The PA's three-member negotiating team angrily denounced the offer Thursday night after meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's advisor Dov Weissglas. The latter told them of Israel's final offer: 500 prisoners to be released now, and 400 in another three months.
The crisis cast a giant shadow over the four-way summit planned on Tuesday between Prime Minster Sharon, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has rejected a PA request she attend the summit.
Israel's offer was merely "worthless, empty words," said Mohammed Dahlan, one of the most prominent Arab leaders in Gaza and part of the PA negotiating team. The PA is demanding release of 237 prisoners jailed before the Oslo Accords of 1993. “That's what's important to us and not the 900 you are proposing,” said one of the PA representatives.
The Israeli offer followed a security cabinet debate on Thursday, and represented a compromise between two opposing positions. GSS Chief Avi Dichter and Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that Israel must not release any murderers, and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom objected to the release of any Hamas terrorists at all. Associate Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Minister Chaim Ramon, on the other hand, insisted that the criterion of not releasing terrorists with “blood on their hands” is outdated.
Some 7,600 "security prisoners" are currently incarcerated in Israel.
Israel also decided on other "confidence-building gestures" on Thursday, including the transfer of security control in four cities to the PA. Jericho will be first, followed by Kalkilye, Tul Karem and Bethlehem. In addition, two Gaza crossings, closed because of recent terror attacks, will be re-opened.
Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz said, "We must be cautious and calculated, but we must also give the PA a chance to enter a process that can change the situation. Most of the steps we are planning are reversible." He was apparently not referring to the release of terrorist prisoners.
The Almagor Terror Victims Association conducted an emergency meeting on Thursday. At a press conference afterwards, the group's representatives said that the decision to release the prisoners is "a reward for terrorism and a blow to the families of the victims." They called on the ministers not to approve the move in the upcoming Cabinet meeting on Sunday – an unlikely demand – and plan to hold a protest vigil during the meeting.
The crisis cast a giant shadow over the four-way summit planned on Tuesday between Prime Minster Sharon, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has rejected a PA request she attend the summit.
Israel's offer was merely "worthless, empty words," said Mohammed Dahlan, one of the most prominent Arab leaders in Gaza and part of the PA negotiating team. The PA is demanding release of 237 prisoners jailed before the Oslo Accords of 1993. “That's what's important to us and not the 900 you are proposing,” said one of the PA representatives.
The Israeli offer followed a security cabinet debate on Thursday, and represented a compromise between two opposing positions. GSS Chief Avi Dichter and Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that Israel must not release any murderers, and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom objected to the release of any Hamas terrorists at all. Associate Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Minister Chaim Ramon, on the other hand, insisted that the criterion of not releasing terrorists with “blood on their hands” is outdated.
Some 7,600 "security prisoners" are currently incarcerated in Israel.
Israel also decided on other "confidence-building gestures" on Thursday, including the transfer of security control in four cities to the PA. Jericho will be first, followed by Kalkilye, Tul Karem and Bethlehem. In addition, two Gaza crossings, closed because of recent terror attacks, will be re-opened.
Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz said, "We must be cautious and calculated, but we must also give the PA a chance to enter a process that can change the situation. Most of the steps we are planning are reversible." He was apparently not referring to the release of terrorist prisoners.
The Almagor Terror Victims Association conducted an emergency meeting on Thursday. At a press conference afterwards, the group's representatives said that the decision to release the prisoners is "a reward for terrorism and a blow to the families of the victims." They called on the ministers not to approve the move in the upcoming Cabinet meeting on Sunday – an unlikely demand – and plan to hold a protest vigil during the meeting.