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Israel releases Palestinian prisoners: a life sentence for victims

By Frimet Roth - posted Thursday, 7 July 2005


In this chilling climate, the chances that the Palestinian Authority will perform the role Adato envisioned for it are slim to nil. The realistic expectation is that “rehabilitation” will be handled by the terror organisations that sponsored and nurtured these prisoners all along. And it will involve plenty of re-training and re-arming.

Recidivism, however, is not the only real and immediate risk that should concern us. Every aspiring terrorist-in-training now understands the new rules of the game. Israel, which has long refrained from imposing the death penalty, has now removed the one meaningful deterrent in their path: extended prison terms. How much time will the perpetrators of next month's terrorist bombing spend in Israeli prison before their early exodus?

Is there really no option but to continue down the slippery-slide of reckless releases? How concerned are Israel's ministers (protected by 24-hour armed security themselves) by the danger they are inflicting on the public? Do these releases achieve a payoff? And if yes, then will someone please tell us what it is? After the release of the 398, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia said: "We have to concentrate all our efforts to see all our prisoners to be free and released." Palestinian Minister of Prisoner Affairs, Sofian Abu Zaydeh, declared: "If this step was aimed at strengthening President Mahmoud Abbas, then it is not enough." Agence France Press reported the Palestinians want all the terrorists released, including the murderers responsible for the bloodiest massacres.

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With each release, Palestinian demands for the release of all 7,000 prisoners grow more insistent and that admirable Irish model grows less relevant. If the pay-off Israel expected is an appreciative and co-operative PA, it is clear they were way off the mark.

The prison service's Amato referred to the "understandable sensitivity to early release on the part of the families of victims of Palestinian terrorism". And Voice of America, commenting on last month's release, observed that such decisions "are not popular in Israel where most people have family or friends who were killed or wounded in terrorist attacks".

Those are accurate assessments. Thousands of Israelis have experienced the death and maiming of loved ones at the hands of the Palestinians, and nearly everyone else here knows someone who has. Nevertheless, the public has been nearly mute. A terror-victim support organisation, Almagor, lodged urgent last-minute appeals to the High Court of Justice hours before Israel handed over the prisoners. They were rejected both times. So the releases have been steam-rolling ahead without a hitch.

Perhaps if we ponder how the 900 recently released convicts are now spending their days, a sense of urgency will replace our calm. Of course, it will be tempting to fantasise that they have been miraculously transformed into moral human beings. But it is not too late to face the bitter truth: releasing the 900 was a mistake. Let's not allow our leaders to compound it any further.

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About the Author

Frimet Roth is a bereaved mother whose daughter, an Australian citizen born in Melbourne, was murdered in a terror attack in August, 2001. The Keren Malki Foundation can be found here.

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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