[Ppnews] Israel Offers Prisoners Release in Exchange for Palestinian UN Bid

[Political Prisoner News]

  Israel Offers Prisoners Release in Exchange for Palestinian UN Bid

author Tuesday August 07, 2012 15:18author by Craig Harrington
http://www.imemc.org/article/64028

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced plans to release 
political prisoners in exchange for the Palestinian Authority dropping 
its upcoming bid for statehood recognition at the United Nations.

In a move to avoid a showdown at the United Nations in coming months, 
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has offered prisoner release in 
exchange for Palestine dropping its bid for UN membership, reports Ma'an 
News. Up to 50 prisoners would be involved in the prospective exchange. 
The Hebrew-language publication Maariv also reported the announcement.

In addition to the release of prisoners, Netanyahu offered to return to 
the peace negotiations that he walked away from nearly two years ago.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has been planning to seek 
official state recognition at the United Nations for more than two 
years. The Abbas government knows that it has the support of the vast 
majority of the voting members of the UN General Assembly. Other than 
the United States, Palestine's statehood bid is likely to have the 
support, or at worst the abstention, of the other 'veto' members of the 
UN Security Council.

The decision by Netanyahu to offer prisoner release is important on 
several levels. No state would release actual terrorists as doing so 
would combine negotiating with terrorists, caving to the demands of 
terrorism, and undermining the safety of the country and its people. 
Many of the thousands of Palestinians currently detained in Israeli 
prisoners have been implicitly linked to terrorism. Their release would 
be a ready admission by the Israeli government that the prisoners it 
holds in indefinite detention do not present a real threat to Israeli 
safety and are instead 'political prisoners' -- something expressly 
forbidden by international human rights law.

In addition to the admission that Israel arrest and detention policies 
are not expressly aimed toward building peace and security, the offered 
prisoner release may indicate that the Netanyahu government is running 
out of options to stall the Palestinian Authority.

The government in Ramallah already knows that any UN resolution would be 
vetoed by the United States and condemned by the few lock-step allies of 
Israel. Such a resolution would also potentially result in crippling 
economic sanctions on the already depressed Palestinian economy. Knowing 
the risks the PA has decided to continue pursuing its course and could 
bring a resolution to the General Assembly as early as next month.

The Palestinian Authority has offered no indication that it has 
considered Tel Aviv's latest tactic to stall international recognition. 
Nimir Hammad, an advisor to the Palestinian President, refused to link 
any prospective UN bid with a prisoner release.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863-9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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