Terror Victims: Don’t Release Prisoners

Roee Nahmias

Terror Victims: Don’t Release Prisoners

Terror victims association Almagor: ‘What will families of soldiers who fell in battles against terrorism say when the terrorists are about to released? What did their sons die for?’

Ynet

2006-06-07

Almagor, the terror victims association said it is opposed to any prisoners being released as part of a deal to bring home kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.

“We don’t want to see terrorists coming out to freedom while those they murdered are buried under the ground,” Meir Eindor, director-general of Almagor said.

The organization has announced the start of a public campaign that will oppose any prisoner releases for Shalit, the solution hoped for by Shalit’s family.

Shalit’s father, Noam, called on the government to hold negotiations with the kidnappers, even if the price for returning him home is the release of prisoners.

Almagor is concerned that due to Shalit’s comments, a public campaign will begin to free Palestinian prisoners, and they have begun to organize an opposing front.

Eindor told Ynet: “I was injured during a pursuit of four terrorists, and I knew I could have been killed. Why did the State send me for the pursuit mission after four terrorists when their comrades are about to be released? What will the families of soldiers who fell in battles when those captured in those same battles are about to be released? For what did their sons fall?”

Addressing Shalit’s comments, Eindor said: “The release of prisoners as a gesture was on the agenda before, so there is no reason it won’t be on the agenda afterwards, in an attempt to release a fighter sent by the State to the front.”

Speaking with journalists, Shalit was asked whether Israel should talk with Hamas about a prisoner release for returning Gilad.

‘Everything Has a Price’

“Everything has a price,” he said. “I don’t’ suppose that there will be some kind of maneuver for the release of Gilad without a price. That’s the way it is in the Middle East. The question is, why are they still waiting. I want to believe that negotiations are being held in this spirit, on a secret channel, which we are not being briefed about.”

Shalit added: “For the families affected by terrorism, part of the recovery is to see the presence of justice on their attacker. At Almagor there are bereaved families of families killed while pursuing terrorists, and they are asking – if the State endangered our sons for one terrorist, how will you have the courage to again endanger other soldiers to catch a terror cello?”

Eindor said that Almagor is planning on launching a public campaign where the organization will recommend “the death sentence for terrorists in our hands, so that if one hair is harmed from the head the hostage – the State will carry out the punishment. They must know that prison is the minimal sentence.”