Abbas Wants Fatah Prisoners Released Too
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is pushing Israel to release Fatah prisoners following the Israel-Hamas prisoner exchange deal that freed IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, citing a promise he said he received from former prime minister Ehud Olmert, Time magazine reported.
In an interview, Abbas told Time that Olmert promised to release Fatah prisoners following any Shalit deal.
Olmert preceded Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister, serving in the post from 2006 through 2009.
Abbas said that the matter of prisoners came up when Olmert on two occasions released several hundred prisoners as gestures ahead of peace talks. Abbas later asked Olmert for a larger release.
Abbas said that Olmert told him, “Now I cannot because we have a Shalit deal, but I promise you when we conclude Shalit and everything is O.K., I will give you, not the same number, not the same quality, more.”
“”But [Olmert] asked me, ‘Please keep it secret, confidential between us because we don’t want to affect the deal with Shalit.’ I said, ‘O.K., O.K., I will keep it.’ Now the deal is over, and we will ask them to fulfill their promises.”
Army Radio reported on Friday that sources close to Olmert confirmed Abbas’ statements, saying that the plan had been to release 550 Fatah prisoners as part of a Shalit deal in order to bolster Abbas’s position in the West Bank.
For more, go to Haaretz.com
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
