In what officials said was a goodwill gesture, Israel has agreed to free 258 Palestinian prisoners.
The release of the prisoners, which included eight Palestinian women, was delayed by several hours Monday, when the Supreme Court considered and then rejected a petition from the right-wing group B’Tzedek, which protested the move.
B’Tzedek argued that the freed Palestinians would renew attacks on Israelis. They also said the releases were not in accordance with the terms of the Palestinian self-rule accord.
Attorney General Michael Ben-Yair argued that it was an Israel Defense Force tradition to release prisoners in advance of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, which falls this year on Tuesday, and that the release were not being undertaken within the context of the self-rule accord.
Ben-Yair said the prisoners had not been tried in Israel, but had instead been sentenced by military courts in the territories.
Israel Radio reported that none of the prisoners selected for release had been convicted for murder and added that all those released had signed pledges that they would not participate in terrorist or anti-Israel activities again.
In Gaza, Maj. Gen. Ghazi Al-Jabali, Palestinian police chief, said that Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat planned in the coming days to release some jailed opponents of the peace accord with Israel.
“President Arafat has issued a pardon and ordered the release of some detainees within the coming 448 hours,” Jabali said. He did not say exactly how many prisoners would be released for the Eid Al-Adha feast.
The Palestinian Authority’s security forces recently began arresting members of the fundamentalist Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements in an attempt to prove that they can control terrorist activities.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
