The Ignominious Practice of the Prisoner Release

“Israel Frees 198 Palestinians Before Rice Arrives for Talks,” A10, 8/26/08
By Isabel Kershner

This article describes Israel’s release of 198 Palestinian prisoners on Monday, August 25.

The piece is extremely problematic as the author reveals her strong bias in favor of these moves to strengthen Israel’s negotiating partner, Fatah. First, she states “the prisoner release was a rare cause for celebration in the West Bank,” perhaps editorializing her position that Israel is overwhelmingly responsible for Palestinian suffering, without in anyway defining it. Palestinian suffering at the hands of Israel is presumed in the media, whatever it may be and whoever may be its actual perpetrator.

Secondly, she writes, “The release of prisoners has been one of the few tangible benefits of the peace effort for Palestinians, with the prisoner issue always high on the public agenda.” What sort of agenda? Abbas declares, “there will be no peace without the release of all the prisoners.” This does not sound like a peaceful agenda, but more like a hostile demand.

Despite this obvious dissonance, depicting prisoner releases as a confidence-building measure while Palestinians reject it as a trivial gesture unless Israel release all prisoners, Kershner fails to provide any perceptive analysis or context.

For example, Israel has been making unilateral prisoner releases since the early 1990s without any noticeable effect. What does it actually accomplish? These unilateral moves only further create the impression that the Palestinians can extract concessions from Israel without the corresponding reciprocity necessary for peace, rather than elicit the basic sense of goodwill and good faith necessary for reciprocity.

If Kershner were more insightful, she would realize that most Israelis understand that these prisoner releases pay little dividends and may even be harmful to the peace process. What she fails to sufficiently highlight is the temporal connection between the prisoner release and Condoleezza Rice’s visit. The prisoner release, only hours before Rice’s arrival, is principally meant to placate the pressuring Secretary of State and further impress upon her that Israel is willing to make sacrifices for peace. Unfortunately, we are well aware that these unilateral concessions do hopelessly little to bring us any closer to a peace accord.