Minister Avi Dichter
Minister Avi Dichter

During a meeting with family members of Jewish security prisoners on Monday in the Knesset, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter rejected the idea of releasing Jews who planned or carried out attacks against Arabs for nationalist motives. Dichter said the

Releasing Jewish security prisoners would not serve any political purpose.

release of Jewish security prisoners could not be compared to the release of Arab security prisoners, approved by the cabinet on Sunday.

"They are two different things," Dichter explained, according to family members who attended the meeting.

The Jewish prisoners' families met with the minister to ask why their husbands and fathers remained in jail for planning to attack Arabs, while Arab terrorists were to again be set free as a "goodwill gesture."

Dichter replied that Israel has no interest in releasing Jewish prisoners. While releasing non-Jewish prisoners could be part of negotiations with Arab entities, he said, releasing Jewish security prisoners would not serve any political purpose. He further explained that the release of Israeli prisoners is not perceived in the same way overseas as the release of non-Israeli prisoners, making such a release "more difficult."

Family members then sarcastically asked Minister Dichter if it would be a good idea to kidnap an IDF soldier in order to get their loved ones' released from jail. "According to what you have said, it is preferable to be an Arab than a Jew" when it comes to prisoner releases, one family member said. Dichter reportedly refused to respond.

Regarding claims that the Jewish prisoners are not allowed basic privileges, such as the periodic furloughs offered to criminal prisoners, Minister Dichter told his guests that he was not the right address for such complaints. He said that the General Security Services (GSS) was responsible for the decision not to allow furloughs for Jews imprisoned for nationalist crimes.

In an incident before their meeting with the minister, guards forced the children accompanying their families to the Knesset to change their shirts, because they bore pictures of their imprisoned fathers. No explanation was offered for the dress restriction.

The meeting with Minister Dichter was arranged following a protest by the prisoners' families and families of terrorism victims outside the Prime Minister's office on Sunday. The protest was held during the cabinet meeting at which it was decided to release an additional 90 Arab terrorists from jail.

Rabbi Kanievsky Expressed His Support

The prisoners' families also met on Monday with Knesset representatives from the opposition in order to promote their case. MKs Effie Eitam (National Union), Yitzchak Levy (National Union), Yaakov Cohen (United Torah Judaism), Moshe Kahlon

Deputy Prime Minister in the Olmert coalition government reiterated his support.

(Likud), and Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) met with the families, expressed their support and said they would work through the parliament for the release of Jewish security prisoners.

MK Gafni informed the families that Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky of Bnei Brak, a leading authority in Torah law, instructed him to demand the release of the Jewish prisoners.

In an Israel Radio interview on Sunday, Eli Yishai, chairman of the Shas party and Deputy Prime Minister in the Olmert coalition government, reiterated his support for the release of Jews imprisoned for nationalist-motivated crimes against Arabs. In January of this year, Shas ministers and MKs asked Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to release or reduce the sentences of such Jewish prisoners.

Minister Yishai emphasized the case of one Jewish prisoner Ami Popper, who in 1990 gunned down 7 Arabs in Rishon LeTziyon. Yishai said that the prisoner's two young children became orphans in January, 2007 when Popper's wife was killed in a car accident. Yishai says Popper should be released after 17 years in jail on humanitarian grounds.