Israel to Free 400 Prisoners; Palestinians Say ‘Not Enough’

05/30/2005

By STEVEN ERLANGER
NY Times
Published: May 30, 2005

JERUSALEM, May 29 - The Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved the release of 400 more Palestinian prisoners, fulfilling a long-delayed promise made to the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in February but also drawing immediate Palestinian criticism.

The Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, said in a statement that despite failures of Mr. Abbas to deal with terrorism as he had promised, Mr. Sharon recognized the need to support him and those Palestinians competing with Hamas, the radical Islamic faction that Israel and the United States consider a terrorist group. Mr. Sharon also cited his own promises made at the Sharm el Sheik summit meeting in February.

Mr. Sharon said critics of the proposed pullout of Israeli settlers from Gaza who argue that it will strengthen terrorism also “understand the need to strengthen the principal moderate element in the P.A. and honor our commitments.”

The 400 prisoners, who will be released in about a week, are likely to include some who have more than one-third of their terms to serve. But none of those to be released were convicted of killing or planning to kill Israelis, Mr. Sharon said.

That disappointed Palestinians, who have been eager to secure the release of some of the 360 longer-term prisoners who were jailed before the 1993 Oslo accords that set up the Palestinian Authority. About 7,000 Palestinians are in Israeli custody.

The Palestinian minister for prisoners, Sufian Abu Zaydeh, said: “This one-sided step does not meet the minimum of our demands. Our priority is to release young prisoners, the women, the elderly, the sick and political leaders like Marwan Barghouti.” Mr. Barghouti was sentenced to five life terms for conspiring to kill Israelis.

Saeb Erekat, another minister, said the decision was “not enough” and called on Israel to keep another of its promises and hand over to Palestinian security forces three West Bank cities: Bethlehem, Qalqilya and Ramallah. Israel has already handed over Jericho and Tulkarm, but says the Palestinians are not keeping their commitments to disarm wanted militants in those cities.

Three members of Mr. Sharon’s Likud Party voted against the prisoner release: Benjamin Netanyahu, Danny Naveh and Yisrael Katz. Mr. Netanyahu said that the Palestinians had failed to take promised action against Hamas and militants, and that given warnings from the military about “the strengthening of Hamas and the ineffectuality of the Palestinian Authority, I see no reason to give them a prize.”

In the last day, two Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops in the West Bank. One was shot about 20 yards from the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, a regular site of Israeli-Palestinian tension, after he ran toward Israeli soldiers with a knife and said he was going to kill them, the Israelis said. Soldiers fired into the air, then shot him, and he later died. An army spokesman said letters to his family that were found on him said he wanted to die a martyr.

Another Palestinian was killed and two more were wounded in a shootout near Jenin when they fired at soldiers from a car.

In Gaza, a Palestinian died when the rocket-propelled grenade he was trying to fire into a Jewish settlement exploded prematurely. Two more militants from Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, which is linked to the Fatah movement, died and three were critically wounded in a blast in an orchard in Gaza City when a Palestinian bomb exploded prematurely, a Palestinian security official told Reuters.

Also on Sunday, Palestinian election officials ordered partial reruns of votes in three sites in Gaza - Rafah, Beit Lahiya and Bureij - after Fatah lodged accusations of vote rigging against Hamas. Hamas narrowly won the three elections.

Israeli newspapers, meanwhile, reported Sunday that the police had arrested 20 people, including some executives from well-known Israeli companies like Cellcom, Pelephone and the satellite television company YES - the latter two owned by the state phone company, Bezeq - on charges of using a computer virus to spy on their competitors. The investigation has lasted at least six months, and the police called it one of Israel’s “gravest scandals” in industrial espionage.

In Tel Aviv, an Israeli soldier was arrested Sunday as he spray painted a slogan against the Gaza pullout plan, “Jews don’t expel Jews,” on the army building that contains the offices of the senior commanders.