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ISRAEL HAS FREED 26 Palestinian prisoners under peace talks brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who returns to the region this week to boost the faltering negotiations.
The prisoners were the third batch of 104 detainees that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to let go in four stages when the peace talks were revived in July.
The release shortly after 0000 GMT came after an Israeli court rejected a last-minute appeal by victims’ families.
Washington hailed the release as a “positive step forward in the overall process” as Kerry prepared to return to the region on New Year’s Day to hammer out a framework to guide the fragile peace talks.
A Palestinian official told AFP that “two vans carrying (18) prisoners left Ofer prison” for Ramallah.
Three other prisoners taken to the Gaza Strip and five others driven from Ofer to Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem reached their destinations just before 02:30 am (0030 GMT), AFP correspondents said.
Victims’ families had protested the release of the five east Jerusalem prisoners, which they said contradicted a commitment made by Netanyahu.
The 26 inmates had been jailed before the signing of the 1993 Oslo accords, which formally launched the Middle East peace process, and served 19 to 28 years for killing Israeli civilians or soldiers.
The 18 men taken to Ramallah were warmly embraced by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in his presidential compound, a correspondent said, before laying flowers on the grave of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Abbas pledged to the prisoners and their exuberant families that “there would be no final agreement (with Israel) until all prisoners were in their homes.”
The final tranche of prisoner releases is expected at the end of April.
The freed prisoners are hailed by Palestinians as heroes imprisoned for fighting against the Israeli occupation.
Emotions were also high on the Israeli side, where the jailed militants are viewed as murderers. Some 150 protesters marched on Monday night from the premier’s residence in Jerusalem, bearing pictures of their bereaved relatives and posters with slogans against the release.
Tuesday’s release was expected to be accompanied by announcements of new construction plans for Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, as the previous two prisoner releases were.
Such a move is likely to infuriate the Palestinians and international community, providing a further challenge to Kerry when he arrives on his 10th trip to the region since March.
Kerry meanwhile expressed his “appreciation” for Tuesday’s move, State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said a short while prior to the release.
Harf noted Kerry would be discussing with Netanyahu and Abbas “the proposed framework for negotiations,” which would “serve as guidelines for the permanent status negotiation”.
Kerry has been pressing the sides to agree a framework for a final settlement ahead of an agreed late April target date for the talks to conclude.
He will also have to quell tensions that rose after an Israeli ministerial committee on Sunday gave initial approval to a bill annexing Jordan Valley settlements, in a largely symbolic move expected to be shot down by the government.
Abbas slammed the ministerial decision in his Tuesday remarks to the freed prisoners.
“This is a Palestinian area,” he said. “It’s a red line nobody can cross.”
The Palestinian cabinet meeting later on Tuesday will take place in that contested territory, which would be the eastern border of their future state.
Israel wants to keep a military presence there, but the Palestinians firmly reject such a notion.
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Communism doesn’t work !
I saw on the TV that china are sending their workers to work in the mines in Zambia and in the forrests in Brazil that they own. This is a result of their work ethic of 7 days weeks with 10 to 12 hour days. As the work dries up in china I expect them to export more workers to Europe and wherever else they own. Our government have just agreed to grant more visas and set up a hub for the Chinese entry point to the EU. We ate selling our soul to the slave masters.
“as the work dries up in china”??? uneducated claptrap, only germany exports more than china and that will soon reverse, they are buying as much of africa,asia and south america as they can for 3 reasons, food production to feed their massive population, mineral aquisition to supply their massive industrial production demand and energy production as a commodity to sell to europe and north america, one such plan is the covering of deserts with solar panels, my brother works for a chinese shipping company, they build cities to produce specific items like solar panels or oil pumps, within the next 3 years they will over take the usa as the worlds leading economy, their major advantages is their work ethic and flexibility, as the work dries up in china indeed, also they are building casinos all over the world, in the last 5 years the chinese have built more casinos in asia than all casinos previously built in the rest of the world combined
Their work ethic is impressive, however life is absolutely worthless there. If China becomes the leading world power, which it will, in next 5 years, it will represent a massive threat to democracy and freedom and could lead to rights we have taken for granted being rolled back.
It’s the land of the indentured slave.
When the Chinese are the next super power we will wish we had the americans back. Their work ethic is a slavery work ethic – and its not communism its capitalism with Asian values. I saw the zambian workers, they said the Chinese are the worst to work for.
Ah no it only grew by 8%, how will they manage ! They should come back here for some lessons from Bertie.
Er, basically this is another sign that international capitalism is in meltdown and only communism can save the oppressed masses…er……
I take it dave from your comment you have never been to a communist country
I’m pretty sure Dave was taking the piss guys.
see what happens when you sell your kidneys for an Ipad!!!
I was watching an analyst on BBC earlier who stated that at this stage anything below 7% growth on China would basically be viewed as a recession by the markets… nice for some!
The analyst on c4 also suggested that at the worst case scenario if economic growth serioiusly stalls in China the party may choose the option of uniting the people against the threat of an outside enemy to stop the huge population turning on itself.
broken china in the 1 percents display cabinet , they wont be happy
8.1%????…..Christ we’d take a quarter of that!
so 8.1 % means the total size of the Chinese economy doubles every 9 years. Physically impossible. there isnt enough resources or markets in the world. Oil peaked in 2006 and Chinese export economy is impossible without oil at a reasonable price.
@revolting peasant ‘mineral acquisition’ is a very tame way to describe resource plunder and environmental destruction.
That’s what a visit from Enda can do.
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