REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JERUSALEM - Israel has agreed to release some "hardcore" Palestinian prisoners as part of US Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts to restart Mideast peace talks, but it will not meet other longstanding Palestinian demands before negotiations resume, an Israeli official said Saturday.
Kerry's announcement came after last-minute meetings with Palestinian officials at the end of a day in which he shuttled between the Jordanian capital and the West Bank. He did not offer details, saying that the deal is "still in the process of being formalized."
The comments from Yuval Steinitz, Israel's intelligence and strategic affairs minister, were the first from a senior Israeli official since Kerry announced late Friday that the Israelis and Palestinians will meet soon in Washington to work out the final details on an agreement to relaunch talks that collapsed in 2008.
Speaking to Israel Radio on Saturday, Steinitz said that as a step toward resuming those talks Israel has agreed to release "hardcore prisoners," including "those that have been sitting in jail for dozens of years." He did not say how many would be freed, adding only that they would be released in phases.
Their release has been a long-standing Palestinian demand. The fate of the prisoners is extremely sensitive in Palestinian society, where after decades of fighting Israel, many families have had a member imprisoned. The Palestinians are held on a range of charges, from rock throwing to deadly assaults like shooting attacks or bombings targeting Israeli soldiers and civilians. The Palestinians mostly view the prisoners as heroes while Israelis tend to see them as terrorists.
Steinitz said that other Palestinian demands __ such as a freeze on settlement building and defining the 1967 lines as borders ahead of the negotiations __ will not be met.
The basis of the negotiations has been a major impediment to resuming talks. On Thursday evening, the Palestinian leadership balked at dropping a main condition: They demand a guarantee that negotiations on borders between a Palestinian state and Israel would be based on the cease-fire line that held from 1949 until the 1967 war, when Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Israel rejects preconditions on the talks.
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