MKs petition justice minister to release Israeli Arab prisoners
Lawmakers from United Arab List-Ta'al petition ask Daniel Friedmann to cut jail time for Israel-Arab prisoners convicted of offenses against state security
“These are Israeli citizens who should not have to wait to be placed on Hamas' list in order to be made eligible for release,” said MK Zakoor following Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's recent decision to mitigate the criteria for release of Palestinian prisoners.
During the MKs' meeting with Friedmann, they asked the justice minister for his help in securing the release of 20 Israeli-Arab prisoners sentenced to life in prison for security-related offenses.
“These are prisoners sentenced subsequent to the Oslo Accords, and most of them are serving prison terms of 20 years or more. They have all expressed regret and simply want to turn over a new leaf,” said Zakoor.
“The State of Israel likewise, needs to turn over a new leaf with regard to Israeli-Arabs and pardon the individuals in question.”
The justice minister was asked to release two particular prisoners for humanitarian reasons. One prisoner was diagnosed with a mental illness and has already served 17 years of an 18 year sentence. The other prisoner is 78-years-old and has spent 25 years in prison. “He was supposed to be released at 70, how many more years does he have left to live?” the justice minister was told by one of the MKs.
No phone privileges for Arab prisoners
The Ta’al petitioners also gave the justice minister a letter written by 13 Israeli-Arab prisoners in which they alleged severe discrimination against Israeli-Arab prisoners in Israeli prisons. Israeli security prisoners, they stated, were allowed far more vacations from prison than their Arab counterparts, the letter stated. Israeli Arab security prisoners were allowed only 40 such vacations in total since Israel’s inception in 1948, they claimed.
The Arab prisoners furthermore asserted that, bar for weddings and funeral, they are not allowed any phone privileges, where as Israeli prisoners are allowed to use the phone at any time.
“Some of us have spent a quarter century in prison, and cannot recall one instance when an Israeli-Arab prisoner was released,” the prisoners wrote.
“We are citizens of the State of Israel and support the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. We really and truly want to help put an end to this bloody and senseless conflict.”
