WEST BANK/JERUSALEM: ISRAEL RELEASES FIRST OF THREE PALESTINIAN PRISONERS AS SETTLERS PROTEST AT LAND TRANSFERS

Record ID: 400534

  • Title: WEST BANK/JERUSALEM: ISRAEL RELEASES FIRST OF THREE PALESTINIAN PRISONERS AS SETTLERS PROTEST AT LAND TRANSFERS
  • Date: 20th June 2000
  • Summary: JERICHO, WEST BANK (JUNE 19, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. MV RELEASED PALESTINIAN PRISONER BILAL ABDEL-KARIM WALKS TOWARDS RELATIVES IN JERICHO; HUGGING AND KISSING HIS MOTHER AS RELATIVES THROW RIVE 0.08 2. SCU ABDEL-KARIM HUGGING AND KISSING HIS MOTHER (AUDIO RELATIVES ULULATING) 0.22 3. SCU PALESTINIAN CHILD HOLDING PALESTINIAN FLAG OUTSIDE HOUSE
  • Embargoed: 5th July 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JERICHO, WEST BANK/JERUSALEM
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA2E1ZUWW5HXXIJ6QPANTQRO4XR
  • Story Text: Israel has released the first of three Palestinian
    prisoners convicted of wounding Israelis in attacks as Jewish
    settlers protest against further transfers of land to
    Palestinians.

    Jubilant relatives welcomed the return of Bilal
    Abdel-Karim to the West Bank town of Jericho early on Monday
    (June 19) after the Palestinian prisoner's release from an
    Israeli jail.

    Abdel-Karim, the first of three Palestinian prisoners slated
    for release during the day, was sentenced to a 27-year term in
    1990 for two attacks on Israelis.

    "We call on the Palestinian Authority, being partner in the
    peace process, to try for comprehensive peace, a just peace,
    and the first priority is to release all the prisoners,"
    Abdel-Karim said from Jericho hours after his release.

    The other two prisoners included in the release were Mahmoud
    Juma and Shadi Aziz Ali of Arab East Jerusalem.

    Israels Prisons Authority said Juma was sentenced in 1993
    to eight years behind bars for participating in an attack in
    which five Israelis were wounded.

    Ali was sentenced to 16 years in 1994 for involvement in an
    attack in which two Israelis were wounded.

    Israel said their release was a goodwill gesture because
    it was not obliged to do so by any agreement with the
    Palestinians.

    "What we are doing is a gesture, maybe the Palestinians
    are expecting that our gesture will be more generous," a minister
    at the prime ministers office, Haim Ramon, said late on Sunday.

    "I hope (it) will be accepted by the Palestinians and
    they will bless it and will not curse it," Ramon said.

    Israel has freed a number of Palestinian prisoners in
    similar goodwill gestures that are not related to releases
    mandated by interim peace deals.

    Palestinians said the number of prisoners fell short of
    their demands.

    Last week, Palestinian negotiators in Washington briefly
    suspended one track of peace talks with Israel, saying it had
    failed to meet obligations to free prisoners. They demanded
    the release of the 1,650 Palestinians in Israeli jails.

    The release of the prisoners coincided with a rally by
    hundreds of Jewish settlers in front of parliament (Knesset)
    in Jerusalem. They gathered to protest against the possibility of
    removing West Bank Jewish settlements in a peace deal with
    Palestinians.

    We need a peace we can live with, read one sign.

    Last month, Barak spelled out a vision for a peace agreement
    that would extend Israeli sovereignty to occupied land in
    which 80 percent of settlers live. Angry settlers accused Barak of
    ceding the rest to the Palestinians.

    Israel and the Palestinians are negotiating a framework
    for a final peace to iron out the toughest issues of their
    conflict, including the fate of settlers, who have intensified
    their street protests.


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