Israeli release of Palestinian prisoners backfires ( 2003-08-06 11:50) (Agencies)
Israel's plans to release more than 300 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday in
what it said was a gesture to promote peace backfired when Palestinians rejected
the measure as a sham.
Instead of boosting confidence in the U.S.-backed peace plan, the release
fueled distrust between the two sides and led to the cancellation of talks
between Israeli leader Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud
Abbas.
The Palestinians want an amnesty for all 6,000 of their jailed compatriots,
saying this would show Israel was committed to the road map charting a course
toward ending three years of violence and creating a Palestinian state by 2005.
Israel, saying Palestinians involved in attacks on its citizens would remain
behind bars, announced it would release 339 prisoners, including some 30 who
were due to complete their sentences this month anyway.
Palestinian leaders spoke of Israeli deceit. Top officials of militant groups
that declared on June 29 a three-month cease-fire in an uprising for statehood
said their patience was running out.
"It is worthless," senior Hamas official Ismail Abu Shanab said about the
release. "Priority should be given to long-serving prisoners. We do not
accept...Sharon's tricks."
But officials from Hamas and another militant group, Islamic Jihad, did not
threaten to truncate the truce in remarks to reporters after meetings with Abbas
in Gaza on Tuesday.
The road map does not mention a prisoner release but requires implementation
of a previous plan which called for release of "all Palestinians arrested in
security sweeps who have no association with terrorist activities."
CHECKPOINT RELEASE
The army said the prisoners, including one woman, would be freed
simultaneously at around 2:30 p.m. (7:30 a.m. EDT) at four West Bank checkpoints
and at the Erez border crossing in the Gaza Strip. It said another 99 prisoners
would be released soon.
"Israel is making gestures and in response getting complaints," said Gideon
Meir, deputy director-general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
"The Palestinians are trying all kinds of excuses not to implement their part
(of the peace plan) which is very simple -- to dismantle their infrastructure of
terror," he said.
Palestinian officials say such a crackdown on militants would spark civil
war.
In Crawford, Texas, where President Bush is vacationing at his ranch, U.S.
officials said he and his top aides are seeking to keep up the momentum of the
peace plan.
Bush and his aides, the officials said, were pressing Israel to reroute a
security barrier in the West Bank and Palestinians to follow through on
commitments to disarm militants.
Israel wants the barrier -- in parts a concrete wall and in others metal
fencing -- to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers. Palestinians describe it as
a new "Berlin Wall" that grabs territory deep in the West Bank which they want
for a state.
Bush has called the barrier "a problem." Sharon told him at the White House
last week that Israel would keep building it but with Palestinian concerns in
mind.
Straining relations with the Palestinians further, Israel extended on Tuesday
its two-year-old closure of Orient House, the Palestine Liberation
Organization's headquarters in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, for another six
months.