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| By Israel Insider staff September 25, 2007 |
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National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer of Labor is urging the government to release Marwan Barghouti, the incarcerated leader of a terrorist offshoot of Fatah, in exchange for the IDF soldier Gilad Schalit who was kidnapped by Hamas.
"I would consider releasing him. I think it's a legitimate move, though I believe that his actions were sinister, and I don't take them lightly at all," Haaretz quoted Ben-Eliezer as saying.
The minister said that "there is no reason to become alarmed" by the possibility that Barghouti will be released from the Israeli prison system, where he is serving five consecutive life sentences for terrorist activities against Israel.
"We need to break the cycle," Ben-Eliezer said in an interview with Army Radio, according to the Jerusalem Post. "Freeing Barghouti could start a process that would succeed in both moving the diplomatic negotiations forward and in freeing Schalit."
Explaining his position, Ben-Eliezer said: "[PA President Mahmoud] Abbas has not delivered anything just yet, and [PA Prime Minister] Salaam Fayad is a well-respected man, but these two gentlemen are just not enough. Releasing Barghouti will help strengthen them."
Alternatively, Ben-Eliezer said Barghouti was also "well-respected by Hamas. For us he might be a murderer, but I'd like to remind you that Arafat was no less of a murderer, and we approached him as well."
Barghouti is believed to have far more clout on the Palestinian street than Abbas or Fayad, due in part to his long imprisonment.
MK Effi Eitam of the National Union party voiced his objection to the move.
"That's great. Let's see you standing in front of IDF soldiers' parents who trust and support us, and tell them how an arch-murderer is now Israel's new hope for peace," he said. "There is nothing more hallucinatory and fraudulent than this."
Abbas reportedly opposes releasing Barghouti now, fearing that it will undermine his standing in the territories.
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