Israel To Release Hundreds Of Prisoners, But Dissatisfied Palestinians Call For U.S. Intervention

     AP     2003/08/6

Israel planned to release several hundred Palestinian prisoners Wednesday, but Palestinians -- complaining that the list is not long enough -- canceled a summit and called for U.S. intervention to prevent a crisis in peace efforts.

The Israeli government said it would release the prisoners at several West Bank and Gaza checkpoints at 2:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) Wednesday.

Israel is holding about 7,700 prisoners, and Palestinians demand that Israel free thousands of them. Israel, however, has ruled out freedom for Palestinians involved in terror attacks.

But the disagreement goes deeper than that. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called the release a "deceit," referring to the fact that most prisoners to be freed had nearly completed their terms.

There was also some Israeli criticism. In an analysis headlined "A trawl through the prisons to net the smallest fry," Haaretz reporter Amos Harel wrote that the list did not include any big names.

On the other hand, families of victims of Palestinian terror attacks appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court to block the release. The court turned down the appeals.

The list includes 443 prisoners. Most were to be freed Wednesday, but about 100, convicted of crimes, would be released later, officials said. Israel has noted that releasing prisoners is not part of the U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan, but the issue has become an obstacle to implementing the blueprint.

Almost daily, there are Palestinian demonstrations demanding freedom for prisoners, and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has taken up the cause.

Abbas was to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday, but called off the summit, mostly because of the prisoner dispute.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath explained that no results were assured. "We don't want meetings for the sake of meetings," he told The Associated Press.

Abbas met late Tuesday in Gaza with the heads of the violent Islamic groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. They declared a three-month halt to attacks against Israelis on June 29. Fatah, headed by Arafat and Abbas, declared a six-month truce.

Shaath said Abbas would try to persuade the militants to extend the truce. However, spokesmen from the Islamic groups said they did not discuss that.

Islamic Jihad spokesman Nafez Azzam backed Abbas' decision to call off his meeting with Sharon. "There is no reason to have meetings with the Israelis while they are continuing their aggression against our people," he said.

With the cancellation of the summit and tensions rising, Palestinian legislator Saeb Erekat, a leading spokesman for the Palestinians, called for U.S. involvement to avert "the development of a major crisis."

"I believe that the only way to defuse this crisis is with the intervention of the American administration to ensure the implementation of the first phase of the road map," he said.

U.S. envoy John Wolf has been in the region since Friday, meeting with Israeli and Palestinian security officials. A U.S. government official said Assistant Secretary of State William Burns will be arriving next week. But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no other high-level U.S. visits were planned even though the peace plan was encountering "very rough going."

Both sides have not carried out obligations: for example, the Palestinians have not moved to disarm militants, and Israel has not frozen construction in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza or dismantled dozens of unauthorized outposts.

Israeli troops also remain in control of most West Bank towns and maintains dozens of roadblocks, stifling West Bank life.

However, early Wednesday Israeli forces scuffled with settlers while removing small unauthorized settlement outpost in the divided West Bank city of Hebron, the army and police said.

Ten settlers, including seven minors were arrested for resisting the evacuation, police spokesman Doron Ben-Amo said.

Also Tuesday, a senior Israeli security official said Iran is behind many of the Palestinian attacks in defiance of the truce. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Iran funds and controls renegade cells of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the northern West Bank, which continue attacks against Israelis.

The official said that since the June 29 truce, Israeli security has foiled 38 terror attacks and arrested 75 Palestinian suspects.

In another development, Israeli Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi signed an order extending the closing of the Orient House in east Jerusalem for another six months. The building was the center of Palestinian diplomacy until Israel closed it in 2001, claiming that the Palestinian Authority had broken its commitment not to conduct political affairs in Jerusalem.

Palestinians countered that it was the PLO, not the Palestinian Authority, that ran the facility. The Israeli group Peace Now noted that reopening the facilities is part of the U.S.-backed Roadmap, but it is the last item listed in the first of three phases, coming after a long series of Palestinian governmental reforms.