Prisoner issue provokes Palestinian crisis

MIDDLE EAST: The way the crisis over the release of prisoners is resolved will be a major test of Israeli and US commitment to the road map, writes Michael Jansen

Differences between the Palestine Authority and Israeli government over the release of Palestinian prisoners have provoked a full-blown crisis within the Palestinian leadership.

This peaked on Thursday when President Yasser Arafat accused the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mr Mahmoud Abbas, of "betraying the interests of the Palestinian people" by demanding too little of Israel and conceding too much.

At issue was the number and type of prisoners to be freed by Israel as a confidence-building measure under the "road map" leading to the emergence of a Palestinian state by 2005.

Earlier in the week Mr Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen, threatened to step down from the premiership and tendered his resignation from Fatah's governing central council after he came under fire from members allied to Mr Arafat for not rejecting an Israeli proposal for the release of just 350 prisoners out of 6,500.

Although a joint committee was meant to decide which prisoners would be released, Israel simply presented the Palestinians with a fait accompli. Only those who had "no Israeli blood on their hands" and did not belong to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other militant groups would be included.

The Palestinians were furious, particularly since imprisoned leaders of the excluded factions played a major role in engineering the three-month halt in attacks on Israelis which began on June 29th. Without this hudna, or truce, implementation of the road map could not begin.

Palestinians regard the prisoner issue as crucial. Nearly every extended family has at least one member in an Israeli prison. Some prisoners have been held for decades.

These include 2,000 who have killed Israelis, 720 Hamas members, 344 from Islamic Jihad and 136 from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. One thousand, including children, are being held indefinitely in administrative detention without trial. Before the hudna came into force Palestinians were being arrested at the rate of 100 a week.

Prisons and detention centres had become dangerously overcrowded.

This issue is particularly sensitive for Mr Abbas. Under the 1993 Oslo accord, which he negotiated and signed, Israel was meant to free all prisoners who committed offences before the conclusion of that agreement. When Israel did not release the prisoners Mr Abbas was held responsible. Blamed also for the failure of the Oslo process to deliver a Palestinian state, Mr Abbas, an appointed rather than an elected prime minister, is in an impossible situation.

The US mediator, Mr John Wolf, has pressed Israel to bolster his position by dismantling settler outposts and roadblocks and freeing prisoners. Of a dozen settler outposts dismantled by Israeli troops all but one have been rebuilt, roadblocks remain in place and disagreement over prisoners persists. Palestinian spokesmen argue they have received nothing in exhange for the hudna. Frustration produced the crisis in Fatah's central committee, which runs the Palestinian Authority. This crisis involved both power play and charade.

Arafat loyalists who rebuked Mr Abbas sought to demonstrate that the president remains the central figure in the authority not Mr Abbas, his appointee. Determined to prove that he cannot be sidelined by Israel and the US, Mr Arafat has used the loss of confidence in Mr Abbas to reassert his authority over the Palestinian security services. He offered to Mr Jibril Rajoub, former head of West Bank Preventive Security, a post which would put him in charge once again. Mr Arafat took this action because he believes Mr Abbas has delegated too much authority to his security chief, Mr Muhammad Dahlan, who is accused of being prepared to provide Israel with security at the expense of the Palestinians.

Mr Abbas's threats to resign from Fatah's leadership and the premiership are standard Palestinian brinkmanship. Since no one expected Mr Abbas to step down from either post, this was pure theatre. Mr Abbas simply followed the example of Mr Arafat, who has repeatedly used this tactic to bring others into line whenever his one-man rule has been challenged. This time Mr Abbas not only turned the tables on Mr Arafat, but demonstrated to Israel and the US that he needs their support if he is to continue.

The charade benefited both Mr Abbas and Mr Arafat. Mr Abbas served notice on Israel and the US that if he is to survive measures must be taken to improve the daily lives of Palestinians and satisfy their main political demands. Mr Arafat and his allies showed that they are not prepared to accept Israeli proposals which are unacceptable to a majority of Palestinians.

The way the crisis over the release of prisoners is resolved will be a major test of the Israeli and US commitment to the road map. Mr Abbas, godfather of the defunct Oslo process, cannot afford to fail the prisoners and their famililes a second time.