Gabai: Hamas is reliable
Photo: Hagai Aharon
Prison official: Hamas good for Israel
Northern District chief: Peace with Islamic group possible; Hamas prisoners agree
Hamas' rise to power in the Palestinian Authority may turn out to be a good thing for Israel, Head of the Israel Prison service Northern District Yitzhak Gabai said Sunday in a surprising interview.
"Hamas' win shouldn't be regarded as such a disaster, we may end up negotiating with them," said Gabai, who his well-acquainted with many Hamas leaders incarcerated at the Gilboa prison under his command.
Hamas prisoners at Gilboa prison (Photo: Hagai Aharon)
Gilboa, which is considered the most heavily guarded prison in Israel and has been nicknamed "The Vault," is home to some of the most infamous terrorists in the country, including those behind the Park hotel suicide bombing that claimed the lives of 30 Israelis in 2002.
According to Gabai, prisoners who are members of Hamas are exerting pressure on their leadership to negotiate with Israel – the kind of pressure that did not exist before.
"Out of their own interest they put pressure on their leaders to moderate and engage in dialogue. The years in jail have apparently taught them something, and some have even offered to mediate between Hamas' leadership and the Israeli government," Gabai said.
The senior prison official, who has spent long hours in conversations with many of the group's members at the prison, said knowing them has led to better understanding and a common language.
"Hamas is not what people think, it will make moves based on rational motives. This is a reliable organization that stands by its word: if they say they will launch a terror attack they will, and if they decide there will be peace, there will be peace," he said. "They will also make sure their decision is accepted by the other organizations."
Gabai's words are backed by other Hamas prisoners in Gilboa prison. One of them is Iyad Khalil, currently serving a life sentence in jail, who was elected by his fellow convicts to head his prison ward.
"We are pleased with the elections' results. Hamas is good for the Palestinian people and for Israel. We are going in the right direction, and God willing – peace will come," he said.
When asked to refer to Mahmoud Abu-Tir, one of the group's heads who was also imprisoned at Gilboa at one point, Khalil said smiling: "Abu-Tir is an extremist? You really think he is? He is completely normal."
'Only we can control extremists'
Fathi Khatib, an inmate in the same cellblock, also believes that only Hamas can bring peace to the region.
"Hamas is the only organization among the Palestinians whose word you can trust, and if it says that there is going to be peace, there will be. Only we can control the extremists and moderate them," he said.
Khatib, who drove the suicide bomber to Park Hotel in Netania and is serving 29 life sentences, added: "Israel must stop the occupation. The real peace – the hudna (temporary truce,) is subject to Israel's return to the 1967 borders and abandoning the settlements. Israel must free the land".
The adjacent prison ward is home to Israeli-Arabs inmates, and Prison Service sources say that spending many years in confinement, caused some of the inmates to Express regret.
"They say, 'why did we need all this at all…,'" prison Commander Abdullah Farashi says.
The division into organizations does not skip Israeli-Arabs prisoners, who include members of Hamas say that they did what they did as "soldiers who fought the occupation".
"The occupation left us no other way for action", said Fahd Sabri, who took part in the abduction and murder of IDF soldier Yaron Chen, a kidnapping initially meant to bargain for the release of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Sabri maintains that "this is a first chance for real peace, the Hamas can bridge all the factions and unite them, it will convince the public. But we're not ready to give up; we will continue to fight for our rights. If the occupation ends it will be quiet here for at least 20 years".
Another inmate, an Israeli-Arab resident of east Jerusalem whose brother Ahmed al-Tur, was elected to the Legislative Council, remarked: "I used to be a Hamas soldier at the Izz al-Din al-Qassam brigades and did my part, and I say to the Palestinian people that when all the corrupted people leave, they will be replaced with trustworthy people with clean hands who have one object, to secure rights for the Palestinian people".
At the same time, the prisoner also has a message for Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
"If he wants to spare the blood of Israelis, and wants peace and stability in the area, he should give rights to the Palestinian people and release the prisoners," the detainee concluded.
