Netanyahu's Refusal to Release Palestinian Political Prisoners Seen as Attempt to Turn Them Against Wye

"There is not a single extended family in the West Bank or Gaza that does not still have a relative in prison," said Um Khaled, who was carrying a picture of her jailed son at a demonstration in support of the prisoners. "Nowhere in the world have leaders signed so many peace accords and allowed so many of their prisoners to remain stuck in jail. Can you imagine the ANC or Nelson Mandela leaving their freedom fighters behind bars while they go off and form a government?" Fatah prisoners are the longest held (average 15 to 20 years) and tend to be the political leaders inside the Israeli prisons. Since the peace accords were signed in 1993, nearly 95 percent of those arrested and sentenced have been members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or other opposition groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). During the negotations at Wye Plantation, Fatah prisoners sent messages to [Yasser Arafat] telling him they were waiting patiently but that if there is no release, "all hell will break loose," according to one prisoner. Dismissing Palestinian outrage that 150 of the first 200 prisoners released were mostly car thieves, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he never promised to release "security prisoners" and indicated that the upcoming two releases could well be more of the same. Palestinians felt Netanyahu had gone over the top in what was clearly viewed as an attempt to humiliate and provoke the Palestinian leadership to renounce the agreement.