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Inside Israel

Israel may grant terrorists POW status


By Ryan Jones
October 12, 2005

Israel has signaled its willingness to grant jailed ?Palestinian? terrorists prisoner-of-war status, leaving itself no justification for not freeing those blood soaked killers, according to Palestinian Authority Prisoner Affairs Minister Sufian Abu Zaida.

Abu Zaida told Israel Radio Tuesday that he is ?very happy. For the first time, the Israelis are saying they are ready to think about the prisoners in a different way.?

He said the new status was especially applicable to those terrorists arrested prior to 1993, as they were operating as soldiers in a war under the command of the PLO, which that year made peace with Israel.

But according to the Geneva Conventions, which the ?Palestinians? are so fond of referencing, the prisoners in question can at best be classified as imprisoned war criminals.

Their deliberate attacks on unarmed civilians, use of civilian areas as bases of operation, and purposeful concealment of their identity as combatants violate Protocol I, Article 51, Sections 2 and 7, and Protocol I, Article 37, Section 1 of the conducts of civilized war.

Abu Zaida indicated that of greatest importance to the PA was securing the release of Samir Kuntar and Marwan Barghouti.

Kuntar, a Lebanese national, has been jailed since 1979 for infiltrating northern Israel in command of a group of terrorists, making his way to the coastal town of Nahariya and committing chilling acts of brutality against the Haran family.

After gaining entrance to the Haran household, Kuntar and his band took the father, Dani, and his five-year-old daughter, Anat, to the beach, where they smashed the girl's head to pieces with a rock before gunning down her mortified father.

Dani's wife, Smadar, and their two-year-old daughter Yael managed to escape detection by hiding in a closet. But Smadar was so afraid of being discovered that she inadvertently smothered Yael to death in an effort to keep her quiet.

Notwithstanding these vicious crimes, ?Samir has been in jail more than 25 years and that?s enough,? the PA minister insisted.

Barghouti, meanwhile, was arrested three years ago, and was only recently convicted of being directly responsible for the murders of at least 35 Israeli Jews at the hands of his Tanzim ?military wing? of the ruling Fatah faction.

Abu Zaida confirmed that Barghouti, who enjoys widespread popularity on the ?Palestinian? street for his terrorist exploits, plans to run in the upcoming PA parliamentary election, with the blessing of the Abbas regime.

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