The High Court will hear petitions against the release of over 1,000 terrorists in exchange for Gilad Shalit on Monday afternoon. The main petition, representing most of the opposing families, will be presented by the Almagor terror victims’ organization.

In its petition, Almagor says that “this release, if it goes through, will be unprecedented in Israeli history. We ask that it be suspended because of the emotional damage to the victims of these attacks and their families, and because of the additional security threat to citizens and soldiers that will result from the release.”

The Supreme Court is to set to hold a hearing on Monday at noon over a petition filed by the Almagor Terror Victims Association to annul the Shalit deal, Ynet has learned. The organization also petitioned the court to extend the period of time that the Justice Ministry had given the public to voice their objections to

The petition is to be examined by a panel three judges.

Palestinian prisoners set to be released as part of the first stage of the Shalit deal are being assembled in two prisons ahead of their release. Some 477 prisoners in 16 Israeli jails will be transferred throughout the day to the Ketziot Prison in south Israel and the Hasharon Prison in central Israel.

On Tuesday they will be released to Egypt, Gaza and the West Bank in exchange for captive soldier Gilad Shalit.

Three small buses left the Damon Prison in north Israel carrying 15 female prisoners. “Finally we are able to breath some air,” one of them said before boarding the bus. Police blocked a nearby road. Officers are escorting the buses to the Hasharon Prison.

Prisoners head to new locations (Video: Amir Levy and Oz Meron)

Several residents of Daliyat al-Carmel and Isfiya called out in praise of the prisoner swap deal as the bus was passing by.

Hasharon Prison in central Israel (Photo: Ido Erez)

Meanwhile, Prison Service forces and buses entered the Nafha Prison near Mitzpe Ramon to extract more than 200 security prisoners and transport them to the Ketziot Prison. Some of the inmates managed to stick their hands out of the police vehicles’ windows and gesture “V” signs.

The prisoners will undergo medical exams before heading to the new location.

Also Sunday, prisoners in the Megiddo Prison who are part of the deal left for Ketziot under heavy security. Security prisoners in the Shatta and Gilboa prisons were transferred to Megiddo and will be moved to Ketziot later on Sunday.

Female prisoners leave Damon Prison (Photo: George Ginsburg)

Meanwhile, it was reported that Hamas is insisting that 10 additional female prisoners be released but Israel firmly objects. State officials stressed that Jerusalem will oppose any demand to amend the deal. Many Arab-Israelis are planning to protest for their release.

On Saturday night, Israel’s Prison Service published the list of the 477 prisoners to be released as part of the first stage of the Shalit deal on its website.

The list contains the names of 450 male prisoners, including 280 inmates serving life sentences, and 27 female prisoners. All prisoners received official notice about their impending release on Sunday morning. The second stage of the deal will see 550 additional prisoners chosen by Israel being released.

The Supreme Court has scheduled a hearing for Monday over a petition filed by the Almagor Terror Victims Association to annul the Shalit deal, Ynet has learned. The organization also petitioned the court to extend the period of time that the Justice Ministry had given the public to voice their objections to the deal.

Hovav Nuriel, whose father was killed in a terror attack and who has signed a petition against the deal, participating last night in a protest across from the Shalit supporters encampment. (Photo by Michal Fattal)

The High Court of Justice is expected to announce today whether it will hear a petition by a nonprofit group representing survivors and families of victims of terror attacks by Palestinian prisoners due for release in the exchange deal.

The Almagor Terror Victims Association is asking the court to delay the exchange, scheduled for Tuesday, by 48 hours “to allow families that will be hurt by the deal as well as senior officers to examine the list of terrorists … and properly appeal to the authorities.”

Officials of the organization say the fact that the list of names was made public only last night means they do not have enough time to review it and determine whose release they must challenge.

