The Almagor anti-terror organization expressed concerns Wednesday that Israel could be preparing for another mass release of Arab terrorists from Israeli prisons, among them terrorists who directly participated or plotted murders of Israelis. The organization said that it had obtained information that in recent weeks, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni has ordered staff to examine the cases of over a hundred of these terrorists, with the suspicion being that she is seeking loopholes in the law that would enable their release.
Almagor chairman Meir Indor told Arutz Sheva that he had requested an urgent meeting with Livni in order to discuss the matter. Indor said that the Palestinian Authority had launched a massive campaign aimed at pressuring Israel to release “long-term prisoner” terrorists, who are in prison for terrorist acts that occurred over two decades ago. The release of the terrorists, along with a full building freeze in all of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem, are the two preconditions the PA has given Israel for a return to negotiations.
Indor said that his organization had obtained a list of 120 such terrorists. “All of them are murderers,” Indor said. “And they are all in good health. We are not talking about old men or sick men.” Indor added that the terrorists in question had participated in terror attacks that had cost Israelis their lives, not just “attempted” attacks. These are terrorists that Yitzchak Rabin, who signed the Oslo Accords along with chief PA terrorist Yasser Arafat, himself refused to release in the mass exodus of terrorists from Israeli prisons after the signing of Oslo.
Indor said that Livni has portrayed the requests for release by the PA as “very problematic,” but he fears that this is just a public statement designed to hide the attempt by Livni to seek legal ways to release the terrorists. Indor also said that it appeared that if Livni did decide to release the terrorists, President Shimon Peres would not stand in her way, as he said in a recent speech that he, too, was in favor of the release of “prisoners.”
Almagor is attempting to organize an opposition bloc of the families of victims of the terrorists to pressure Livni against signing release papers for the terrorists.
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