Is Justice Minister Tzipi Livni planning a mass terrorist release? Here's a report that says yes.
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.
Most of the terrorists have been in Israeli prisons for years or even
decades, with many of the terrorist acts undertaken before the signing
of the Oslo Accords.
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.
Aren't you glad that Netanyahu brought Livni into the government with a position that far exceeds the pay grade of a party with six MK's? What could go wrong?
The circusKnesset opens in Jerusalem on Monday afternoon after its long summer vacation, and some outsiders have been invited. The Shalit family will be there, as will the poor little rich girl from Kfar Shmaryahu. But there won't be any terror victims or their families there, and that's got MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), whom one blogger calls Israel's Saracuda, quite upset.
MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) said on Sunday that, while she respects the Schalit family, Rivlin should have also invited "bereaved families, in which those who murdered their loved ones were released in the deal [to release Schalit]."
"The difficult side of the deal should be expressed, as well," she explained. "It was a complex moment, while many were happy that Schalit was released, it cannot be denied that many families were hurt because terrorists were set free."
Hotovely is right. The government of Israel should be ashamed of the way in which it has treated terror victims. This reminds me of Yitzchak Rabin's dismissing them in 1994-95 as 'sacrifices for peace.' I'd expect better from Binyamin Netanyahu, Ruby Rivlin (the Knesset speaker who controls invitations) and the Likud. It's disgraceful.
The Almagor terror victims' organization is publishing an online database which it hopes will deter future trades like the terrorists for Gilad trade.
The database, called “Justice for Terror Victims,” will collect information that is available to the public, such as arrests and court transcripts, and compile it in a searchable database.
The Foreign Ministry and some private bloggers have partial lists, but this is the first initiative to have a comprehensive center of information.
More than a dozen volunteers working around the clock in shifts of three have already compiled full entries for 270 terrorists released as part of the Gilad Schalit deal.
It will be uploaded later this week onto the organization’s website, al-magor.com.
The prisoner list released ahead of the Schalit swap by the Prisons Service had dry descriptions for each of those released such as “involvement in unknown terror organization” and “assisted in murder.”
Indor believes that more specific descriptions, such as “the driver who brought the suicide bomber to Sbarro,” will resonate with the public on a deeper level and encourage more of an outcry against future swaps, which was fairly muted in the Schalit deal.
“Personalization works,” said Indor, noting that one reason the Schalit campaign was so successful was that it created an image of Schalit the average Israeli could relate to as a son and a soldier.
He added that the database, which will start with the terrorists released as part of the Schalit swap, will be updated if there are future swaps or if a terrorist is rearrested for committing similar crimes.
There are two other related issues that I hope Almagor can overcome. One is that Arabic names are transliterated into English (and Hebrew for that matter) with multiple spellings that make searches difficult. And a second is that Arabic names have honorariums that are sometimes used and sometimes not used.
For example, after the terrorists for Gilad list was announced, I got an email from a columnist whose name many of you would recognize, who asked me how I knew that Abed Alaziz Salaha, the terrorist whose bloody hands were photographed at the Ramallah lynch in 2000, was being released. His name, wrote the columnist, did not appear on the list. Well, it did. But to find it, you had to know what sentence he was serving, when he was born and when he was arrested. His name appeared as Abd al-Aziz Yussuf Mustafa Salehi.
But it sounds like a great idea, and it's something a lot of bloggers have been seeking. I just hope they can do it in a way that's user friendly.
Half the prisoners to be released in Grapel deal are 'security prisoners' (i.e. terrorists)
On Monday, we were told that the number of Egyptians we are to free in 'exchange' for American-Israeli anarchist Ilan Grapel had been reduced to 25. On Tuesday, we found out why: Half of them are 'security prisoners.' That's a nice way of saying terrorists.
In a statement, Almagor [the terror victims' rights organization. CiJ] claimed that half the prisoners had provided weapons to terrorists, while the other half were involved in smuggling drugs.
"The Israeli government is turning herself into a Mediterranean bazaar for her kidnapped citizens, making them a living commodity for terrorists and governments," the group said.
Almagor called on Israeli citizens to avoid traveling in Muslim countries, to avoid the possibility of being kidnapped or arrested for political purposes. "Israelis traveling in Turkey and Jordan may find themselves in a similar situation as Grapel, and consider these events as a travel warning."
Egyptian media had reported that the three of the prisoners are minors who had been acquitted of illegally crossing into Israel to sell cigarettes, but remained imprisoned after prosecutors appealed the ruling.
Israel, with the help of the United States, reached a deal with Egypt for the young man’s freedom, in exchange for the release of 25 Egyptian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Grapel, whose family lives in Queens, is a student at Emory Law School in Atlanta and has served in the Israeli army.
