Zeev Elkin
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Legislation to send freed prisoners back to jail in case of kidnapping
'They need to know that when they kidnap, they automatically send terrorists back to jail, not releasing them,' says Likud MK Elkin.
Five days after three Israeli teenagers had been kidnapped in Gush Etzion, chairman of the Knesset Foreign and Defense Committee, MK Zeev Elkin, announced Tuesday that he will promote legislation to send freed prisoners from recent deals back to Israeli jail.
MKs from the Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu and Bayit Yehudi are expected to sign Elkin's proposed bill, that demands to imprison anew every prisoner that has returned to terrorist activity, or that the organization the prisoner is affiliated with returns to such activity.
The bill's co-signers - Elkin, along with Coalition Chairman Yariv Levine and Bayit Yehudi MK Ayelet Shaked and Orit Struck - understand the legal difficulties of such a proposal, and therefore seek to word it in a way that defines any future pardoning of security prisoners as "conditional pardoning."
This condition will apply to every terrorist who has not served his full term.
The objective of the proposal is obvious. Elkin and his co-signers seek to send back to Israeli prison mostly those who were freed in recent deals, including those released in the Gilad Shalit deal and those released as part of peace talks with the Palestinians. These prisoners are affiliated with Hamas, that is still involved in terrorist activity.
"It's important now to change the rules of the game," Elkin said. "Terror organizations developed a system. They kidnap and negotiate, trying to dictate the terms to us. They know that through kidnapping, they'll be able to get a lot of terrorists out of Israeli jail... They need to know that when they kidnap, they automatically send terrorists back to jail, not releasing them. This is a necessary deterrence."