The petitioners will submit to the High Court this morning a security assessment critical of the prisoner exchange in its current format, by Brig.-Gen. (res.) Amatzia Chen and a former Shin Bet security service investigator identified only by the initial R. They submitted their petition Friday.

Almagor’s chairman, Lt. Col. (res.) Meir Indor, said he expected more families to appeal independently to the High Court against the deal. “It’s a humanitarian issue of one soldier against an entire country that will be in danger,” Indor said. “That equation should be examined by the High Court and should not be immune from investigation.”

Almagor’s petition consists of two parts, one opposing the principle of releasing such a large number of terrorists for a single captive soldier and the second objecting to the release of specific prisoners. The second part could only be submitted after the list of names was made public.

Almagor is aware that the High Court may decide not to hear its petition at all. “I hope the court will ignore the pressure by the public and the media, as it has in the past,” Indor said. “It should show independence and resilience, and not allow a street campaign to determine the most important decisions for Israeli society.”

Regarding criticism of him and his colleagues at Almagor, Indor said: “The Shalit headquarters did wonderful work in terms of the media; it will be taught in journalism and public policy schools.”

Five people who lost family members in terror attacks are signatories to the petition. They include Yitzhak Maoz, whose daughter Tehila was killed in the Sbarro restaurant suicide attack in Jerusalem in August 2001.

“How would the Rabin family feel if someone were to demand a law for the release of Yigal Amir,” Maoz said yesterday, referring to Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin. “That’s how we feel when someone wants to release the terrorist who is responsible for my daughter’s murder.”

Rina Hamami, whose husband Amram Hamami died in the Park Hotel suicide bombing in Netanya in 2001, discussed her opposition to a prisoner exchange deal two years ago, when an agreement seemed close.

“You have to think of the day after. For me it’s very hard to think about more than 1,000 murderers going free, and I’m not sure we have the means to protect ourselves,” she said this weekend.

“The question here is how the prime minister will be able to look future grieving families in the eye, because there will be more. The arch-murderer who planned the attack in Netanya had already served time and was released in one of the deals, and he murdered 36 more people in three different attacks.”

Hamami, a mother of two, supports the death penalty for terrorists “with blood on their hands.” She says she does not seek revenge and that she does not place much importance on the punitive aspect. “My husband was murdered and nothing will fill that vacuum for me,” she said.

“Punishment is what you give children so they’ll learn. These are people who sat in prison and learned how to carry out bigger, more sophisticated terror attacks. You can plan and carry out attacks even from Turkey; today there’s the Internet and free information. That’s my fear, that we’ll hear from them again.”

Alex Tagilchev, whose 14-year-old daughter Maria Tagilchev was killed in the Dolphinarium discotheque bombing in Tel Aviv in June 2001, is also against the exchange.

“I very much understand the Shalit family; Gilad must come home, but not at this price,” Tagilchev said last night. “We oppose the deal. Many terrorists will be freed, and Israel’s security situation requires that they remain in prison. It seems to me that the cabinet didn’t give it a lot of thought and took the easiest and simplest road, while they should have thought about a military operation, something, to free him.”

Despite his opposition to the deal and insistence that releasing the prisoners will lead to more terror attacks, Tagilchev and his family are not joining the High Court of Justice petition against the agreement.

The Almagor Terror Victims Association has filed a petition with the High Court of Justice against the release of Palestinian terrorists in the Shalit deal.

The petition is meant to delay the execution of the deal in order to allow bereaved families to get organized for a petition against the release of their loved ones’ murderers in the deal.

Israel’s Supreme Court (http://www.court.gov.il/)

Relatives of victims of terrorist attacks have filed an emergency lawsuit against the release of terrorists in exchange for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. The suit was filed with the help of the Almagor organization for victims of terror.

The government has agreed to release more than 1,000 terrorists in exchange for Shalit, including murderers and those who took part in previous kidnappings of IDF soldiers. The release deal has been controversial, with some warning that it will cause a wave of terrorism, while others argue that the state has an obligation to return kidnapped soldiers.

