Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH – A top Israeli minister on Saturday said that Israel would release “serious” Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the renewal of peace talks, but that the government is not bound to a settlement freeze as a precondition for the resumption of negotiations. Yuval Steinitz, who serves as minister for intelligence, international relations and strategic affairs, told the Israel Radio that a number of the Palestinian prisoners to be released were “serious” cases, but that a large portion of them had already served many years. Steinitz didn't specify how many prisoners Israel would release. According to recent Palestinian statistics, Israel is holding 5,000 Palestinian prisoners in its in 17 prisons and detention camps in Israel and in the West Bank of whom 234 children, 15 females, 14 members of Palestine Legislative Council, 135 in administrative detention without trial and hundreds suffer from medical negligence. Steinitz remarks comes one day after US Secretary of State John Kerry announced that Israel and the Palestinians agreed to resume negotiations without preconditions, after a three-year breakdown in direct talks. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insists that Israel release the 103 Palestinian prisoners detained prior to the Oslo agreement and sick prisoners as a precondition for the resumption of peace talks. However, Steinitz stressed that the resumption of talks didn't mean Israel was bound to a settlement freeze. The freeze of settlement construction in West Bank and East Jerusalem is one of the three core demands the Palestinians are placing on Israel. Steinitz also noted that Mahmoud Abbas's ostensible reluctance to enter into talks made him “skeptical” of the Palestinians' intention to deliver meaningful concessions.
Palestinian sources on Friday said that Kerry assured the Palestinian leadership that Israel would free some 350 prisoners gradually in the coming months. The prisoners would include the 103 prisoners.
Israel had balked at freeing these prisoners in the past because many were convicted in deadly attacks. A Member of the Palestine Liberation Organization told the Israel Radio that chief Palestinian negotiator Sa'eb Erekat won't leave for negotiations in Washington, DC, which could reportedly begin within a few weeks, until the Palestinians receive a firm commitment from Kerry about their three demands: negotiations with Israel along the basis of 1967 lines, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and a settlement building freeze. Various Palestinian factions announced on Saturday their opposition to resuming the direct peace talks with Israel. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Gaza-based Hamas spokesman, said in a press statement that the decision of Abbas to resume the talks with Israel “contradicts with the national consensus that the Palestinians agreed upon.” Abu Zuhri added that “resuming the talks only serves the occupation and gives it a cover for its settlement expansion.” Jamil Mizher, spokesman of the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the second largest faction in the PLO executive committee, said in a press statement that the resumption of direct negotiations with Israel “causes severe harm to the Palestinian cause.” Mizher said that “the PFLP completely rejects the resumption of the absurd negotiations, which don't achieve the minimum national demands of the Palestinian people.” He added that “20 years of absurd negotiations with Israel achieved a big zero, and only helped Israel to execute its plans of expansion.” For his part, the chairman of the Palestinian Initiative Party, Mustafa al-Barghouthi, said that the resumption of peace negotiations with Israel without the full cessation of settlement and without the Israeli recognition of the Palestinian state “is very dangerous and would harm our just cause.” “Even if the two sides resume the direct negotiations, I believe it will fail because the current Israeli government is a government of settlers and it would never recognize the legal Palestinian right of independence, of ending the occupation and of self-determination,” said al-Barghouthi.
