Israel announced it will release 26 veteran Palestinian prisoners ahead of a resumption of peace talks tomorrow, but at the same time angered Palestinians by approving new settlement construction.
A special ministerial committee announced on Sunday it had approved the 26 prisoners to be released “following the government decision to renew peace talks with the Palestinians,” according to a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
The names of the prisoners — most of whom were arrested for killing Israelis and Palestinians suspected of collaboration with the Jewish state — were published early yesterday morning.
Photo: AFP
They are expected to be freed ahead of the start of talks tomorrow in Jerusalem between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.
The 26 constitute the first batch of a total of 104 long-term Palestinian and Israeli Arab prisoners to be freed in four stages, depending on progress in the talks.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat underlined the importance of the prisoner release for peace talks to continue.
“We hope to put into effect what we’ve agreed on ... we hope for the release of 104 prisoners. Each will return to his house. This is what we’ve agreed on,” he told Israeli Arabic-language radio yesterday. “There is a clear understanding between us and the Americans and Israelis. Any change [in that] will mean the agreement is off the table.”
However, the decision to free prisoners has angered the families of those killed in assaults.
“This is a day of celebration for terror organizations,” Meir Indor, head of Almagor, a group representing Israeli victims of Palestinian attacks, told reporters.
He said his group, which petitioned against the decision to the Israeli High Court of Justice before the names were released, was demanding to meet the three ministers who selected the prisoners — Israeli Minister of Defense Moshe Yaalon, Minister of Justice Tzipi Livni and Minister of Science and Technology Yaakov Peri — before deciding whether to launch a new petition.
Most prisoners being freed were arrested for “murder,” with five being “accomplices to murder” and one being guilty of “abduction and killing,” Israel says.
Three of the prisoners were imprisoned by Israel for killing Palestinians, presumably those they had deemed to be collaborators.
All prisoners had been arrested before 1994 except one, who was arrested in 2001.
Israeli Minister of Housing Uri Ariel of the far-right Jewish Home Party also reacted angrily to the impending releases.
“The terrorists who are being released murdered women and children, and it’s not clear to me how releasing murderers can help peace,” Ariel said in a statement.
Ariel’s ministry had on Sunday announced tenders for the construction of 793 settlement housing units in annexed east Jerusalem and 394 elsewhere in the West Bank in a move that infuriated Palestinians.
Media reports have implied that the construction announcement was meant to appease Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners.
Palestinians slammed the settlement announcement as a move aimed at “preventing” peace talks.
“Israel is attempting to prevent negotiations from taking place on Wednesday,” Palestinian negotiator Mohammed Shtayeh said.
However, Israel stood its ground, with Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev saying that since the new construction was designated for blocs, it will change “nothing.”
“The construction decided upon today in Jerusalem and in the settlement blocs are in areas that will remain part of Israel in any possible future peace agreement,” Regev said in a statement.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not