Israel is slated to release 26 terrorists on Tuesday – and as of Sunday morning, the identities of those terrorists are still unknown.
The government will announced the final list of the first group of some 100 terrorists it promised to release in return for the Palestinian Authority's agreement to negotiate Israeli surrender of territory to the PA.
In statements last week, the government said that all the terrorists to be released would be those who had been serving for several decades, and would be too old to participate in further terror attacks. However, many of those terrorists have been in prison for so long with good reason – being responsible for many Israeli and Jewish deaths, some in large-scale terrorist atrocities.
However, Kadima head Shaul Mofaz has pointed out that although they may be too old for terrorism, they are certainly not too old for spreading propaganda and hate – and one criteria for deciding on which terrorists should be released should include their propaganda value to the PA, he told Israel Radio Sunday.
“We must condition the release of these terrorists on a commitment not to engage in hateful incitement against Israel,” Mofaz said, adding that such a commitment should be signed before they were released.
It was not clear how such a signed declaration would be enforced. Previous prisoner releases have required released terrorists to sign that they will not return to terrorism upon their release - only for a significant portion to do so anyway.
Mofaz criticized Netanyahu for releasing the terrorists altogether, saying that it was the result of his refusal to enter into negotiations with the PA voluntarily.
“This is the price we pay for being dragged into the talks,” Mofaz said, adding that he did not expect any results from the upcoming nine months of negotiations.
“Netanyahu's main strategic goal is to show that Israel has no peace partner,” he claimed.