The families of those murdered in the Sbarro spearheaded a suit against the release and have launched a campaign to remove the Sbarro murderess who drove the bomber to the site from the list of those to be released. Fifteen people lost their lives in the suicide bombing. The number to call to join the campaign is 0524239870.

Among those filing suit is Hovev Nuriel, whose father Sasson was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists in 2005. The terrorists who murdered Sasson are to be released in the exchange.

Nuriel spoke to Arutz Sheva on Friday and explained that his primary concern is not for his own family, but for future victims.

“This [prisoner exchange] deal will lead to the loss of hundreds of lives, and will create more bereaved families and add to the pain and loss suffered by thousands of Israelis,” he said. “The deal sends the message that it is possible to deal with Israel through kidnapping and murder of Israeli citizens.”

“I know my father is not coming back,” he continued, “I am not speaking from a place of revenge, but rather, from solidarity. I am concerned for every citizen of Israel who could be hurt, whether by these same murderers or by other terrorists who get the message that they can continue to murder – because that is the message that the state and the government are sending.”

Another issue is justice, he said. “Where is the meaning of the judges’ verdict? Where is the justice in the state of Israel?” Murderers sentenced to life in prison are to be released after serving fewer than five years in prison, he noted.

Sayeed Ibrahim Mohammed Shalada, who stabbed Sasson Nuriel to death while the latter’s hands were tied, was sentenced to life in prison in 2007. In their verdict, the judges wrote, “The perpetrator took a person’s life with his own hands, acting calmly and with great cruelty. His actions force us to put him behind bars for the rest of his life.”

The Almagor umbrella group of terror-victim organizations announced, on Friday, that it will file an appeal with the Supreme Court against the release of 1,027 security prisoners in exchange for abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Earlier in the day, Dov Kalmanovich, considered the first victim of the first intifada Arab uprising in 1987, advised bereaved families against filing such petitions. The chairman of the Zochrim (We Remember) organization told Arutz Sheva that the court will not stop the release process and that the appeal process is a waste of time.”

The Almagor Terror Victims Association has announced that it intends to file a petition before the High Court of Justice on Friday, against the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the return of Gilad Shalit.

The Director General of the association, Meir Indor told Ynet: “This deal is worse than all the previous deals as it doesn’t focus on political issues but ethical ones which is why we will ask the High Court to deliberate over the issue. The entire move was made on the sly and our initial demand is to give us time to get organized. The deal must be postponed otherwise the complaints will only be submitted after the terrorists are released.

Sbarro Terror Attack in Jerusalem Photo: REUTERS

Terrorism victims petitioned the High Court of Justice on Friday against the government’s decision to release 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for tank gunner Gilad Schalit.

The Almagor Terror Victims Organization, which organized the petition, called the deal “unreasonable and disproportionate” and asked the High Court to delay the releases so victims can organize and study the list of prisoners selected to be freed.

Among the petitioners are family members of those killed in several terrorist attacks, including the 2001 Sbarro bombing in Jerusalem, which was carried out by several of the prisoners named in an unofficial list published by Hamas-affiliated Al-Aksa TV on Thursday. The official list has yet to be released by the Justice Ministry.

Petitioners say the Schalit deal is unprecedented, both because of the emotional consequences for terrorism victims and the security threat to Israeli civilians and security personnel.

Hovav Nuriel, whose father, Sasson Nuriel, 50, was kidnapped and murdered by a Hamas cell in September 2005, said his family has been shattered by the news that three of the terrorists convicted of his the brutal slaughter were apparently to be freed.

The four men – the cell’s leader, Yasser Mohammed Salah, and Ali Mohammed Ali Qadi, Abdullah Nasser Arrar and Said Ibrahim Shalaldeh – are all named on the prisoner list published by Al-Aksa.

