Region | Palestinian Territories
Negotiators urged to speak up for those trapped in Israeli jails
The two groups said such a move would send a clear signal to both Israel and the international community about the importance the Palestinian National Authority attaches to the issue.
- By Nasouh Nazzal, Correspondent
- Published: 00:00 September 6, 2010
Ramallah: The Palestinian Prisoners Society and the Movement of Captives in Israeli Jails have called on the Palestinian National Authority to include a professional negotiator in the Palestinian delegation leading direct talks with Israel to secure the release of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
The two groups said such a move would send a clear signal to both Israel and the international community about the importance the Palestinian National Authority attaches to the issue.
A statement issued by the groups said the Palestinian National Authority should insist on securing the release of as many prisoners as possible in each stage of negotiations by highlighting the credibility such gestures would lend to the negotiations.
The statement called for older inmates who had been jailed before the Oslo Accord, sick individuals, women prisoners and children held in Israeli jails to be released on priority should an agreement be reached between the two sides on the issue.
Both groups warned the Palestinian negotiators not to be misled by Israelis into accepting their classification of the Palestinian prisoners. To the Palestinians, there is no difference between the prisoners from the West Bank, Gaza, and occupied Jerusalem, and prisoners of the 1948 areas and Arab prisoners of various nationalities jailed in the quest for Palestinian freedom. The statement stressed that all of those regardless of their home towns and ideologies have been jailed for the freedom of Palestine and that their release should be the responsibility of the PLO and the Palestinian leadership.
The statement urged the Palestinian National Authority, President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the negotiating team leading direct negotiations with Israel to address the issue of the prisoners with utmost urgency and not to repeat past mistakes on an issue which touches almost every home in Palestine.
According to the statement, the Palestinian National Authority had, during previous negotiations with the Israelis, either taken up the issue of prisoners at the very last moment or left it completely to the Israelis to tackle it unilaterally.
"The time has come after more than 16 years of negotiations with the Israelis to put this sensitive issue in its right place among other key issues under discussion and to directly address it," the statement read, stressing that the issue of the prisoners should be put on top of the agenda of the authority in its ongoing direct negotiations with the Israelis.
The statement called on the Palestinian National Authority to be very specific in the writing of any agreement with the Israelis and never to leave room for a second interpretation on the prisoners' issue.
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