700 Palestinian Prisoners Are Freed by Israel

Israel on Monday began freeing the more than 13,000 Palestinian prisoners it holds, adhering to the peace accord reached with the Palestine Liberation Organization despite a new upsurge in violence and its deep anguish over releasing men and women it jailed as terrorists.

More than 20 buses, escorted by troops, rolled out of detention centers and prisons throughout the afternoon to drop off a carefully selected group of nearly 700 women, elderly or infirm men and teen-agers detained mostly for throwing stones and painting slogans on village walls.

For the families of those who had been imprisoned, their jubilant return to homes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip was the first tangible step on the road toward peace.

“For our youths, prison is nearly as universal as military service is for Israelis, and to see these young men coming home means the war is over,” said Anwar Abu Saleh, a merchant in the West Bank town of Ramallah who came to the local headquarters of the Israeli military government to greet his son, Mahmoud, 23, jailed just out of college two years ago for his PLO membership.

“Every family, literally every family, has someone who is in prison or was in prison or who has been detained, and so the return of the prisoners echoes in every Palestinian home,” he said.

The number released, in fact, was small--just 5% of the estimated 13,400 Palestinians whom Israel holds in military and civilian prisons and detention centers.

The categories were strictly limited to those regarded as posing no threat to Israeli security or stability in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“A very, very modest start, really just minimal, but still a start,” said Ziad Abu Zayad, the Palestinian co-chairman of the joint committee that worked out the initial release. “We insist on the release of all prisoners and detainees, but we may have to proceed in stages to achieve progress.”

The release nonetheless brought angry protests from the Israeli right and apprehension among many ordinary Israelis worried about terrorism after the abduction and killing Sunday of two soldiers in the Gaza Strip and an abortive suicide attack on security forces there Monday by the driver of a car loaded with explosives.

“If these people were dangerous enough to be locked up, why should they be released at such a delicate time, amid so much violence?” asked Nathan Feinberg, a Jerusalem florist.

“But the real question is not about kids who threw stones or even old guys who did worse but 20 years ago. The real question is the release of the murderers, the hijackers, those who planted the bombs. When will they be released, and how will we protect ourselves against them?”

For both Israelis and Palestinians, the release of prisoners ranks among the most important and the most sensitive issues that must be resolved smoothly for the accord on Palestinian autonomy to succeed. It is being treated in the negotiations as an issue of “confidence-building” rather than human rights.

“People are pleased, but generally they feel this is not enough,” Abu Zayad said. “For us, this is not an issue for bargaining. The prisoners must be released as most were imprisoned for political activity, for their protests against the Israeli occupation, for their struggle for Palestinian independence. Their release and recognition help vindicate our struggle.”

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin sought Monday both to reaffirm his commitment to the historic agreement reached with the PLO and to reassure Israelis worried about the release of so many Palestinians jailed as terrorists.

“The commitment that was given will be fulfilled,” Rabin told a parliamentary committee Monday after the opposition Likud Party objected to the release because of the killing of the two soldiers Sunday by guerrillas of the fundamentalist Islamic Resistance Movement.

Israel has “made clear to the (PLO) that people with blood on their hands will not be released, certainly not in the near future,” Rabin added.

Speaking later to Jewish fund-raisers from the United States, Rabin warned that any retreat from Israel’s commitment, even in the face of more attacks, would jeopardize the whole accord with the PLO and damage prospects for peace.

“If we would react this way, we would be handing the right of veto on the peace negotiations to the most extreme elements,” Rabin said.

But Benjamin Netanyahu, Likud’s chairman, warned later: “This government is definitely planning to release murderers and people whose hands are filthy with blood.”

The number of Palestinian prisoners that Israel holds now is unclear, even to Cabinet members. Although Rabin declared the total to be 9,500, other government sources used the 13,400 figure, saying that two-thirds of them are in military facilities and the rest in civilian prisons.

Of these, between 500 and 600 have been convicted of murdering or attacking Israelis with the intent to kill, and the government intends to hold them as long as possible.