Release of Palestinian prisoners gets approval
JERUSALEM – Israel’s Cabinet voted yesterday to release up to 100 Islamic militants, a goodwill gesture toward the Palestinians ahead of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s trip to Washington this week. Ministers voted 14-9 to authorize the release, reversing government opposition to freeing members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Government spokesman Avi Pazner said the vote was intended to bolster Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who has been criticized by Palestinians for failing to get concessions from Israel during negotiations on the US-backed «road map» peace plan. The prisoner issue is key to reinvigorating stalled peace moves. The Palestinians want Israel to release most of the estimated 7,700 Palestinian prisoners it holds. Israel has agreed to free a few hundred, but had previously said these would not include members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Sharon hopes releasing dozens of inmates who are members of those groups will help ease pressure on him, and show Israel is committed to the peace plan. Sharon is scheduled to meet US President George W. Bush tomorrow. On Friday, as Bush was meeting with Abbas at the White House, Israel announced several other steps that seem designed to demonstrate it is sincere about the «road map,» which aims to end almost three years of violence and establish a Palestinian state by 2005. They include plans to pull troops out of two more Palestinian cities and dismantle three roadblocks in the West Bank. The first two roadblocks, both near Ramallah, were removed by Israeli army bulldozers yesterday. Israel also said it would permit thousands more Palestinians from the West Bank to travel to jobs in Israel. Abbas urged the United States to press Israel for more concessions, including freezing Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip – a stipulation of the «road map» that Israel has not carried out – and the dismantling of a security barrier being built near Israel’s dividing line with the West Bank. After the meeting, Bush expressed strong support for Abbas and said he would bring up Palestinian demands with Sharon. Bush criticized Israel’s security barrier and said settlements must end. But he also said terrorism must be rooted out, an apparent nod to Sharon’s demand that the Palestinians move to disarm the militant groups. The «road map» says the Palestinians must dismantle «the infrastructure» of the groups; Abbas refuses to do that by force, preferring persuasion. Under the «road map,» both sides are supposed to act in tandem, but progress has bogged down over who should make the next move. Israel has pulled troops out of parts of the Gaza Strip and from the West Bank town of Bethlehem, but has been reluctant to do more until the Palestinians crack down on militant groups. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement declared a unilateral ceasefire on June 29, bringing a sharp drop in violence after 33 months of fighting. But the militants say they will call off the truce unless Israel acts, especially on the prisoner issue.
