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Articles
By
Khalid Amayreh
Accredited -
Associated |
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Israel releases 198 Palestinian
prisoners; “gesture” meant to
strengthen Abbas |
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Posted By Khalid Amayreh August 31, 2008
The bulk of the freed prisoners are affiliated
with Abbas’s party, Fatah, while others are
affiliated with the small leftist
organizations such as the Democratic Front for
the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
None of the freed inmates is affiliated with
Hamas, Israel’s ultimate foe at the
Palestinian arena, or its junior sister, the
Islamic Jihad.
Many of the released detainees had few months
or few years to complete their original prison
sentence. However, two veteran prisoners
sentenced for life for killing Israeli
occupation soldiers or settlers are among the
released prisoners.
One of the two is Said al Atabeh who has spent
32 years in Israeli jails. He is considered
the longest-serving Palestinian political
prisoner in Israel.
Atabeh is affiliated with the small FIDA
party, an ultra-secular group which had broken
away from the erstwhile Marxist group, the
DFLP.
The other veteran prisoner is Abu Ali Yatta of
Fatah who has served more than 28 years in
Israeli prisons and detention centers.
In 1980, Yatta was convicted of killing an
Israeli settler policeman from the Jewish
colony of Kiryat Arba near al Khalil (Hebro).
Yatta was given another life sentence for
killing a Palestinian informer. In 2006, while
in prison, he was elected a member of the
Palestinian legislative council.
A third prisoner released Monday is Husam
Khadr, a former Fatah lawmaker and focal
critic of the Fatah leadership.
Khadr, who lives at the Balata refugee camp
near Nablus, is a strong advocate of the
Palestinian refugees’ right of return. He was
arrested by the Israeli occupation army nearly
five years ago in connection with his role in
the second Palestinian intifada which erupted
in 2000.
Israel refused to release Marwan Barghouthi,
widely considered the most popular Fatah
leader in the West Bank and a potential
successor to Abbas.
Hamas said it would demand the release of
Barghouthi as part of a prospective prisoner
swap with Israel in return for the release
Gilad Shalit, the Israeli occupation soldier
taken prisoner by Hamas fighters in 2006.
As soon as the former prisoners were released
from the notorious Ofer prison near Ramallah
Monday morning, they were taken on buses to
the Muqata’a, the headquarters of the PA in
Ramallah.
There they visited the grave of the late
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, reciting the
opening passage of the Quran as is the Muslim
custom.
Arafat died a mysterious death in November
2004 and many Palestinians believe he was
poisoned by Israeli or American intelligence
in collusion with some of his aides.
Following the brief ceremony at the Arafat
mausoleum, the freed prisoners were received
by Abbas and leading PA officials.
Addressing them, Abbas said the Palestinian
people would not rest until all the prisoners
were freed from Israeli jails.
“Your time is coming up,” said Abbas,
referring to the estimated 10,000 Palestinian
prisoners still languishing in Israeli jails.
Hamas has congratulated the released Fatah
prisoners, calling on them to play a
constructive role in restoring Palestinian
national unity.
Hamas also urged Abbas to release hundreds of
suspected Hamas sympathizers from PA jails in
the West Bank.
“Abbas can’t ask Israel to release Palestinian
prisoners from its jails and dungeons while he
keeps hundreds of other Palestinian prisoners
in his own jails,” read a statement released
by Hamas and published on the group’s
websites.
Israel hopes that the release of the 198
prisoners, which coincides with the arrival in
the region of U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, will, at least for the time
being, divert attention from the effectively
moribund peace talks with the PA. Israel also
hopes that the “gesture” would prompt Abbas to
make certain concessions to Israel with regard
to final status issues such as Jerusalem and
the Right of Return.
Rice is expected to press Abbas and Israeli
Prime Minster Ehud Olmert to reach a so-called
framework final-status agreement before the
expiry date of George Bush’s term in the White
House.
However, observes in Occupied Palestine argue
that the conclusion of such an agreement is
unlikely given the continuing large chasm
between the two sides, especially with regard
to the main contentious issues.
The continued expansion of Jewish-only
colonies in the heart of the West Bank,
especially in occupied East Jerusalem, also
makes the conclusion of a peace deal unlikely
for the foreseeable future.
Prospects for an agreement are made even
dimmer by the fact that Olmert is going to
leave his office in a few weeks, which will
render the Israeli political landscape
unpredictable and might also lead to the
organization of new elections which could
bring to power anew the extremist party, the
Likud, led by Benyamin Netanyahu.
Moreover, Bush, now politically a lame duck,
is unlikely to be able, even if willing, to
exert any meaningful pressure on Israel to
give up the spoils of the 1967 war, an
essential prerequisite for any genuine
resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict.
Furthermore, Abbas himself is facing real
problems at home, including the rift with
Hamas, the ostensible failure of talks with
Israel and a chronic power struggle within
Fatah that has prevented the movement from
holding its Sixth Convention for nearly 20
years.
The last time Fatah held its “General
Congress” was in 1989.
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