(AP-Washington Post) Israel on Monday published the names of 26 Palestinian prisoners who are to be released this week as part of a U.S.-brokered deal that led to a resumption of Mideast negotiations. 21 were convicted of killings, while others were involved in attempted murder or kidnapping. Half were serving full life terms. Among the victims of the prisoners slated for release was Isaac Rotenberg, who was killed in 1994 at the age of 69 by Palestinians who attacked him with axes while he was working at a construction site, said his son, Pini. Rotenberg had survived the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland and fought alongside partisans in World War II before moving to Israel. "It's painful to pay such a heavy price just as a concession for talks," Pini Rotenberg said. Other victims included Ian Feinberg, an Israeli lawyer stabbed to death in a European aid office in Gaza City in 1993, and Frederick Steven Rosenfeld, who had moved to Israel from Washington, D.C., in the late 1960s and was stabbed to death while hiking in the West Bank in 1989. "These are not political prisoners, they are terrorists and murderers who will be returning home to a hero's welcome," Gila Molcho, Feinberg's sister, told Israel Channel 2 TV. "They will be celebrating the killers of our brothers and children."
2013-08-12 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive