[News] Five men handed over to Hezbollah movement

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Video with Samir Kuntar's brother at this link!
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/07/20087164497172689.html


http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/07/2008716143549351623.html

UPDATED ON:
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
20:52 Mecca time, 17:52 GMT
<http://english.aljazeera.net/>News Middle East
Israel returns Lebanese prisoners


Almost 200 coffins containing Lebanese and 
Palestinian remains were handed over [AFP]

Five Lebanese prisoners have been handed over to 
the Hezbollah movement by Israel, as part of a 
swap for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers.

The freed men arrived to a heroes' welcome at the 
Naqoura border crossing on Wednesday, just hours 
after Israel received coffins containing the 
remains of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, two 
Israeli army reservists captured in 2006.

The prisoners released were Samir Kuntar, who was 
jailed for three murders in Israel in 1979, and 
four men captured during the 34-day war sparked 
by the capture of Goldwasser and Regev.

They were the last remaining Lebanese in Israeli custody.

Hezbollah also received the bodies of almost 200 
people, including the body of Dalal al-Maghrebi, 
a female fighter with the Palestinian Fatah movement.

Cheering supporters

The prisoners were brought across the border in a 
convoy of four International Committee of the Red 
Cross vehicles before changing in military 
fatigues to greet crowds of well-wishers.

Kuntar wiped away tears as he stood in front of the cheering crowd.

"We knew that you were waiting for the resistance 
and it reached you. You came back free and 
heroes," Ibrahim Amin al-Sayed, head of Hezbollah's political bureau, said.

The five men then boarded Lebanese army 
helicopters for a flight to Beirut, to be 
received by the country's president, prime minister and other officials.

"Your return is a new victory and the future with 
you will only be a shinning march in which we 
achieve the sovereignty of our land and the 
freedom of people," Michel Sleiman, the president, said at the airport.

"I tell Samir and his companions that they have a 
right to be proud of their country, their army and their resistance."

In south Beirut, tens of thousands of people, 
many of them waving Hezbollah's green and yellow 
flag, waited for the men to arrive at a huge 
rally during which Hassan Nasrallah, the group's 
leader, was expected to speak.

Hezbollah named the exchange "Operation Radwan", 
in honour of Imad Moughniyah, known as "Hajj 
Radwan", the group's military commander who was 
assassinated in Syria in February.

Israelis sombre

In contrast to the upbeat mood in Lebanon, the 
scene across the border in Israel was sombre.

At the family home of reservist Regev, a crowd of 
about 50 mourners gathered and his family wept, 
seeing their son's coffin displayed on television for the first time.

"It was hard to see one coffin being lowered to 
the ground and  then another one. It was awful to 
see it. I asked them to turn off the television 
because I didn't want to see it," Regev's father Zvi told public radio.

"We always hoped that Eldad and Udi would return 
home alive and that we would be able to hug them."

Before the exchange there had been speculation 
that at least one of the Israeli soldiers had 
been alive, but Hezbollah TV confirmed that both were dead.

"The Lebanese people sacrificed almost 800 
soldiers, its entire  economy," he said. "For 
what? For the killer of a three-year-old girl? Is 
that a  hero? For me he is nothing more than a little bigot."

'Difficult decision'

Miri Eisin, a former aide to Ehud Olmert, the 
Israeli prime minister, said Israel found the 
release of Kuntar an "incredibly difficult decision".

"Today in Israel we are mainly reflecting on the 
price we pay in our country to defend our borders," she told Al Jazeera.

David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Rosh 
Hanikra on the Israeli side of the border, said 
that the Israeli cabinet had "agonised" over the exchange.

"[They] voted in favour of it against the advice 
of the Israeli intelligence service ... which 
thinks it will only encourage kidnappings," he 
said. "But the bulk of Israeli public opinion is behind this deal".

Robert Fisk, a Middle East expert and journalist 
with the Independent newspaper, told Al Jazeera: 
"It's regarded as being the final chapter of the 2006 war."

"The Israelis certainly lost that war, they did 
not get their prisoners back - not until now and 
they're getting them back dead. So more than 
1,000 Lebanese civilians and more than 160 
Israelis, most of them soldiers, all died for 
absolutely nothing and that's what today's prisoner exchanges prove."

Lebanon has declared a national holiday to celebrate the prisoner swap.

"This is a big day because it's the day we 
[Lebanon] have the liberation of four or five 
heroes," Wassim Manssouri, a professor in 
constitutional law at Beirut's Lebanese 
University, told Al Jazeera from the capital.

Palestinian reaction

Celebrations were also under way in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

"The exchange is seen as a victory for Arab 
resistance," Nour Odeh, Al Jazeera's correspondent, in the West Bank, said.

Kuntar is a member of Lebanon's Druze population.

Walid Jumblatt, Lebanon's Druze leader, told Al 
Jazeera: "My father was the founder of a 
Lebanese-Palestinian coalition to fight Israel 
and recover the Palestinians' rights. My father would be happy."

"I am happy [too], but we should not forget the 
Palestinians who are detained in their own land," he said.

The Hezbollah exchange has prompted the public in 
Arab countries such as Jordan and Egypt - which 
have both signed peace deals with Israel - to 
question why their governments have not been able 
to repatriate the bodies of their soldiers.
  Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Feedback Number of comments : 9

Mike Vanderweide
United States 16/07/2008
Hezbollah has committed a war crime
Hezbollah's leaders should be tried for war 
crimes for killing uniformed prisoners. When has 
it ever been acceptable to kill uniformed 
military prisoners? They should be put on trial immediately.

Chet Baker
Great Britain (UK) 16/07/2008
Shame on Arabs for glorifying murder of children
Samir Kuntar smashed a child's head against a 
rock after murdering the father in front of him. 
One would have to go back to the Nazis to find 
similar behavior. That Lebanon could declare a 
national holiday for the release of such a 
monster is a national shame for that country.

Gern
United States 16/07/2008
Returned Prisoners
So a child murderer (Kuntar) in Lebanon is 
considered a hero. Humans as spiritual beings are 
typically appalled by this behavior. Lebanese 
muslims are not. With all that is going on in the 
muslim world today I'm not surprised.

ibrahim
Palestinian Territory 16/07/2008
the d-day
I feel a full satisfaction by this prosiner swap 
it's the day of victory for lebanese and all of 
arab jehad in all the arab and islamic countries 
thankxxxxxxxxs for the resistance

Raj
Afghanistan 16/07/2008
Why so hue and cry about two dead bodies of 
Israel. Hundreds of palestinians have died and 
nobody bothers. hundreds are being tortured in 
american prisons and no one raises voice. Let 
Israelis also feel the pain of death.

lara
Lebanon 16/07/2008
Israel invaded Lebanon 6 times since 1978. In 
2006 ISRAEL killed 1300 civilians and destroyed 
entire villages.If those are not war crimes, then 
what are they? Israel threw 100,000 cluster bombs 
in the last 72 hours of the war maiming,wounding 
and killing innocents.‘Israel’s uniformed 
soldiers should not die” but death to us.Racism 
at its best.Ironically,Israel often repeated that 
Arabs understand the language of force it seems 
that it is the one that only understands the language of force.

Samira
United States 16/07/2008
Heros?
"...liberation of...heroes". Heroes?Samir Kuntar 
murdered 3 people, including a 3 1/2 year old 
girl. In what twisted mind can such a man be 
considered a hero? Israel glorifies human life 
while Hezbollah leaders glorify plain Israeli 
suffering. What reason is there to play with 
people’s minds and hearts and giving them hope 
that their sons are alive? When killing Israelis 
is the main value of a movement (rather than 
coexistence), there's very little hope for 
resolution to this ongoing conflict.

Pierre Jonvoux
France 16/07/2008
Israel has been defeated!
It is great that Lebanon is rejoicing as it well 
should! The Israeli capitalist war machine has 
been defeated by a poor people's militia!! Hurrah 
to Freedom! As for Mr.Mike's comment about war 
crimes, it is consistent with western hypocrisy. 
He suggests Hezbollah should be prosecuted for 
the death of 2 Israeli soldiers, but Israel has 
nothing to account for the massacre of 1,000 
innocent unarmed civilians! The hypocrisy of 
people like Mike is shameful to say the least.

mohammed El Haq
Morocco 16/07/2008
answer to the first comment
It is ironic that an American dares talking about 
war crimes! Hizballah has behaved within the 
accepted standards of war. Why not talking about 
the 800 Palestinians kidnapped by the Israelis? 
Why not talk about the bombing of civilian areas 
by the Israeli army? Why not talking anout the 
Israeli minister of defense showing and 
mutilating the corpse of a Palistinian fighter ( the hero Dalal Al Moghrabi)?





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