Comments (1)Shalit Negotiations Hit Snag
December 8, 2009Jerusalem
JTA Wire Service
Negotiations between Hamas and Israel to release kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit have hit a significant snag, according to news reports.
A senior Hamas source told the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat last Friday that a proposed deal to release Shalit in exchange for Israeli-held Palestinian prisoners had hit three obstacles: Israel’s refusal to release 50 of the 450 prisoners requested for release by Hamas; Israel’s refusal to include Israeli-Arab prisoners in the deal; and Israel’s insistence on deporting 130 of the prisoners.
A German mediator has been relating negotiation points between Gaza and Israel, according to al-Hayat.
Hamas reportedly will not make a deal without the release of 15 specific prisoners, including West Bank Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti; Ahmed Saadat, secretary-general of the Popular Resistance for the Liberation of Palestine; and 10 leaders of Hamas’ military wing, according to the Saudi Arabia newspaper al-Watan.
Shalit, now 23, was kidnapped in June 2006 by Hamas operatives near the Gaza border and has been held in Gaza ever since, according to reports. In October, Hamas released a video of a healthy-looking Shalit holding up a Palestinian newspaper bearing a September 2009 masthead.
Meanwhile, a Hamas official told Israel Radio Sunday that a al-Hayat report saying that French doctors had traveled to Gaza last week to examine Shalit was false.
8 Jewish Teens Arrested Blocking Road to Jerusalem
Dozens of Jewish teenagers blocked the entrance road to Jerusalem in protest of the settlement construction freeze.
Police arrested eight protesters and held them for questioning. The protesters were moved to the sidewalk, allowing for a free flow of traffic.
The action came hours after police were called to the Maleh Levona settlment near Nablus and Revava near Ariel to protect Civil Administration officials trying to enter the communities to distribute stop-work orders.
Hundreds of young right-wing activists, who physically blocked the roads leading to the communities, stopped the officials. In Revava, girls from the local high school blocked the road.
Ha’aretz reported Monday that right-wing activists are planning demonstrations and to block roads in Jewish communities within the Green Line.
Netanyahu: Israel Ready for Syria Talks
Israel is ready for direct negotiations with Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday that he recently informed French President Nicolas Sarkozy of Israel’s desire to enter into new negotiations without preconditions. Netanyahu said that Sarkozy told him that Syria has dropped its precondition of a withdrawal from all of the Golan Heights in order to start negotiations and that Syria was ready for mediated negotiations.
Netanyahu also said he told Sarkozy that he would prefer that France take over the mediator’s role from Turkey.
The prime minister also discussed the threat to Israel from Lebanon to the north.
“If in the past we considered Hezbollah as a sideline militia, today Hezbollah is the real Lebanese army,” he reportedly said. “Hezbollah has replaced the Lebanese army as a significant force; it is arming and organizing as a real army. The Lebanese government and Hezbollah are becoming interwoven in each other—and they will suffer the consequences of any violation against Israel.”
This story reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.