Prisoners Released
With Samir Kuntar about to be released within the next few hours, we hold out the hope that Goldwasser and Regev are somehow still alive. While we all wait and pray, I thought this old list from the BtB archives might make relevant reading.
Let's talk about Prisoner Releases(BTW, The New York Times has on multiple occasions asserted that the release of Palestinian prisoners is required by the Road Map. It is not even mentioned there.)
The "refrigerator bomber, " Ahmad El-Sukar, was among 100 released in June 2003 and became a "special assistant" to Arafat. He had placed a refrigerator in Zion Square in Jerusalem, bomb in the motor. He murdered 14 people, and maimed 60. He served 28 years before being released as a "goodwill gesture" to the Palestinians.
Sheik Hassan Yousef was released from Israeli prison in Nov. 2004. Somehow he must've gotten himself back into prison since then because he is listed among the 15 inmates elected to Palestinian legislative office yesterday.
Suleiman Abu Mutlak was released in June 2003, only two months after his arrest for taking part in a deliberate attack on an Israeli school bus. In that attack three children from the same family lost legs. One of them, 11 years old, lost both her legs; a brother and a sister each lost one leg.
Muhanad Aby Romy was imprisoned for buying weapons for Islamic Jihad. He was released in 2005 and then arrested again later in the same year for being part of a (thwarted) plan for a double suicide bombing in suburban Jerusalem.
Israel released 159 Palestinian prisoners on December 27, 2004, including over 100 who were "charged with membership in a forbidden organization, dealing in weapons, attempted shooting and bomb attacks, preparing bombs, sheltering fugitives and perpetrating stone-throwing and firebomb attacks" plus 52 Palestinians who entered Israel illegally.
500 prisoners were released in February 2005, and 400 more in July.
I know this list is by no means exhaustive (which is what I was trying to do last go-round), but it gives you an idea.
Posted by: Kae Gregory | Tuesday, 15 July 2008 at 10:35 PM