Protesters rally in front of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, Wednesday (photo credit: Yonatan Zindel)

Some 200 Israelis marched in Jerusalem on Wednesday to protest the possible release of Arab prisoners. The demonstrators held pictures of some 300 Israelis who had been killed by prisoners who were released or were about to be released as part of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The march originated from the intersection of King George Street and Jaffa Road, the site of a major 2001 suicide bombing. Some of the perpetrators of that attack, which took place at a now-defunct Sbarro pizza parlor, were released by Israel.

Protesters started the demonstration by reciting psalms. Then, Rabbi Yehuda Ben-Yishai, whose daughter Ruth Fogel was killed in Itamar three years ago together with her husband and three of her children, recited the Mourner’s Kaddish. Demonstrators then marched to the U.S. Consulate on Agron Street to protest the reported American offer to release imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard alongside the Palestinian prisoners. “Bibi, wake-up,” they chanted, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They also chanted, “Do not release terrorists,” “Don’t let Jewish blood be spilled,” and “Don’t release murders.”

“They are going to walk out of prison and get another opportunity to kill more Jews,” lamented one demonstrator. “Why are they going to release them?” she asked. “For more blood?”

The son of Haim Smadar, who was killed when a terrorist blew herself up in a Jerusalem supermarket, said, “Three weeks ago the government gave the Palestinians the remains of the bomber who killed my father; the government of Israel did not notify me, and did not ask for my opinion on this matter.”

Meir Indor, the director of the Almagor Terror Victims Association, spoke before the demonstrators, saying, “The U.S. is essentially blackmailing us like Hamas; Hamas kidnapped Gilad Schalit to have murderers released; the U.S. is holding Pollard to get Israel to release murderers, too. It is very sad to see the U.S. employing Hamas-style tactics.” Indor called on the Israeli government to stand firm and not give up to the “U.S. extortion,” stressing that “[the predominantly national religious party] Habayit Hayehudi must leave the government over this deal.”

Protesters ended their protest in front of the Prime Minister’s Residence, where they assembled a makeshift collage using the pictures they were carrying.