(IsraelNN.com) A protest demonstration has been called for Tuesday evening outside the President’s Residence against the “terrible injustice” vis-à-vis the 17 Jewish nationalist prisoners currently incarcerated.

The protestors will call out, “Peres! No more releasing of thousands of terrorists – Release 17 Jews!”

Buses will bring participants from all over Judea and Samaria.  “We can’t have many more people,” one organizer said, “because it’s at the President’s house and the police have limited our numbers.”

Among the participants will be MKs Nissim Ze’ev and Aryeh Eldad.

'Treated Worse than Terrorists'
Seventeen Jews, including hunger-striking Ofer Gamliel, are being held in prison for various crimes or attempted crimes of violence against Arabs, in response to the Arab terrorist war conducted over the years – and particularly since 2000 – against Israel.  “We are the public to which they belong,” the protest literature states, “and they await our support.  The authorities are hostile to them and treat them worse than they treat dangerous terrorists.”

Gamliel, for instance, has been in prison for 6.5 years on charges of attempting to detonate a bomb outside an Arab school – and has never been allowed the vacation rights routinely granted to other prisoners.  Father of seven children, he and his two co-defendants from Bat Ayin claimed the bomb was never meant to go off, but rather to instill fear in the Arab community.  He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and the two others to 12 years each;
they have received many hints that they should not expected to receive "one-third off for good behavior."

Hunger Strike is Best Option
Gamliel began hunger-striking over two months ago in protest of the refusal to grant him any vacation days, while Arab and other prisoners receive them regularly.  Realizing that as far as the authorities are concerned, he is destined to spend the next 8.5 years in prison without ever leaving, Gamliel decided to begin his hunger strike.

He is also protesting the fact that his release is not being entertained, while Arab terrorists are released periodically as goodwill gestures to the Palestinian Authority.  Just last week, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert informed PA chief Mahmoud Abbas that he would free 250 terrorists as a goodwill holiday gesture.

Tessler Released
Among the speakers at this evening’s protest will be Aryeh Tessler, who was released from prison two days ago, after being convicted of acts protesting the violent destruction in Amona.  He and the daughter of a terrorism victim from the community of Elon Moreh in Shomron (Samaria) are to be married next month.

“Jewish nationalist prisoners are not afforded the wholesale releases granted to cursed terrorists, who continue to be released all the time,” the families of the prisoners claim. Last month, MKs Yitzchak Levy and Aryeh Eldad visited Gamliel in prison for the first time, although IDF Chief Rabbi Avi Ronsky was refused permission to do so.