WEST BANK: Family of Palestinian prisoner anxious to greet son, others still await their turn

Record ID: 563172

  • Title: WEST BANK: Family of Palestinian prisoner anxious to greet son, others still await their turn
  • Date: 26th September 2007
  • Summary: EXTERIOR OF PRISON
  • Embargoed: 11th October 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA36NPK8QDS7EZEKHFOSS39YNZM
  • Story Text: Im Tayseer has waited for this day for four years - her son is one of some 90 Palestinian prisoners on the list Israel published of prisoners due to be set free in coming days as a gesture to bolster the Western backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. But Palestinians still await the fate of more than 10,000 imprisoned relatives.
    Im Tayseer smiles as she reminisces over a photograph of her son, Yasser, due to be released from an Israeli prison in the coming days.
    "We are very happy when a prisoner goes home, but honestly 91 out of more than 11,000 prisoners does not meet the minimum of our aspirations and expectations," said Im Tayseer.
    "I calculate and tell him on October 15th you would have finished four years (in prison) I told him this. He said mom am going to be released soon God willing I hope to God that we will be free soon and freedom is near," she explained.
    Im Tayseer already lost one son to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, her son Ahmed had been shot dead during the first Intifada, uprising for independence, back in 1989. Yasser, however, will be released only after serving half of his sentence of eight years.
    Israel will release prisoners who are members of Abbas' secular Fatah faction. Officials said the goal was to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June.
    Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had been expected to free 100 Fatah prisoners ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan but their release had been delayed.
    Officials said the prisoners to be released would have "no blood on their hands" and at least one year left on their sentences.
    They would be released on condition they signed a document promising not to be involved in violence.
    But Abu Abed Skafi, a spokesman for prisoner families in Hebron and a father of two imprisoned in Israeli detention centres, shares sorrow with several other relatives whose loved ones are still being held in Israeli prisons.
    "We are very happy when a prisoner goes home, but honestly 91 out of more than 11,000 prisoners does not meet the minimum of our aspirations and expectations," said Abu Abed Skafi.
    "Israel is playing a game, 91 prisoners (to be released), I believe this week alone there has been more than 120 Palestinians imprisoned in the West Bank," Skafi added.
    Israel freed more than 250 Palestinian prisoners, mostly Fatah members, on July 20, in a bid to boost Abbas.
    The prisoners issue is highly emotive for Palestinians, who see their over 11,000 loved ones held in Israeli jails as fighters for freedom from Israeli occupation in the West Bank.
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