Published: 19 February 2018
Last updated: 4 March 2024
After great effort, the United States managed to reach the following understandings: Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas promised to halt his unilateral moves, which included appeals to the United Nations' institutions and international organisations, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to release 104 prisoners in four stages over a nine-month negotiation period.
The released Palestinians were long-time prisoners who murdered Israelis or had been members of cells that murdered Israelis and who had been jailed before the Oslo Agreements were signed.
Most of the released prisoners returned to their homes in the West Bank, creating a rare opportunity for in-depth interviews without any external mediation or supervision. These prisoners spent decades in Israeli prisons, where they experienced historic events related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
These included the signing of the Oslo Agreements, the second intifada, PA Chairman Yasser Arafat’s death, Abbas’s rise to power, Hamas’s takeover of Gaza, the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit and Operations Cast Lead and Protective Edge.
From behind bars, through television sets that were always turned on, they also watched the events that divided the Israeli society, like Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s murder, the social protests of 2011 and, of course, the Shalit deal and the public campaign for the soldier’s release that preceded it.
FULL STORY In prison I understood Israelis want peace, says released Palestinian murderer (Ynet)
Photo: Palestinian President Abbas greets Palestinians released from Israeli prisons as part of an Israeli gesture in August 2013 (Ohad Zwigenberg)