Nuriel told The Jerusalem Post that while he did not have high hopes the High Court petition would succeed, filing it was the only way for terrorism victims to make their voices heard.

“The court needs to hear the victims’ side,” said Nuriel. “In the media frenzy over Schalit’s return, nobody wants to hear our side. But after my father was murdered we were told there would be justice. Our family has been shattered, and this is not justice. That’s why we won’t allow our voices to be silenced.”

Sasson, from the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev, worked as a candy factory worker in the industrial area of Mishor Adumim.

He was kidnapped at gunpoint by members of the cell. His captors, who included two men Sasson had worked with for years, planned to hold him hostage and exchange him for Palestinian prisoners.

The terrorists took him to an apartment in Ramallah, where they videotaped him making a forced statement. That video was later released by Hamas.

Nuriel described how his father, who spoke fluent Arabic, begged for his life.

However, the terrorists panicked when they thought security forces were on their trail. They took Sasson to a landfill outside Ramallah, and killed him with a butcher’s knife.

His bound and mutilated body was later found in Beitunya, near Ramallah.

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) captured Sasson’s murderers a few weeks later, and they were sentenced to life in prison.

Now Nuriel says his family feels “shattered” to learn that the men convicted of murdering their father and husband will be freed after serving less than six years.

“The government told us there would be justice,” Nuriel said. “And when the men who murdered my father were caught and tried, I went to the court hearings. I read the judgment after they were sentenced. The judges said, this is a trend of abduction and murder and we cannot allow it. They said, we need to send a message. And now Bibi [Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu] is saying he knows better than the judges?”

Nuriel says he is afraid that by releasing terrorist prisoners, Hamas will receive a further incentive to carry out more attacks.

“We believe that the government and the prime minister are encouraging these kinds of horrific acts,” he said. “There is no sanity, no decency in talking to Hamas.”

Nuriel pointed to recent comments by Shin Bet director Yoram Cohen that Israel can contain the dangers posed by the released terrorists.

“As civilians, we rely on the security services to protect us,” Nuriel said. “It’s an agreement between the government and civilians. But now, it’s like they are saying there is no agreement.”

Nuriel emphasizes that although he is opposed to the release of the prisoners, he is not motivated by revenge but by a desire to prevent more terrorist attacks.

“Our father will never come back,” he said. “But we don’t want others to suffer the way he did or in the way we are suffering. The media is talking about the countdown to Schalit’s return, but there should also be a countdown for the bodies of the next person to be abducted, the next person to be murdered.”

The Justice Ministry is expected to publish by Sunday morning at the latest a list of the 450 male prisoners and 27 female prisoners due for release in the first stage of the deal.

The prisoner list will be published for public viewing on the Prisons Service website, and the Justice Ministry has also announced plans to operate an information center, which will be available answer telephone inquiries from the public before the prisoners’ release.

The publication of the list is expected to result in more High Court petitions, and the Justice Ministry said in a statement that it would allow “a time span of at least 48 hours after the list is published so that the public can submit its reservations and any objections to the releases.”

Sbarro Terror Attack in Jerusalem Photo: REUTERS

In a sea of ecstatic supporters dancing and singing outside the Schalit family tent at midnight on Tuesday night, a somber Lea Schijveschuurder stood across the street to remind the masses that Gilad Schalit’s release comes at a heavy price.

Across from the tent, she held a sign that read, “The blood of my parents is screaming in their grave.” Schijveschuurder’s parents and three siblings were murdered in the terrorist attack at Sbarro in August 2001.

“Do they want them to kill more people?” a tearful Schijveschuurder asked as she stood opposite the Schalit tent and fended off arguments from Schalit supporters. “For me, enough people have died.”

While it is still unclear if the terrorists involved with the Sbarro attack will be on the list of 1,027 prisoners to be released, the Israeli public will grapple with Schijveschuurder’s difficult question as preparations to bring Schalit home begin.

