THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT has reportedly allowed detained Hamas officials to meet and discuss the issue of captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
According to Ma'an News, the meeting, apparently held in a Negev prison, was attended by members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, the Al-Qassam Brigades and former government ministers. The prisoners also held a dialogue over the current living conditions in the prison.
It should be noted that the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has expressed its concern over the alleged attempts of an Israeli ministerial committe to "worsen detention conditions for Palestinian security prisoners" in an effort to pressurise Hamas into releasing Shalit.
 "PCHR affirm that using detainees as political 'bargaining chips' is a violation of their inherent human dignity: every individual must be respected and protected solely on the basis of their humanity. Manipulating detainees for political purposes violates their moral integrity, while negating their individual autonomy and humanity," the organisation explained in a statement. "The human rights to which a person is entitled simply by being human continue even when that person is detained or imprisoned. The fact that an individual is incarcerated cannot serve as justification for the deprivation of any right. PCHR affirm that, if enacted, the proposed measures would be illegal as they constitute collective punishment, and violations of international human rights law."
As The News previously reported, Egyptian efforts to faciliate a prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel recently failed after months of intense negotiations.
An official statement released by Israel's government press office explained that freeing all prisoners as stipulated by Hamas would cause "severe damage to national security" by rehabilitating "strategic terrorist infrastructures" and bolstering regional "extremists."
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed similar sentiments during a nationally televised press conference.
"The Government of Israel will not agree to any of the conditions or dictates of the Hamas as they were presented to the negotiating team. Israel presented the other side with generous, far-reaching and unprecedented offers which were meant to lead to Gilad Shalit's release," said Olmert. "I approved these offers, the practical meaning of which was the release of many hundreds of terrorists, including murderers of Israeli citizens, for the possibility of returning Gilad. These offers were rejected. Others will not be delivered to the Hamas. We will not agree to release more prisoners from the Hamas list beyond the hundreds of names that we agreed to and announced to them."
Olmert emphasised the State of Israel had "red lines" which the country would not cross.
"We are not a broken people. We are not a defeated nation. A people who desire life, one surrounded by hostile countries, threatened by murderous terrorist organisations – cannot, is not willing nor will it agree to surrender to every dictate made," insisted Olmert.
Hamas, however, blamed Israel for the diplomatic impasse.
"Olmert is the one responsible for the failure of getting a deal, because he wouldn't do what he had to do. He was afraid and he played the Israeli public and the Shalit family for fools," Hamas spokesperson Ismail Radwan told AFP.
Speaking on Al Jazeera, Hamas politburo member Osama al-Mazini noted that his group had "set a declared goal demanding the release of 1,000 prisoners in two rotations – the first including 450 men jailed for lengthy terms and the second, two months later, including 500 prisoners." According to al-Mazini, Israel reneged on the understandings, as the list was compiled only after the "Zionist enemy" agreed to the terms.
"It is the enemy that went back on the agreement. This list is at the heart of the deal," said al-Mazini.
|