MIDEAST: Palestinian Prisoners Become a Stumbling Block

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Peter Hirschberg

JERUSALEM, Jul 7 2003 (IPS) - Exactly 30 years ago, Hisham Abdel Razeq was caught with explosives in the central Israeli town of Rishon Letzion on his way to carrying out an attack. He was released in 1994, shortly after the signing of the Oslo peace accords, and after spending 21 years in Israeli jails. Today, he is the Palestinian Minister for Prisoner Affairs and a strong supporter of a political solution to the Middle East conflict.

But Abdel Razeq says that if Israel does not begin releasing many of the 6,500 Palestinian prisoners in its jails – the majority of them arrested after the Intifadah uprising in September 2000 – the latest U.S.-led peace initiative will collapse.

"How can we talk of making peace and at the same time desert our soldiers," he told IPS. "The release of prisoners is now top priority for us. This is the one thing that will have the greatest impact on how the Palestinian people view the process. They see the prisoners as heroes."

Not Rachel Tuito. The Palestinian gunman who killed her husband Yosef at the West Bank settlement of Itamar, and left her a single mother of five children "must face the full force of the law, without any concessions," she said recently.

The release of Palestinian prisoners is a highly emotive issue for both sides, and it is shaping up as the first major threat to the "road map" for peace that Israeli and Palestinian leaders embarked on last month.

For the Palestinians, those incarcerated are freedom fighters who have paid a heavy price for their part in the struggle for national liberation. But for Israelis, many of the prisoners, especially those "with blood on their hands" are murderers, and their release represents a distortion of justice. Palestinians refer to those behind bars as "political prisoners" or "prisoners of war"; Israel uses the term "security prisoners".

The crisis became evident after the Israeli cabinet met Sunday and set stringent criteria for the release of prisoners: they would include no one involved in attacks in which Israelis have been killed; no members of the radical Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups; no one who the Israeli security services deem a potential threat. According to Israeli security officials, some 350 prisoners – most of them administrative detainees who have never been charged – will be freed in the coming weeks.

Palestinian leaders immediately rejected the criteria set by Israel. Abdel Razeq also rejects the Israeli definitions: "I don’t accept the ‘blood on their hands’ term," he said. "This is war and the killing is the result of war. The Israelis distinguish between their blood and ours. Many more Palestinians have been killed in the conflict than Israelis."

For a start, the minister wants Israel to release 450 prisoners who were jailed before the signing of the Oslo accords a decade ago, "when we were still in a state of war." These include Palestinians who carried out attacks in which Israelis were killed.

Abdel Razeq believes, however, that at least 4,000 more, among them women, minors, and some 1,000 administrative detainees who were arrested for questioning by Israel’s Shin Bet secret service during the course of the Intifadah, can "easily" be set free.

But Sharon faces stiff opposition within his right-wing coalition. He came close to losing the vote Sunday in the cabinet over the release of prisoners. After a 10- 10 deadlock, he was spared deep embarrassment when the measure passed 13-9 in a second vote, but only after it was agreed that prisoner releases would be conditional on the Palestinians fulfilling their obligations over the road map.

"The releases will be carried out in small numbers and will be conditional on proof that the Palestinians are living up to their security commitments," Sharon said after the meeting.

Hardline ministers oppose release of even a single prisoner. "There has to be a very weighty reason for releasing hundreds of prisoners, like a peace treaty that will last for generations," said Minister Uzi Landau of the ruling Likud party. "Prisoner releases are not in the road map. What are we getting in exchange?"

Sharon, like Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, knows that the freeing of prisoners will help Abbas win much-needed legitimacy among his people. But the release of only 350 prisoners is way below Palestinian expectations and could have the opposite effect.

Abbas has warned that without a large-scale prisoner release, the cease-fire declared by the various Palestinian factions "will collapse." Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have announced that if their jailed members are not freed, they will reconsider their decision to halt attacks.

The prisoner issue has gained resonance because the key Palestinian group that worked for months to bring about a cessation of attacks on Israelis comprises the very people Israel has jailed for acts of terror. Prisoners seen as the spearhead of the national struggle discussed the ceasefire in their cells and decided to back it. Marwan Barghouti, a senior member of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah party, who is in jail facing terror charges, was a key player in convincing the various factions to agree to a truce.

Heavy domestic pressure on both sides appears to be propelling Sharon and Abbas towards their first crisis. Some 2,000 Palestinians, including the families of prisoners, marched Sunday in Gaza City, chanting slogans like "No peace without the release of all detainees".

At the same time, family members of Israelis killed in attacks by Palestinians gathered to protest outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem where the cabinet was meeting, demanding that "murderers" be kept behind bars.