He had gone to Cairo to work in a legal aid organization.
Egypt accused Grapel of being an Israeli spy and inciting protesters against Egypt’s military. Israel and the Grapel family have denied the charges.
In fact, the Egyptians themselves have admitted that there is nothing behind the charges.
By the way, there's a real Israeli in the Egyptian jails as well.
On Monday, conflicting reports emerged over whether a second Israeli citizen would be included in the deal: Ouda Tarabin – a Beduin shepherd held for over a decade on spying charges after illegally entering Egypt.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Israel is “doing its best” to ensure Tarabin’s release.
On Tuesday afternoon, Tarabin's brother told Israel Radio that he is not being released. He has been imprisoned in Egypt for 11 years without trial.
Almagor is right that trading in kidnapped Israelis has become a market here. I will have more on that later.
By the way, the two people in the photo with Grapel are Kadima MK Yisrael Hasson and Yitzchak Molcho - Netanyahu's private attorney and troubleshooter. They report that Grapel is fine and that his main complaint is that he is lonely. Boo. Hoo.
For those who missed it earlier, I have been sick in bed all afternoon and evening, and will be going back to sleep again shortly (there will probably be two more posts during the night and no more unless I wake up). What happens tomorrow remains to be seen - I cannot sit at the computer feeling like this.
As expected, the 'High Court of Justice' accepted the terrorists for Gilad deal on Monday. They put on a show for ten hours and did not deal with a single substantive issue, telling the families 'you knew this was coming.' Well, no kidding. But if the families had appealed earlier, they probably would have been told it's not ripe for appeal yet.
There's a lot of material in that link and I suggest that you read it all. Unfortunately, I am in no condition right now to respond to it all, but I will highlight a couple of points.
Mandel also emphasized that the decision to release the prisoners was a political decision made by the government.
"The court's role is to examine the legality of that decision, and not anything else," noted Mandel.
According to Mandel, 26 government ministers had agreed to the Schalit deal after hearing opinions of security professionals. The deal had been made in order to release Gilad Schalit while minimizing the risk to state security, she added.
Mandel also quoted a court ruling by Beinisch in 2009, in which the Supreme Court President had said that the court does not interfere in government decisions regarding state security.
So if the court doesn't itnerefere in government decisions regarding state security, why has it continually interfered with the route of the 'security fence'?
In their address to the court, petitioners attorney Zeev Dasberg argued that the President has no authority to grant pardons without first giving the injured parties an opportunity to oppose the pardon.
Dasberg was accompanied by legal expert Professor Gideon Sapir, who argued that releasing the prisoners violates international norms on punishment for terrorists.
However, state attorney Mandel countered by saying that Gilad Schalit's captivity also violates international law, including because he has been denied visitors for over five years.
What message does that send to Hamas? If you're going to kidnap IDF soldiers, don't let anyone see them, because that will make it easier for the court to uphold the release of terrorists in exchange for them....
During the hearing, Court President Beinisch noted as problematic the situation in which those terrorists who murdered Israelis are aware they will be released from prison in just a few years.
"The price is the cancellation of legal rulings that determined these people are in prison," Beinisch said. "There is no need to explain to us the history of this painful and very difficult dilemma."
Beinisch also said she thought the government is aware that terror victims' families are opposed to the deal.
"The difficulty, the pain and the injury is clear," Beinisch said.
And this is consistent with the rule of law?
For what it's worth, Noam Shalit was not allowed to address the court. I guess that was too much even for Beinisch.
'Israeli Arab' MK's Ahmad Tibi, Taleb a-Sanaa and Mohamed Barakeh (pictured) attended Wednesday's signing ceremony between Hamas and Fatah in Cairo and were pictured with Hamas' leaders. Now, lots of Israelis would like to see them thrown out of the Knesset.
National Union Chairman MK Yaacov Katz called on Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin to intervene and “throw out the traitors and the murderers and the collaborators with those who want to destroy” the very Knesset in which they serve.”
Almagor, a terror victims’ advocacy organization called on Attorney-General Yehudah Weinstein to open a criminal investigation into the participation of Ahmed Tibi, Mohammed Barakeh and Taleb a-Sanaa in the ceremony.
The organization argued that because Hamas is officially recognized as a terror organization, anyone participating in an event involving Hamas has violated an law prohibiting attending a meeting of a terror group.
“Public support of a unity agreement with a terror organization is the peak of expressing support of the organization and renders useless all attempts by legislators to differentiate between legitimate organizations and organizations that should not exist at all,” wrote Almagor in the letter to Weinstein.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
