Israel To Release 250 Palestinian Prisoners

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday that 250 Palestinian prisoners would be freed in a goodwill gesture, as Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas urged Israel to maintain the Gaza truce.

The pair met in Jerusalem for the first time in two months, amid rising tension in and around the besieged Gaza Strip where Israeli forces and Palestinian militants have engaged in almost daily tit-for-tat attacks since November 4.

"Abbas had asked him to free Palestinian prisoners and Olmert told him of the decision to release 250 at the beginning of December," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said.

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Comments

[chaos4700]

The number of Palestinians that Israel holds prisoner numbers in the thousands at any given time, and often includes even minors -- often without charges or due process, and often just because a person is related to whomever Israeli authorities claim to be looking for. Israel reserves the right to detain any individual for up to six months before filing any sort of charges, and this detention can be extended, effectively indefinitely, without even requiring the authorization from a judicial authority.

I don't want to trivialize the release of prisoners being held under standards that would be considered atrocious in Europe or North America, but it's hard for me not to take a jaded view of this. It seems the Israelis like to play this game of "bait and switch" where they release a large number of prisoners at the same time they conduct raids and bulldoze Palestinian communities. The US media, rather obsequiously, focuses on the former and barely reports on the latter, if at all. Case in point:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7735051.stm
The timing is impeccable.