“There will be a public argument – there will be an argument between one pain and another pain,” said Shimshon Liebman, the head of the Campaign to Free Gilad Schalit, early Wednesday morning as the crowds began to thin out.

“We need to be courageous to pay a price and to stay strong. One of our soldiers is worth much more than theirs are. We’ll survive the appeals because at the end of the day the Jewish morals are stronger than anything else for the people of Israel,” he said.

The head of the Almagor Terror Victims Association, Meir Indor, slammed the prisoner swap deal. “The Schalit family wins and the state loses,” he said. “It’s a victory for terror and Hamas. We know from our experience that hundreds of people will pay with future terrorist attacks, and that they’ll organize more kidnappings.”

According to Almagor, since 2004, 183 Israelis have been killed in terror attacks carried out by terrorists who were released from prison.

“How many will be killed for Schalit?” he asked, before heading into a marathon of meetings to prepare appeals to the High Court of Justice.

Indor accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of giving into popular pressure, and trying to take away the focus from the social protests from the summer, despite denouncing the practice of prisoner exchanges during his political career and in his book.

He denounced the government for sending a clear message to terrorists: “Go ahead and do terror. Continue to kill Jews. There’s no justice and no paying for it. It’s a revolving door and the system of terror is working in Israel.”

Shalom Rahum, father of terror victim Ofir Rahum, condemned on Wednesday the freeing of his son’s murderer as part of the Israel-Hamas prisoner exchange that will see the release of Gilad Schalit, according to Army Radio.

Amna Mouna, Ofir’s killer, will be freed and sent abroad.

“We’re talking about scum of the earth that will go back to terror,” Shalom said. “Even an appeal to the High Court won’t help.”

But many terror victims supported the deal.

Kay Wilson, who survived a terror attack last December which killed her friend Christine Luken, said she cried with happiness when she heard that Gilad Schalit was coming home. The trial of the terrorists who stabbed Luken to death and severely wounded Wilson just started last month, so it is highly unlikely that they will be included in the prisoner swap, because they have not yet been sentenced.

Wilson said despite her support of the prisoner swap, she had “very mixed feelings” if the men who had perpetrated the terror attack were eventually released.

“I would feel that the country has done me a personal injustice,” she said on Wednesday.

“On the other hand, there’s justice for another family. It’s the stupid dilemma we live with.”

“Emotionally, it’s healthier to celebrate life, rather than to get stuck with loss,” Wilson said.

“Death is horrible, but there’s something very redeeming about returning one of our own.”

She added that as a survivor, she had a different perspective from people like Schijveschuurder, who had lost multiple family members. Still, Wilson disagreed with the idea that the country must weigh who is in more pain, the Schalit family or the victims of terror.

“I don’t think you can ever compare pain because everyone’s experience is subjective,” she said. “On the other hand, if you experience death, it’s ghastly, but there is a closure.

It’s agony of waiting and nonclosure and not knowing [of the Schalit family] that’s almost more horrendous because they can’t get on with their life.”

Wilson said the thought of eventually releasing terrorists who perpetrated the attack against her in a future swap had plagued her since the news broke, but that she still supports Aviva and Noam Schalit.

“Of course that’s a huge fear [of their eventual release],” she said. “But I don’t think that if they weren’t released, we could have stopped terrorism anyways. It’s like cutting the grass – you can get rid of some, but it keeps growing back. It’s not like if you keep these people in prison there’s not going to be terrorism; they’re breeding terrorists through poverty and lack of education, and it’s a much more complex problem.”

Bereaved mothers meet weekly at the graves of their sons who are buried side by side in a Holon cemetery the documentary (Photo by ‘A Row and a Half’)

The High Court of Justice will hear a petition by a terror victims organization against the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Gilad Shalit. The petition is to be submitted early next week, only after Israel officially releases the names of prisoners to be included in the first stage of the swap.

Individual families of terror victims may also submit petitions, in addition to that of the Almagor Terror Victims Association.

