Israeli Ministers To Decide Which Palestinian Prisoners To Release First
A committee of Israeli government ministers is meeting to decide which Palestinian prisoners will be freed in the first round of peace talks.
The first 26 prisoners, out of a list of 104, are set to be freed this week, a day before negotiations resume Wednesday in Jerusalem.
Sunday’s meeting will take place without Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who underwent surgery late Saturday night to repair a hernia.
The rest of the committee is made up of Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Science Minister Yaakov Peri, and Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch. The committee will use recommendations by the Shin Bet security service to help guide its decisions.
Palestinian prisoners jailed before the 1993 Oslo Accords will be released in phases over the next eight months, pending progress in the peace talks.
The Cabinet approved the phased releases last month by a vote of 13-7, with two abstentions, in an effort to jump start renewed peace negotiations.
Families of terror victims and their supporters on Sunday held a protest march from Mount Herzl, where a monument dedicated to victims of terror attacks stands, to the Supreme Court building in Jerusalem, where a hearing was scheduled to be held on an attempt to block the release.
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. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
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.
