The Prisoners Dilemma

Shlomo Cesana; Daniel Siryoti; Efrat Forsher

The Prisoners Dilemma

Israel agrees to release 85 Palestinian prisoners considered “heavyweight terrorists,” who were imprisoned prior to 1993 Oslo accords • Government plans on pursuing gradual prisoner release, according to the progress achieved in the peace talks.

Israel Hayom

2013-07-21


Lior Mizrahi | Photo credit: Releasing prisoners in 2008

Israel has agreed to release 85 Palestinian terrorists who were convicted and imprisoned prior to the 1993 Oslo Accords. The government plans to release the prisoners gradually, with the first phase set to take place in four to six weeks. The Palestinian Authority demanded the immediate release of all 85 prisoners as a precondition for resuming peace talks with Israel, but the request was denied.

The terrorists in question were convicted of multiple counts of murder and sentenced to more than one life sentence. All of them have so far served between 20 and 28 years of their sentences. Some 119 prisoners are currently serving out sentences in Israeli jails for cases predating the Oslo Accords. Fifteen of them were convicted of criminal offenses and 19 are Israeli Arab. Neither group is expected to be released as part of the PA deal.

As in previous cases, the list of prisoners slated to be released will be made public only shortly before the deal takes place, to allow various individuals and groups to petition the High Court of Justice over specific cases.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has reportedly made several specific requests, asking for the release of Hamas operatives Mahmoud Isa and Majed Abu Kteish, who were convicted of the abduction and murder of Border policeman Sgt. Maj. Nissim Toledano in 1992; Jamil Hassan Mahmoud Abu Srour and Hassan Abd Hamid Nasser Abu Srour from Beit Jala, who together murdered Shin Bet agent Hayim Nahmani in 1993, one month after Israel deported hundreds of Hamas operatives to Lebanon; and Daoud Adal Hassan Mahmad, who was convicted of the 1987 murder of Ofra Moses and her son, Tal, in a Molotov cocktail attack on their car near the Alfei Menashe settlement in western Samaria.

Each of the 15 Diplomatic-Security Cabinet members voted to approve, in principle, the condition for resuming the peace talks with the Palestinians. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who two months ago called the list of prisoners a list of “terrorists, threats and the most terrible [people],” said Saturday that there had been a need to “release [the prisoners] a long time ago, within the framework of previous agreements.”

Tourism Minister Uzi Landau balked at the deal, saying, “We cannot make such a gesture before negotiations, without preconditions, actually start. Releasing prisoners is a mistake.”

A tentative list of the prisoners likely to be released in the deal has been posted on the Almagor Terror Victims Association website. Almagor Director Lt. Col. (ret.) Meir Indor decried the decision, saying, “Releasing prisoners with blood on their hands makes a mockery of justice, insults the bereaved families and erodes [Israeli] deterrence against terrorism.”

Yossi Tzur, whose 17-year-old son Assaf was murdered in a 2003 suicide attack on a Haifa bus, said, “Israel is turning into the only country in the world where [terrorists] can murder civilians and escape punishment under the auspices of the government.”