“This is not a political decision, but a philosophical one. This deal empties the justice system of content in the name of values the prime minister considers are more important,” Almagor’s chairman, Meir Indor, told Haaretz Thursday.

The 477 names will be released on Sunday at the latest, the Justice Ministry said Wednesday.

High Court approval of the petitions against the release, or the refusal of President Shimon Peres to pardon them, could thwart implementation of the exchange deal. However, in the past the courts have turned down petitions by families seeking to prevent the en masse release of prisoners, and presidents have rubber-stamped such releases.

One such petition was submitted to the High Court two days before the release of Elhanan Tennenbaum in exchange for 400 terrorists in 2004. The reasons given to prevent the release were reasons of principle – that the released prisoners could return to terror and that the president could not properly use discretion when it came to 400 cases.

“With all due understanding of the families, there is no choice but to reject their petition,” Justice Theodor Or ruled at the time.

In 2008, Justice Eliezer Rivlin ruled, in the case of Samir Kuntar – who was convicted of murdering a policeman and members of the Haran family in Nahariya in 1979 and released in exchange for the bodies of Israel Defense Forces soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev – that the release of prisoners was at the government’s discretion.

It seems unlikely that Peres, who has spoken enthusiastically in favor of the Shalit swap, will stand in the way. Moreover, Peres was prime minister in 1985, in the so-called Jibril swap, when 1,150 security prisoners, were released in return for three IDF soldiers, Hezi Shai, Nissim Salem and Yosef Grof, who were captured during the first Lebanon war. Included in that swap were Kozo Okamoto, among the perpetrators of the Lod airport massacre in 1972, and Ahmed Yasin, who became Hamas’ spiritual leader.

According to procedure, the Israel Prison Service posts a list of names on its website for 48 hours, to allow interested parties to examine it and petition the High Court.

Indor said Almagor is still debating whether to submit one or two petitions to the High Court – one petition on the principle, or two, one on principle and the other based on specific names on the list when it is released.

Justice Ministry director general Guy Rottkopf, who is coordinating an interministerial committee on the release, held a meeting Wednesday to finalize legal and organizational aspects.

Israeli Cabinet Approves Shalit Deal (Flash 90)

A senior security official with the IDF, who was involved in the capture of many terrorists over the years, said on Wednesday that the deal to bring back Gilad Shalit is dangerous to Israel.

“As part of the deal we will be releasing 1,000 murderers in exchange for one soldier who is very important and dear to us,” the official told Arutz Sheva, “but we must remember that many soldiers were sent and made substantial efforts – some of which resulted in the spilling of the blood of our soldiers – to get those murderers behind bars.”

He added, “If we add up the number of soldiers who were sacrificed in order to capture these killers, it seems that a lot more blood of soldiers was spilled while capturing these terrorists than one soldier in captivity.”

The official further stated that Israel has had a very bad experience with such prisoner exchange deals in the past.

“It has been proven in previous deals that freed terrorists return to terrorism,” he said. “More than once we caught terrorists who were already in Israeli jails and were released. This means that in future we’ll have to compromise the lives of our soldiers yet again to bring those murderers who were released in this deal back to prison in Israel.”

“This deal endangers the Jewish people any way you look at it,” the official added. “I have no explanation for the decisions made by those who are responsible for the security of the State.”

Upon hearing the news of the deal to bring back Shalit, some family members of terror victims were quick to condemn the deal, saying it means surrendering to terror.

Spontaneous demonstrations took place outside the Prime Minister’s office Tuesday night, in which several dozen family members of victims of terrorism in Jerusalem protested the prospective deal.

Bentzi Ben-Shoham, whose sister was killed in the 2002 terror attack at Café Moment in Jerusalem, said that “this is a difficult day for all of us. It’s a happy day for Israelis with a short memory. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was unable to stand up to the other side in negotiations last summer on the protests for a lower standard of living, and more recently with the medical residents. But he apparently is able to hold his own in negotiations with arch-terrorists.”

