July 16, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 15, 1424

RAMALLAH: The ceasefire agreed by militant Palestinian factions is likely to survive the crisis over release of prisoners, because it has the support of the prisoners.

“The ceasefire is not a game for us,” Mohammed Safadi, among the most influential of Palestinian prisoners told IPS on mobile phone from his cell in Ashkelon prison. Safadi who is from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has been in Israeli prisons for 14 years for “anti-Israel activities” including throwing Molotov cocktails.

“We took the initiative for this ceasefire because it is in the national interest,” he said. “That means we will not threaten to end it every time there is a crisis.”

The prisoners played a key role in declaration of the ceasefire, Safadi says. Several Palestinian officials confirm this. Their stand means that the ceasefire is not immediately threatened, but an impasse could threaten an extension of truce.

The ceasefire agreement speaks of release of all Palestinian prisoners if it is to succeed. Israel let several hundred Palestinian prisoners go after accepting the roadmap for peace in June.

The Israeli Cabinet approved release of another 350 Palestinians last week. Members of the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad were excluded, as were people with “blood on their hands.”

The Palestinians, who point out that Israel holds more than 6,000 of their people in jail, reject this as totally insufficient. The Palestinian Authority and militant factions say the distinction between different prisoners is unacceptable.

Safadi says the prisoners hope that the cease-fire will be translated into a permanent peace. “But Israel has to agree to the release of all the prisoners, otherwise the whole process will fail,” he says.

There appears to be strong consensus among prisoners, their families and senior officials that immediate release of all inmates is unlikely as long as the ceasefire is not permanent. They are willing to wait for a final agreement that the roadmap provides for by 2005.

Kadoura Fares, a prominent leader of the younger generation of the Fatah movement on the West Bank who is campaigning on behalf of the prisoners, says that for now a time frame for the release will be sufficient. His office in Ramallah bustles with families of inmates, prisoners who have recently been released, and others who work on their behalf.

“A release of prisoners will actually strengthen the cease- fire,” says Fares, a slight man who himself has spent 12 years in Israeli jails. “In prison we are in daily contact with the Israelis which makes us more aware of their points of view. Most prisoners come out more willing to make peace than before.”

Fares and other activists believe that a quick release of prisoners by the Israelis will strengthen Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who has been criticized for his handling of the issue, and who offered his resignation in response.

Safadi still supports Abbas, though he is angry with the Palestinian Authority for not doing enough to secure the prisoners’ release. “Israel is the enemy and we don’t expect any favours from them, but our own people have to fight on our behalf,” he says. “We believe Abbas when he says he will do his best for us, but until now he has not done enough.”

The prisoners are pushing especially for the early release of those who have served more than ten years. These are said to number more than 400. Some of them have been in jail more than 25 years.

Ahmed Jubara was released a month ago after 27 years in prison. His hair has turned white, and his face is deeply lined. He pleads passionately for the release of the long-timers, and now advises Yasser Arafat on the prisoners issue.

In 1975 Jubara placed a fridge full of explosives at an intersection on Jerusalem’s busy Jaffa Street. Thirteen people were killed in the explosion, and more than 70 were severely injured.

In an expensive suite in Ramallah, Jubara says he has no regrets over what he did. “I fought against the occupation and that is a legitimate struggle.

To many Israelis the release of such people is unacceptable, even after many years. Jubara, better known as Abu Sukar, says he cannot go home to his village Turmus Aya on the road to Nablus. Neighbouring Jewish settlers have threatened to kill him.

“If we start to talk about who has done what, there are also Israeli soldiers who have killed thousands of Palestinians,” he says. “During this Intifadah alone, hundreds of children, women and other innocent people have been killed by the Israelis. Why should we sit in jail while they go free?”

He regards Palestinians in Israeli jails as “prisoners of war” who should be released in the framework of a peace agreement. He denies they are likely to take up arms again against the Israelis. “The last thing somebody who has been to jail wants to do, is to go back. I can tell you that from personal experience.”

The Israelis say, however, that about half the prisoners released engage in anti-Israeli actions after their release. A senior intelligence official said Israel “would be crazy” to release dangerous prisoners in the course of a three-month ceasefire.

Kadoura Fares says that without the prospect of a total release of prisoners, the ceasefire is doomed because that is the way Palestinian society works. The prisoners are the “elite”, he says. “They are the leaders, the fighters, the heroes. Without their release the peace process will not get the support that it needs.”—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.