Israel Press Bemoans Price of Peace Talks
AS Israeli and Palestinian negotiators head to Washington for the resumption of peace talks, most Israeli newspapers hit out at the decision to free 104 prisoners in return.
“The murderers will go free,” was the top-selling daily Yediot Aharonot’s front-page headline after the cabinet agreed to release the veteran Palestinian and Israeli Arab prisoners, many of them convicted militants.
In a tense session lasting more than five hours, ministers on Sunday endorsed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to release the 104 prisoners imprisoned before the 1993 Oslo peace accords as a gesture to the Palestinians.
Media reports say that many of them have Israeli blood on their hands and that while the vast majority are Palestinians, a few are Israeli citizens.
The names of those to be freed have yet to be officially published, or even revealed to cabinet ministers, but Israeli and Palestinian groups have published their own lists of those in prison for more than 20 years.