Israel may free Palestinian prisoners

Karin Laub and Mohammed Daraghmeh, The Associated Press, Gaza City

Transcribed from the clipping

“In April 1993, Omar Masoud and three accomplices broke into a European aid office in Gaza City, grabbed a young Israeli lawyer working there and stabbed him to death. Israel arrested Masoud a month later and sentenced him to life… Now Masoud, along with dozens of other long-term Palestinian prisoners, is up for release as part of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s attempt to restart Israeli-Palestinian talks after five years of diplomatic paralysis… The fate of those held in Israeli jails is an emotionally wrought issue for Palestinians, who view the prisoners as heroes who made personal sacrifices in the struggle for statehood… Israelis tend to view the prisoners as cold-blooded terrorists… In a statement late Saturday, Netanyahu said that a decision to release prisoners is ‘painful to the bereaved families, painful to the people of Israel and very painful for me.’… As of late June, nearly 5,000 Palestinians were being held by Israel. Masoud’s mother, 70-year-old Tamam, said she is optimistic. ‘I hope everything will work out between Jews and Arabs,’ she said, speaking in her shack in the Shati refugee camp.”

Photograph caption

Tamam Masoud, 70, mother of Omar Masoud, 40, who was arrested in May 1993 for killing an Israeli lawyer, laughs Friday during an interview as she sits with her son Abdalrahman, 28, and grandson Yousef, 3, at her house at Shati Refugee Camp in Gaza City. Adel Hana/AP.

Context added by this archive

Four ordinary Palestinians named in one photograph, three generations of them, and both views of the prisoners set out in the same column.

Cite this item

"Israel may free Palestinian prisoners," Park City Daily News, 28 July 2013. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2013-005. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2013-005

Elsewhere in the archive

Death Toll Boosted In Palestine RiotsPark City Daily News · 7 December 1947 · the same newspaper
Palestinians evacuated, Netanyahu affirms plansThe Philadelphia Inquirer · 14 January 2013 · the same year
Bus service for Palestinians raises charges of racismSanta Barbara News-Press · 5 March 2013 · the same year
Economic development is seen as a key aspect of Palestinian state buildingSanta Barbara News-Press · 23 May 2013 · the same year

This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American and Anglophone newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1812 to 2022. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.

The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the wire service that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary.

Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-2013-005.

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