Convicts And Convictions

Prisoner issue tops list of
Palestinian complaints.

GIL SEDAN

Special to The Jewish News

Jerusalem

IV

cizing Clinton for equating the chil-
dren of Palestinians jailed for murder
with the children of Israeli victims of
terror.
While the prisoner issue is one of
several in the war of words that per-
petually marks Israeli and Palestinian
attempts at peacemaking, for the
Palestinian side it is equivalent to
Israeli sensitivity to prisoners of war
or to retrieving the bodies of fallen
Israeli soldiers left behind enemy
lines.
While charges of continued Israeli
settlement construction and land con-
fiscation loom large in the Palestinian
Authority's litany of complaints
against the Jewish state, these issues
directly affect relatively few
Palestinians.
But there hardly is a Palestinian
who does not know someone held in
an Israeli jail.

hen President Clinton
visited the Gaza Strip
this week, the issue of
Palestinian prisoners
held in Israeli jails inevitably became
a key item on his agenda.
Within a matter of weeks, the issue
has risen quickly to the top of the list
of Palestinian complaints against the
Jewish state, in the wake of a
groundswell of popular discontent
throughout the self-rule areas.
Just before Clinton was to address
members of the Palestine National
Council, the Palestinian
Authority arranged for him to
meet four children of
Palestinian security prisoners.
One sobbing girl begged
the president to help obtain
the release of her father before
the Islamic holy month of
Ramadan, which begins next
week. Her father is serving a
life sentence for killing an
Israeli.
"It was a particularly mov-
ing scene for me," said Sufian
Abu-Zeida, chairman of the
Israeli desk in the Palestinian
Authority, who had served 12
years in Israeli prisons himself.
Abu-Zeida's son was 1 year old
when his father was impris-
oned.
Clinton and U.S. Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright
were also evidently moved.
Albright was described as
A Palestinian youth swings a slingshot to
being on the verge of tears.
throw a stone at Israeli soldier's through a
The U.S. president spoke of wall of smoke _from burning tires in the West
his own emotional reaction
Bank town of Ramallah. Despite US. appeals
when he addressed the gather- to stop violence, Palestinians stoned Israeli
ing of Palestinian representa-
troops and motorists in the widespread
tives.
protests over Intifada prisoners held by Israel.
Referring to the Palestinian
children — as well as the
In an effort to drive their plight
Israeli children orphaned by terror he
home, Thousands of Palestinian pris-
had met the day before — Clinton
oners recently staged a hunger strike.
said, - These children brought tears to
Under the terms of the Wye agree-
my eyes. We have to find a way for
ment, Israel agreed to release 750
both sets of children to get their lives
prisoners in three stages by the end of
back and go forward."
January. When Israel recently freed
The president's comment — one
the first group of 250, most were
of many he made to urge the pursuit
common criminals.
of peace — provoked a controversy in
But the "heroes of Palestinian
Israel, where Prime Minister
national struggle" were kept behinc
Binvamin Neranyahu was soon criti-

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Detroit Jewish News

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