Omar Suleiman was to meet with Abbas, leaders of militant groups and security commanders to shore up an emerging cease-fire deal and review the deployment of Palestinian police in the volatile territory.
The prisoner issue is one of the most emotionally charged on the Israeli-Palestinian agenda, and a large-scale release would boost Abbas who is trying to negotiate an end to the armed Palestinian uprising.
Israel holds more than 7,000 Palestinians prisoners, many of them arrested in the current round of fighting. In decades of conflict, many thousands of Palestinians have spent time in Israeli custody.
Palestinian officials have complained that Israel's decision to release 900 prisoners is insufficient. They are pushing for the immediate release of some 400 prisoners convicted before 1993, when Israel and the PLO signed a mutual recognition agreement.
Hisham Abdel Razek, Palestinian Cabinet minister in charge of prisoner issues, said that if Israel does not ease its criteria, it could hurt Abbas. "It will not allow him to succeed in the Palestinian street," Abdel Razek told Israel Army Radio.
Israel's deputy defense minister, Zeev Boim, said additional prisoner releases are inevitable, but that Israel wouldn't rush into it. "The issue of releasing prisoners is very sensitive for them (the Palestinians), so we will have to release prisoners," Boim told Army Radio. "The committee will discuss how it can be done."
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom warned against releasing prisoners convicted of killing Israelis. "This could give ideas to other Palestinians to think they can go and murder Jews, and one day Abu Mazen will come and get them a deal for their freedom," he told Channel Two TV, referring to Abbas by his nickname.
A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that in return for forming the joint committee, the Palestinians agreed not to make the prisoners an issue at the summit.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said the committee will submit its recommendations at a second summit between Sharon and Abbas, which could take place within the next month.
Officials said Israel's Cabinet refused to allow reopening of Gaza's airport, closed shortly after hostilities erupted in 2000, but would permit work on construction of a seaport near Gaza City.
Israel to free Marwan Barghouti's son, but not him
In response to a request of Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli security officials said Qassam Barghouti, son of imprisoned uprising leader Marwan Barghouti, would be in the first group of Palestinian prisoners to be freed.
The younger Barghouti, a student in Egypt, was arrested upon entering the West Bank in December 2003. The AP reported that his mother Fadwa, who also is his lawyer, said he has six weeks left on a 15-month sentence for "disobeying Israeli orders."
However, Haaretz reported that Qassam Barghouti, 19, was charged with a series of ambush terror shootings in the West Bank. An Israeli Arab was wounded in one of the shootings.
Israel is refusing to free the elder Barghouti, who is serving five life terms after convictions on involvement in fatal attacks against Israelis.
"As a mother, I'm happy to see my son out of jail," Mrs. Barghouti said. "But it is a partial happiness, because his father is in jail, other Palestinian prisoners are still in jail, and there is no indication that Israel will release them."
First summit since Arafat's death
The upcoming summit -- hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak -- will be the first time Sharon and Abbas meet since the latter was elected to succeed Yasser Arafat in a Jan. 9 presidential election. Jordan's King Abdullah II will also participate.
At Saturday's meeting, the two sides also completed a deal on granting conditional amnesty to Palestinian fugitives and giving some of them jobs in the police, officials on both sides said. A separate committee will decide how the fugitives will be monitored.
The Israeli official said the Palestinians will have to monitor the fugitives and their movements "like they are on probation." If the Palestinians fail, and the fugitives return to militant activity, Israel will reserve the right to chase them, the official added.
A timetable for an Israeli handover of five West Bank towns to Palestinian security control has not yet been reached. The quiet desert oasis of Jericho would be first, apparently immediately after the summit, followed by the towns of Tulkarem, Qalqiliya, Bethlehem and Ramallah.
Rice, meanwhile, was to meet later Sunday with Israeli leaders, including Sharon.
Paul Patin, a spokesman of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, said Rice would bring up a wide range of issues, including Israel's commitment under the internationally backed "road map" peace plan to dismantle dozens of unauthorized West Bank settlement outposts and Israeli gestures to the Palestinians, such as the removal of Israeli checkpoints that disrupt Palestinian travel.
"Outposts are something that they (the Israelis) promised to remove years ago and we expect them to abide by their commitments," Patin said.
The AP contributed to this report.
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