Israel to Consider Freeing Prisoners
02/06/2005
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel on Sunday signaled it will consider freeing some 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.”
A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said additional releases would be considered by the joint committee. In return, the Palestinian agreed not to make the prisoners “an issue at the summit,” the Israeli official said.
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.
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.