Israel Frees 250 Palestinian Prisoners

(AP)  Israel released more than 250 Palestinian prisoners Friday in an attempt to bolster moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with Hamas.

Leaning out of bus windows and hoisting Palestinian flags, the prisoners headed to Abbas' headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah for a festive reception.

"All the suffering, all the pain is gone," said released prisoner Iyad Milhem, 30, as he rode on one of the buses. "But we still hope for the release of all the other prisoners."

Most of those released were from Abbas' Fatah movement. Prominent among the freed prisoners was 61-year-old Abdel Rahim Malouh, second-in-command in a small PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which assassinated an Israeli Cabinet minister in 2001.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said they hoped the release marked a new chapter in relations following seven years of bloody fighting. The new cooperation between Israel and the moderate Palestinian leadership was driven, in part, by the violent takeover of Gaza by Hamas last month.

Friday's release began shortly after daybreak when the shackled prisoners left the Ketziot prison camp in southern Israel and boarded buses with darkened windows that took them to the West Bank. At an Israeli military checkpoint in the West Bank, the prisoners got off the buses, some kissing the ground, and boarded Palestinian buses that took them to the West Bank.

Israel holds about 9,200 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom were arrested during the past seven years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. Almost every Palestinian family has had a member in Israeli jails at some point, and the fate of the prisoners is one of the most emotionally charged issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

For Palestinians, the prisoners are heroes in the struggle for statehood, and large-scale prisoner releases are seen as an effective way for Israel to back Abbas in his confrontation with the Islamic militants who took the Gaza Strip by force last month.

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[radiob-2009]

None of these individuals had blood on their hands so for what were they charged with? One had served 18 years out of 20. Abdel Rahim Malouh it is not stated exactly how long he or the others were in prison or the charges of which they were found guilty of.Before anyone makes any assumption of innocence or guilt one has to know what the individuals were charged with and the evidence that convicted them. I see people posting on both sides of this and neither offer any sources as to the claims they are making. 9200 prisoners cannot all be innocent of not having committed some crime but lets stick with the two that we have names for. What were they charged with? I could find nothing on Abdel Rahim Malouh for charges. Perhaps someone else can do better.

[grazinggoat]

HeartBreaking Story!

I really have to relay this to you. I have been deeply touched by this story. Here's some of it.

YNETNEWS : 'After the arrest, the children moved into their grandmother's house, and she said that their mental condition had drastically deteriorated since. The three older children had to be sent to an orphans' school, because the grandparents cannot provide for them, and the younger ones "have become more violent and also tend to cry a lot," Raisa said.'

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3427823,00.html

[tuckerndfw]

Clearly demonstrating they were political prisoners.

How many political prisoners is Israel still holding?

And, why isn't the Israeli military sending troops to help in Afghanistan and Iraq? What's up with that? They claim to be an "ally," but I see no evidence to support that.

[a1qwy]

I noticed 2 users above seem off in frequency of posts, almost like its their job. They are pwrism, and cyberq.

pwrism doesn%u2019t know history as there is no evidence of ancient "jewish" population there, only in fictional religious history books. In Jerusalem they%u2019ve been digging for artifacts for 50 years since they removed the natives, and havnt found anything about the ancient "Jewish" tribes who lived there. That%u2019s because they lived in Babylon. Even by Christian standards Jesus who was a Jew didn%u2019t even speak Hebrew! Search for the artifacts proven forgeries like the James, brother Jesus ossuary and how the same guy had forged millions in the last 20 years.

I remember reading in the old testament one time, that if the Israelites following Moses did not obey the law they would be expelled and humiliated before the world. This happened to them, and religiously they arnt to return until their messiah comes. The messiah according to Christians and Muslims was a man named Jesus.

As for cyberq, saying that its a good idea to release a person gathering intelligence from another country illegally just because he is a citizen of an "elite" country is wrong, and biased.

I also think anyone that criticizes Israel in any regard should not be constantly flagged and their post removed as is above, this is supposed to be free speech, and I know its not hate speech. If we criticize America is it removed as when we criticize Israel government policy?

[grazinggoat]

Israel never gives anything without hoping to receive something in exchange. They hope to receive back Shalit from Hamas and at the same time to show a cleaner face to the world. ''Look what we're doing'' all news media are drummin' for Israel. On another hand the Israelis are releasing people from Fatah, IDF units have swept throughout Gaza and West-Bank, JUST because they belong to Fatah... No blood on their hands whatsoever. ''Those, we call them POLITICAL PRISONERS''.

This move is a good will move, but so tiny. It just diminishes the ILLEGALITY Israel is swimming in since they KIDNAPPED those individuals. (I say kidnapped, because it's a more approriate term to qualify those CIVILIANS)

This move will just reduce the level of Illegality pool it's swimming in. What Israel should do is a good gesture toward Hamas. Similar to the courageous one they did with former Cabinet member they released for health reason. Israel can afford such moves, and should go ahead with it...

[pwrslm]

Funny how the pro Israeli side conveniently forgets that Palestine was invaded and occupied by Europeans after WW2.
Posted by brianbwb

Thats a perfect example of ignorance. There has been a continuous presence in the palestine territory of Jews/Hebrews for 3500 years. To conclude that the territory was invaded is blithering ignorance, the territory was originally Israel and Judah, the home of the Jews, not the Arabs. There was "never" a nation called palestine. The territory was held by the Ottoman Empire up until 1917, when the Ottoman kaliphate was defeated. Even the Ottoman occupiers didnt call the territory palestine, because it attributed ownership to the Jews. The territory was called palestine by the Romans, after they razed Jerusalem to the ground, and dissipated the Jews as slaves to the empire. It is named after the philistines, which were the Jews ancient enemies, which were also an extinct culture and nation that no longer existed 2000 years ago when all this happened.

There is no such nationality as palestine, and no such people as palestinians. Its a lie concocted by the Arabs to justify thier continued occupation of the territory that rightly belongs to the Jewish people.

[brianbwb-2009]

Funny how the pro Israeli side conveniently forgets that Palestine was invaded and occupied by Europeans after WW2. Their continued insistence that the people who lived on that land before the arrival of the Europeans have no right or reason to resist the theft of their land is strikingly similar to the attitude of early American settlers, who would kill the Natives, then act as if they themselves had been wronged when the natives retaliated in defense of their land.

[petesis]

These hostages freedom is directly attributable to Hamas strength, not Fatahs cooperation. The arms race/money race is on now and the US will be pouring money into Fatah. Of course the Arab pro Palestinians will be pouring it into Hamas. I see no good news here, only further polarization of the factions with one being perceived as a toady.

[pwrslm]

Israel gains nothing but more and more enemies by such acts of appeasment and by playing crybaby to the world. What a shame on such a powerful country.
Posted by cyberq

What a crock of sh..t.

simply put, the only way you could maintain that possition is if you ignore the thousands of attacks against Israeli civilians the these same arabs Israel is releasing committed, its not wrong to act agressive when you are defending against people who shoot rockets and mortars randomly into cities almost daily

ignorance is when you dont know, or refuse to recognize the truth, and boy oh boy, you certainly qualify.

[pwrslm]

All this while Israeli prisoner Jonaton Pollard continues to sit for life in US prison....
Posted by cyberq


And he was an american. Like, he made 11 drops to a rogue Israeli intelligence unit, and got blamed for giving them volumes of data. The prosecutor misinformed the court about the data, the court refused to recognize that the data delivered actually didnt pertain to US security as much as it did Israels enemies and thier activities, which was the result of US spying on other nations.

Pollard should be freed. His spying was not against the USA.