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
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
