http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1071436.html
Last update - 12:55 16/03/2009
Israeli Arabs to Hamas: Include our prisoners in Shalit swap
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Hamas, Shalit, Israel News
A number of Israeli Arab political figures have asked Hamas to demand
that Israel release security prisoners from their community as part of a deal
for abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
"This is not an internal Israeli issue. These prisoners are in jail
because of the occupation and because they are Palestinian. We are sons of one
nation, whether they want this or not," said Mahmoud Kna'aneh, head of the Bnei
Hakfar (Sons of the Village) Israeli Arab political movement.
Kna'aneh, who has himself spent time in an Israeli jail, told Haaretz the
request had been relayed to Hamas by a third party.
The release of Israeli Arab security prisoners is in fact one of the main
sticking points in indirect talks between Hamas and Israel over Shalit, who was
kidnapped by Gaza militants in a 2006 cross-border raid.
Hamas has included twenty such prisoners on a list of Palestinians it
wants Israel to free in return for the abducted soldier. These prisoners were
involved in terror attacks before the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords between
Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Kadri Abu Wassel, the director of a Nazareth-based support group for
prisoners, told Haaretz on Sunday that while Israel had released Palestinian
prisoners after the Oslo Accords, it was keeping the Israeli Arab prisoners in
jail because it saw them as an internal matter.
"If they are released this will make us happy. It will be a good sign for
the Arab public in Israel," said Abu Wassel, who is also a member of the Higher
Arab Monitoring Committee.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