Meir Indor, director of the Almagor terror victims’ organization, said that Netanyahu, “the ‘expert’ on dealing with terror, criticized in his book the 1985 Jibril deal, in which Israel released 1,150 terrorists for three IDF soldiers. But Netanyahu gave more in this deal. Netanyahu clearly crumples under pressure. I would recommend that the public begin wearing bulletproof vests from now on.”

In a televised speech he made on Tuesday, Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas’ political bureau in Damascus, said that the terrorists who will be released in the Gilad Shalit deal will “return to the struggle.”

While activists who have been demanding freedom for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit expressed joy at the prospect of Gilad’s returning home, another group of Israelis—the families of the victims of terror attacks undertaken by the terrorists who will be released in exchange for Shalit—expressed, in many cases, anger at the deal.

Spontaneous demonstrations took place outside the Prime Minister’s office Tuesday night, in which several dozen family members of victims of terrorism in Jerusalem protested the prospective deal. Israeli media reports claimed that Hamas had compromised and agreed not to demand some of the worst terrorists in Israeli prisons, satisfying itself with lesser terrorists and all female terrorists being held by Israel. But top Hamas terrorist Khaled Masha’al denied those reports, saying that the list of terrorists to be released included all the major ones that Israel had, until now, opposed freeing.

Protest Against Shalit Deal (Flash 90)

Speaking at the demonstration in Jerusalem Tuesday night, Benzi Ben-Shoham, whose sister was killed in the 2002 terror attack at Cafe Moment in Jerusalem, told Arutz 7 that “this is a difficult day for all of us. It’s a happy day for Israelis with a short memory. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was unable to stand up to the other side in negotiations last summer on the protests for a lower standard of living, and more recently with the medical residents. But he apparently is able to hold his own in negotiations with arch-terrorists,” Ben-Shoham said sarcastically. “This is a surrender to terror.”

Speaking on Israel Television, Yehudit Shachor, whose son Uri was killed with a friend in a 1995 terror attack in Wadi Qelt, said that while she was happy for the Shalits, “I wish I could be happy as a mother with my child could coming home. But that is not going to happen. I am also very fearful because I know these terrorists will continue to murder and the same thing will happen in the future. I truly hope that Netanyahu knows what he is doing.”

Meir Indor, director of the Almagor terror victims organization, was also at the protest. Indor said that Netanyahu, “the ‘expert’ on dealing with terror, criticized in his book the 1985 Jibril deal, in which Israel released 1,150 terrorists for three IDF soldiers. But Netanyahu gave more in this deal. In meetings we have had with him, Netanyahu said he would never surrender to terror, and promised not to give even a tenth of what he is giving now. Netanyahu clearly crumples under pressure. I would recommend that the public begin wearing bulletproof vests from now on,” Indor added.

Joining victims’ families in opposing the deal were several MKs, including Michael Ben-Ari (National Union), who said that “this is a bad deal for Israel, and shows that Netanyahu cannot stand up to pressure. The writing is on the wall. In the wake of this deal Israeli streets will be flooded with blood. With all the sadness involved, I call on ministers to oppose this deal.”

Meir Indor, the Chairman of the Almagor Terror Victims Association, criticized, on Sunday, Israel’s decision to transfer the body of a terrorist to the Palestinian Authority.

“The way Israel is going, all that was left was for the army to send an honor guard to the military funeral organized by the PA,” Indor said. “How awful it is to do this on the same day that memorial ceremonies for the fighters who fell in the Yom Kippur War are held.”

“This is a process planned by Barak and the Israeli Civil Administration to release scores of murderers at the request of the PA after the plan was halted due to public criticism when exposed to six months ago,” Indor added. “This time, the Civil Administration will do it gradually to accustom the Israeli public to it.”