(Times of Israel) Israel Channel 2 TV reported Monday that Prime Minister Netanyahu had sent a message to Secretary of State Kerry in the last few days making crystal clear that Israel will not free any Israeli Arab prisoners in the fourth and final phase of the prisoner releases, set for the coming months. According to a senior Israeli government source, Netanyahu had agreed with Kerry, when they were finalizing terms for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in the summer, that Israel would not include any Israeli Arab convicts among the Palestinian prisoners to be freed. Yet when Abbas demanded, in his own separate meetings with Kerry, that Israeli Arab terrorists be among those set free, "Kerry did not correct him," the report said. The prime minister has instructed the Israel Security Agency and the Israel Prison Service to draw up a list of 26 names for the fourth and final scheduled batch of prisoner releases that does not include any Israeli Arabs. Israel has historically been disinclined to give the Palestinian leadership any say in the fate of Israeli Arab citizens, regarding such citizens as being solely an Israeli responsibility.
2014-01-01 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive