Israel May Relax Prisoner-Release Policy

By LAURIE COPANS

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is trying to relax the criteria for releasing Palestinian prisoners, a move that could advance efforts to free a captured Israeli soldier, officials said Monday.

A key ally of Olmert’s will convene a meeting of senior ministers Monday to ask them to approve the release of prisoners involved in attempted attacks on Israelis, officials said. Israel’s stated policy is to refuse early releases to Palestinians involved in attacks on Israelis, but it has relaxed that policy in the past.

"We are in such a situation that, if we continue with the criteria that was used in the past, there will be no one else left to free," Ephriam Sneh, a lawmaker in the influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, told Army Radio. "If we want to free prisoners … and bring about the release of (Cpl.) Gilad Shalit, we will have to broaden this."

Hamas-linked militants captured Shalit in a June 2006 raid on an Israeli army outpost after tunneling under the Gaza-Israel border.

On Sunday, Olmert ruled out truce negotiations with Hamas, and vowed to continue attacking militants in Gaza.

There have been almost daily reports of truce feelers from the embattled Hamas regime, which violently seized Gaza in June, and Israeli defense officials had said they were examining the proposals. But Israel doubts that Hamas can stop the rocket fire, and has said that the truce is unnecessary because its attacks on militants would stop, if the rocket attacks ceased.

The prime minister’s office would not comment on the meeting. Olmert is not expected to participate but the discussion will be led by a confidant, Vice Premier Haim Ramon, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to talk about the matter publicly.

Israel is holding about 9,000 Palestinians. Because so many families have members in Israeli prisons, their release is a central Palestinian demand and a key to building confidence between the two sides as they renew peace negotiations. Hamas is not involved in those talks.

About 770 have been freed since July, far short of Palestinian expectations. Among those released, none was involved in deadly attacks on Israelis.

Olmert is seeking the ministerial backing for broadening the release criteria because he has been unable to persuade the chief of the Shin Bet security agency, Yuval Diskin, to ease them, the Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported Monday. Olmert can make the change himself, but a unilateral decision could be highly unpopular with the Israeli public, so the prime minister is looking for support from senior ministers, the newspaper said.

Israel and Hamas have no direct contacts because of the Islamic group’s history of suicide bombings against Israelis and its refusal to recognize the Jewish state’s right to exist. Egypt has mediated between the two sides on the Shalit affair.

Yediot reported that earlier this year, Hamas agreed to free Shalit in exchange for the release of 450 Palestinian prisoners, but the prisoners it wanted freed did not meet the Israeli threshold.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is traveling to Egypt on Wednesday to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Israeli media have speculated that the two men will, among other things, discuss a prisoner swap.