Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not; for I will not justify the wicked. (Exodus 23:7)
Between 2,000 and 3,000 people gathered outside Ofer Prison on Monday night to protest the release of 26 Palestinian prisoners set for the following day, according to The Times of Israel and the Jerusalem Post.
The crowd included bereaved family members of victims of the terror these prisoners are responsible for as well as MKs from right-wing party Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home), which has vehemently opposed the release of prisoners as a confidence-building measure for the ongoing peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Large signs with faces of the terrorist’s victims were displayed and protesters constantly shouted “Jewish blood is not cheap!”
Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel addressed the demonstrating, declaring it was “time to stop” the release of terrorists.
The Israeli prison system had released the names of the prisoners set to be released late Sunday night. They were slated to be set free 48 later. In sync with the previous release in August, all had been given life sentences for attacks that took the lives of Israeli citizens.
Damouni Saad Mohammed Ahmed will be released to the Gaza Strip this week more than 20 years after he was convicted of taking part in the brutal lynching of IDF reservist Amnon Pomerantz, who took a wrong turn into a refugee camp in the coastal territory in 1990 – he was beaten to death before his car was set alight by firebombs.
Shakir Alifu Musbach Nufal will be released to his home in Judea and Samaria this week, some 27 years after he was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the kidnapping and murder of then- 21-year-old IDF soldier Shaltiel Akiva on Passover night in 1985.
Two Fatah terrorists, Samarin Mustafa Kalib Asrar and Kra’an Azat Musa Musa, were convicted in the 1992 abduction and murder of Israeli soldier Tzvi Klein in the West Bank in 1992.
Two men sentenced in the killing of IDF reservist Aharon Avida in 1985 will also be released.
Yosef Mahmad Haza Haza was only 17 when he and a friend murdered hikers Leah Elmakayis and Yossi Eliyahu at a forest on the Gilboa mountain range in 1985. Abed al Raba Nimr Jabril Issa is also set to be released following his conviction for the murder of hikers Revital Seri and Ron Levy in 1984.
Fatah member Abu-Dahila Hasan Atik Sharif will be released to the West Bank 21 years after his arrest for the murder of Avi Osher, who employed him for 15 years at his Jordan Valley farm before Sharif beat and stabbed him to death.
The list includes Amer Massoud Issa Rajib, one of those convicted in the murder of Ian Feinberg, who was hacked and shot to death in April 1993 in the Gaza Strip, where he had been working on economic revitalization plans for the area.
Ariel (Jewish Home) argued against the government’s decision to release the prisoners, despite being a cabinet minister in a government that voted for it. “Releasing terrorists is immoral for a Jewish perspective,” he told the demonstrators. “Enough terror, enough releases for terrorists.”
On Monday, Netanyahu called the decision to release the prisoners one of the most agonizing of his career.
“The decision to release prisoners is one of the toughest decisions that I’ve taken as prime minister,” Netanyahu told a Likud-Beytenu faction meeting. “I am certain that all the prime ministers who made this decision before me agonized over it as well, due to the injustice of villains being released before they serve the full term of their sentences. My heart is with the bereaved families, and it pains me. This decision is a necessity, given the reality in which we live.”
