Palestinian-Israeli prisoner exchange

Under a rare prisoner swap deal last Tuesday, Israel started releasing 1,027 Palestinians, including women, who had been rotting in its jails for several years - in one case for 13 years - in exchange for an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. Hamas men had abducted him from an Israeli security post five years ago. As Shalit was transferred to Israel via Egypt, the first group of 477 Palestinian prisoners started arriving to rapturous welcome in Gaza and the West Bank. Another 550 prisoners are to be released within two months. Still, some 5,000 Palestinians, including the much-revered Fatah leader, Marwan Barghouti, who was arrested from Ramallah in 2002, will remain prisoners until and unless something dramatic happens to bring them freedom. Israel's hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been insisting for long that Hamas can be no part of the peace negotiations, yet the present deal shows he can talk to them when it suits his purposes. That though does not mean, as some commentators have suggested, that this prisoner exchange agreement could improve prospects of talks between them. It is likely to remain a one off event. Netanyahu had been under immense pressure from the soldier's family who had been carrying out an incessant campaign, setting up camp near the prime minister's office to demand the release of their boy who was barely 20 years of age when Hamas militants kidnapped him. Besides, Israelis may think nothing of massacring Palestinians living under occupation, but they give great importance to every Israeli soldier's life, even bodies of dead soldiers in Arab hands - like in the instance of the Lebanon war. Unsurprisingly, therefore, Netanyahu had the unanimous support of his alliance government cabinet colleagues for the exchange deal. Welcoming the freed prisoners in Gaza, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh made an important point when he reminded his audience of over 200,000, "some described Shalit's captivity as a worthless adventure, but today they are proven wrong." Apparently, he was referring to the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority leadership, which has been emphasising restraint and trying, without any success, to negotiate peace with Israel. After years of negotiations, it has nothing to deliver to the Palestinian people. The only reason President Mehmoud Abbas has given his people to celebrate was his recent unilateral declaration of statehood, and seeking of support for UN membership. The fact of the matter is that Palestinians cannot expect to win their just rights through peace talks as long as they negotiate from a position of weakness - some of which is self-inflicted due to internal divisions. First and foremost, Hamas and Fatah must not allow any chinks in their recently concluded unity deal. The best way forward for them is to remain steadfast in their struggle for freedom as the Arab Spring comes to full blossom. The changes it brings will compel Israel to realise that it can no longer rely on its military strength and support of Western friends to continue with its policy of aggression and expansion. Copyright Business Recorder, 2011