You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas lawmaker, 770 Palestinian prisoners freed
2011-08-05
RAMALLAH: The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) on Thursday released 770 Palestinian prisoners including a Hamas lawmaker. The Israel’s Radio said that the “570 criminal and 200 security prisoners” were released through several checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank.

“Security prisoners” is a term Israel uses to refer to prisoners who were convicted of resisting the Israeli occupation.

The Palestinian Minister of Detainees and Ex-detainees said that the 770 prisoners, from West Bank, Gaza Strip and Arab cities inside Israel, were released from the Israeli prisons of Ketziot and Nafha (Rimon) after serving their terms.
No word on Shalit...
The ministry said that the prisoners were not released according to an Israeli law which allows the directors of Israeli prisons to reduce the sentence by one or two months in accordance with the prisonerÂ’s humanitarian condition. The law was suspended after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to take away Palestinian prisonersÂ’ privileges in order to pressure Hamas into releasing kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

The rightist Israeli channel 7 television said that the prisoners were released according to a new regulation enacted several days ago by the IPS after much pressure from the Israeli Knesset Interior and Environment Committee. The new regulation states that the maximum number of prisoners in Israeli penal institutions cannot exceed 17,700. It added that each prisoner must be given at least 3 square meters of living area, and dividing that area with the amount of space in all of the country’s prisons yields a figure of 17,700. After Thursday’s release, the prisoner population is now “in balance,” the report said.

The ministry said that Hamas lawmaker Sheikh Hassan Yousef was released after serving a six-year sentence in several Israeli jails. It added that Mahmoud Hamid Al-Sharif was released after serving a 17-year sentence.
Keep an eye on the sky, boys...
Yousef is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council and considered by many to be the most prominent Hamas figure in the West Bank and a representative of the more moderate wing of the movement.
To the extent that anyone in Hamas could be labeled, 'moderate'...
Israeli authorities arrested more than 41 Hamas lawmakers and ministers after the kidnapping of Shalit by Gaza-based military groups in June 2006. Scores of others, including municipal mayors, academicians, and ministers were also rounded up.

Hamas said that the Yousef was one of the key ‘bargaining chips’ it hoped to use as leverage in the efforts to secure the release of Shalit.

The movement added that Israel is still holding 15 Hamas lawmakers.

Since December 2009, the German mediator and Egypt had failed to finalize the prisonersÂ’ swap deal between Hamas and Israel due to the two sidesÂ’ differences.

Hamas wants Israel to free up to 1,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons in exchange for the release of Shalit, and the Palestinian movement has reportedly presented a list of 450 names in Israeli prisons.

Israel also objects to freeing Israeli Arab prisoners as well as several Hamas military wing leaders. Another issue yet to be settled is Israel’s demand to deport almost 100 of the 450 “heavy” prisoners set to be released in the deal.
Posted by:Steve White

00:00