NABLUS (PIC)– The Palestinian prisoners of Jerusalem and the 1948 occupied lands expressed their fears that the Palestinian authority (PA) intends to accept Israel’s decision to exclude their names from the list of prisoners to be released describing the PA’s passivity in this regard as a death sentence against them.
In a statement released by the prisoners on Monday the prisoners of Jerusalem and the 1948 occupied lands called on the PA leadership and all political forces to shoulder their national moral and humanitarian responsibilities towards their issue and consider the sacrifices they had made for the just cause of Palestine.
“We have just heard that veteran prisoners will be released according to a US-brokered agreement between the PA and Israel and based on what we have got from the Israeli media without any Palestinian refutation 82 out of 103 veteran prisoners on the list will be released while the prisoners of Jerusalem and the 1948 occupied lands will be excluded and they number 23 detainees serving more than 30 years in jail” they underlined.
In a related context Tadamun foundation for human rights said that Israel’s successive governments dealt with the Palestinian long-serving prisoners in its jails as “political hostages.”
“The occupation still uses the issue of the long-serving prisoners and their release as a pressure means against the Palestinian authority during negotiation rounds which took place during the last two decades” Tadamun foundation stated in a press release on Monday.
It said that the intended release of a group of long-serving prisoners as an incentive step to encourage the PA to return to the negotiation table reflected that Israel is holding these detainees for mere political purposes unrelated to its alleged security concerns.
The foundation expressed its belief that some long-serving prisoners would be kept in prison in order for Israel to use them as a bargaining chip in the future.
For its part the Arab association for the prisoners in the 1948 occupied lands called on the families of Palestinian prisoners not to deal with the Israeli news reports about the names of detainees to be released from Israeli jails as part of a US-brokered agreement between the PA and Israel to revive the peace process.
In a press release on Sunday the association stressed the need for waiting for the PA to release an official statement in this regard.
It appealed to the foreign and local media outlets to be careful not to spread any rumors concerning the names of detainees to be released from Israeli jails so as to avoid any confusion that could be created among the prisoners and their families.
