Posted on 02/06/2005 11:44:24 AM PST by anotherview
Feb. 5, 2005 22:17 | Updated Feb. 6, 2005 21:01
Mofaz: Israel has frozen fugitive hunt
By HERB KEINON AND KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Palestinians during a demonstration in Gaza City calling for the release of prisoners being held by Israel
Photo: AP
Israel and the Palestinians have reached an agreement whereby Israel would stop hunting wanted terror suspects on the condition that each fulfills five conditions, including handing in their weapons and promising not to participate in terror activities, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the cabinet Sunday.
The other three conditions include withdrawing their membership from terrorist organizations, capitulating to the supervision of the Palestinian security forces, and remaining within the cities that are to be transferred to Palestinian security control.
Israel has agreed to gradually hand over five West Bank cities to PA control, starting with Jericho, Bethlehem, Kalkilya and Tulkarem, and ending with Ramallah.
In the meantime, Mofaz said, Israel has "temporarily frozen" its search for the wanted men – a list of some 350 – including those in the Gaza Strip.
Mofaz told the cabinet that a joint Palestinian-Israeli committee would be established to discuss the issue of the wanted men, and such matters as how long they would have to remain in one of the five Palestinian cities, and whether someone who was wanted, for example, in Jenin – which is not on the list of cities to be transferred – could go to Jericho and find refuge there.
Mofaz said that Israel would discuss with the Palestinians if, when and how the 14 Palestinians who were holed up in the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, and deported in 2002, would be able to return.
The joint committee to deal with the wanted men is just one of two joint Palestinian-Israeli committees that will be set up – the other one being a committee to deal with the contentious issue of prisoner releases. This committee, Mofaz told the cabinet, would deal with the names on the list and Palestinian requests for the release of particular detainees.
Mofaz told the cabinet that Israel agreed to release 900 prisoners in two stages, the first group of 500 would be released soon after the four-way summit in Sharm e-Sheikh on Tuesday, and the other 400 within the next three months if the Palestinians would move to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure.
Mofaz said that this list of 900 would not include any prisoner with "blood on his hands" in the widest sense of the term, meaning that it would not include those who carried out, assisted, or planned attacks that killed Israelis.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who left the meeting early to attend his aunt's funeral, stressed that, contrary to press reports, none of those involved in the killing of former minister Rehavam Ze'evi would be released.
Mofaz said that Muhammed Dahlan presented him with a special list of six prisoners that the PA wanted to be released, including Marwan Barghouti and his son Kassam. Of that list, Mofaz said Israel only agreed to release Kassam and a high-ranking member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, neither of whom had blood on their hands. Barghouti, a student in Egypt, was arrested on entering the West Bank in 2003 on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities.
The names of the 900 prisoners to be released will be drawn up by the Israeli security services and then vetted by a ministerial committee that includes Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Mofaz, Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra, Justice minister Tzipi Livni, Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Minister Haim Ramon.
Mofaz told the cabinet that Israel refused a Palestinian request to re-open the airport in Gaza that was closed after the beginning of the violence in September 2000, but that Israel gave the Palestinians a green light to begin planning and raising funds for the opening of a sea port. The final okay for the sea port would have to come latter, he added.
He also said that Israel agreed to raise the number of Palestinian workers permitted into Israel from the West Bank by some 2,000, to 18,000, and that 500 permits would be given to Palestinians to work at the Erez industrial zone.
Mofaz said that while the PA has deployed security forces throughout Gaza, they were not yet actively fighting terror, and that was a key problem. He also warned that Hizbullah would likely try to carry out an attack inside Israel before Tuesday's summit in an attempt to ensure its failure.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told the cabinet that in recent days there has been a change in the tone of programs on the Palestinian Authority television network. He said this was manifest in an end to programs inciting to violence, that he said were a staple of the programming under Yasser Arafat. He said today there is more "singing and dancing" in the programming.
Shalom said this was "an important and welcome" change, but that still more needed to be done to stop the incitement against Israel.
Can my people really be this stupid?
ML/NJ
So, Israel turns over five cities, releases a $#!&load of prisoners and stops hunting for loose terrorists, while the Palestinians make five promises they have no intention of keeping.
Such a deal.
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I wasn't sure how to comment. Your comment sums it up quite nicely.
I am really afraid Shimon Peres is starting to have influence again. This smacks of the sort of naive thinking he is known for.
What the &%#* kind of democracy is it where some shmuck that wasn't even elected gets to call the shots?
Imagine Jimmy Carter as Secretary of Defense.
Prime Minister Sharon was elected. In addition, Likud voted to allow him to open coalition talks with Labour. Likud members KNEW that meant Peres was going to be in the government, probably in a senior role.
Unity governments have always been a popular idea in Israel. Considering how inneffective they often are I always wonder why that is so.
Release the palesite prisoners to their home villages from about 5000 feet.
And the answer is...to look at the map of 'palestine'.
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