Olmert-Abbas meeting, Monday
Photo: Amos Ben Gershom, GPO
Ministers okay list of 256 Palestinian prisoners
List includes Fatah, PFLP and DFLP members slated to be released on Friday in gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Ministers Shaul Mofaz, Eli Yishai oppose move. 'We are constantly busy making one-sided gestures – this is wrong,' says Yishai
The list of 256 Palestinian prisoners to be released from Israeli jails in a show of goodwill to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was approved by the government on Tuesday.
The list, which was discussed by a ministerial committee headed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, includes prisoners from Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front from the Liberation of Palestine, who will be released this Friday.
Nonetheless, the move will only be executed as long as there are no legal objections.
Olmert's deputies, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz and Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai, opposed the move.
"We are constantly busy making one-sided gestures and now we are also making one-sided releases. Israel should not be the one to make gestures all the time, to be Abu Mazen's (Abbas') coach. This is wrong and unnecessary," Yishai said during the meeting.
The list of prisoners to be released includes 11 minors, and Fatah prisoners "without blood on their hands". The list will be displayed on a special website and as long as no legal objections arise, the prisoners will be released at a number of IDF checkpoints in the Palestinian territories on Friday.
The deal was finalized between the Israeli prime minister and Palestinian president in their meeting Monday afternoon. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who was also present at Monday's meeting, called the move a "one-sided decision" on the part of Israel.
According to Erekat, Israel rejected Abbas' request to operate a joint committee which was meant to discuss changes in the criteria needed to release Palestinian prisoners.
