This Ongoing War..
14 June '13..
Daoud Kattoub, the Palestinian Arab journalist and media ‘activist’ (also a professor of journalism at Princeton University at some point in the past) writes on the Al-Monitor website today [“Pre-OsloPrisoners Still Obstacle To Palestinian-Israeli Talks”] about the heart-tugging issue of convicted murderers outrageously forced to remain behind bars.
Wait. In some ways it’s not as mad as it sounds. But yes, it does sound quite insane if you’re not paying attention to the specific part of the world in which it’s being played out.
Kattoub writes of men who, having been sent on military missions by the leadership of Yasser Arafat’s PLO, are now “rotting in jail” (Kattoub’s exact words) while promises made by various Israeli politicians to set them free “have not been fulfilled”. These are the so-called pre-Oslo prisoners, sometimes referred to in the ideologically-addled media as political prisoners. There are a total of 118 of them inside Israel’s prisons today.
The issue reverberates, as Kattoub shows. The president of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas,
“has rejected an Israeli offer to have 50 of the prisoners released. Abbas insists that all prisoners must be released as part of a US-brokered agreement to restart face-to-face peace talks.” [Al-Monitor]
A serious issue, it seems. Fifty is not enough. Only the entire 118 will satisfy whatever deep need Abbas is addressing. He can take this purportedly high road because
“prisoners held for a long time… are held in high esteem among Palestinians, as they have been paying such a high sacrifice for their nation.” [Al-Monitor]
Let's analyse this a little. The men whom Abbas has on his mind are from the group Kattoub calls the “more moderate Fatah faction”, who “feel that they have suffered because of their party affiliation”. Not Hamas. Fatah. Abbas' group - the terrorists who report to him today.
(Continue)
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