Israeli families furious over plans to release Palestinian prisoners

A serene scene on the Mediterranean seashore at Gaza City contrasts the tense exchanges behind the scenes of a new round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks brokered by the US. Photo / AP

Relatives of Israelis killed in the conflict with the Palestinians accused their Government yesterday of betrayal over a planned mass prisoner release.

Family members of more than 20 victims spoke out before a Cabinet committee meeting specially arranged to draw up a list of inmates for release tomorrow as a prelude to revived peace negotiations sponsored by the United States.

Some 26 prisoners are expected to be freed in the first phase of a programme that will see the release of 104 long-term convicts held since before the 1993 Oslo Accords.

Israel extracted a price for the release yesterday by approving nearly 1200 new settler homes in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, a move denounced by Palestinians as proof of Israeli bad faith in talks due to start this week in Jerusalem. Uri Ariel, the Israeli Housing Minister and a member of the hardline Jewish Home Party, said tenders would be issued for new homes in the east Jerusalem settlements of Har Homa, Gilo and Pisgat Zeev, and in the West Bank's Ariel, Maale Adumim, Efrata and Beitar Ilit.

Israel media, citing official sources, said the latest moves were part of a deal agreed with John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, allowing Israel to continue limited building in main settlement blocs in return for releasing prisoners, a key Palestinian demand.

The reputed deal angered relatives who gathered at Israel's High Court of Justice in Jerusalem for a hearing on a petition against the prisoner release filed by the Almagor organisation, representing the bereaved families.

Oded Karamani, 40, said it would give freedom to the Palestinian who killed his brother Ronen and his friend, Lior Tubol, in a knife attack in Ramot, near Jerusalem in 1990. "Lior was slaughtered, stabbed 24 times, just because he was Jewish," Karamani said.

"We feel betrayed by our country. Nobody's listening to our voices to understand what's in our hearts."

Rachel Friedman said she feared the release of the man who planned the bombing of a Jerusalem pizza parlour that killed her sister, her husband and their three children in 2001. "That man had been jailed in 1989 but was released in a goodwill gesture. When they freed him he returned to terror and now he's back in jail. But now they want to release him again."