Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asserted on Monday that there would not be peace with Israel until all Palestinian prisoners were freed, speaking shortly after Israel released 199 jailed Palestinians.

“There is no doubt that we seek peace and we are trying to seek our goals – and there won’t be peace without the release of all prisoners,” Abbas said during a welcome ceremony at the Palestinian Authority Muqata compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Cheering crowds waved Palestinian flags and danced in the street to welcome the prisoners, who were freed by Israel as a gesture of good will to the Palestinian President.

Abbas mentioned Marwan Barghouti, a West Bank leader of his Fatah movement, who is serving five consecutive life terms in an Israeli prison but is widely seen as a future Palestinian president.
Abbas also singled out Ahmed Saadat, jailed leader of small radical faction suspected in the 2001 assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister and the imprisoned Palestinian parliament speaker Aziz Duaik of Fatah’s rival, the radical Islamic Hamas movement.

“He is our brother and we must struggle to free all prisoners,” Abbas said.

Earlier in the day, the Israel Prison Service took the prisoners from Ofer Prison, close to Jerusalem, to the Beituniya checkpoint near Ramallah.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said of the release: “It’s not easy to release prisoners, especially prisoners that were involved directly in terrorist acts against innocent civilians.”

The government said in a statement it released on Monday: “Through this latest confidence-building measure – which addresses an issue of critical significance for the Palestinians – Israel seeks to intensify its continued dialogue with partners who are both committed to diplomacy and
opposed to terrorism.

“The release further underscores Israel’s willingness to make painful concessions for the sake of advancing peace negotiations.”

Likud MK: Release of prisoners is stupid and contemptible

Likud MK Gilad Erdan on Monday blasted the move as a stupid and contemptible act, saying that “killers of Israel” were being released by a failed government as a present to a weak.

Al-Atba, 57, was the longest serving inmate held by Israel and he is widely seen by the Palestinian public as a symbol of all the prisoners. Balding, with a mustache, he made a victory sign toward cameras at the checkpoint as two Palestinian officials escorted him to a car. Others rushed to greet him, kissing him on both cheeks.

His brother Hisham traveled to Beituniya from Saudi Arabia, where he works, to join the hundreds of Palestinians waiting to greet the prisoners. “I feel great, great joy,” he said. “We had lost hope that my brother would be released because he’s been in prison for 32 years.”

Al-Atba’s sister, Raida, said she had prepared her brother’s favorite food, stuffed vine leaves and zucchini.

In Ramallah, where the prisoners were scheduled to receive an official welcome from Abbas, hundreds of Palestinians from all over the West Bank waited to greet them, under a giant poster with pictures of Abbas, al-Atba and another veteran prisoner being freed, Mohammed Abu Ali, a lawmaker from Abbas’ Fatah party.

Abu Ali was jailed in 1980 for killing an Israeli in the West Bank and later convicted of killing a Palestinian in jail he accused of collaborating with Israel.

The state responded Sunday to appeals against the prisoner release by saying that only the cabinet has the authority to revoke such a decision.

Last week the cabinet voted in favor of the release, which includes two prisoners convicted of murdering Israelis – both of whom have served nearly 30 years of their sentence – plus 197 convicted of lesser crimes, including attempted murder.

Also Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the region for talks on the peace process.

Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin said last week that the release of the prisoners “creates pressure on Hamas and is likely to accelerate the negotiations over [captive soldier] Gilad Shalit.”

The cabinet held three separate votes on the prisoner issue. The release of the two prisoners with “blood on their hands” was approved by all ministers except Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz and Public Security Minister Avi Dichter; all but Mofaz approved the release of the other 197.

These include 26 people sentenced to terms of 10 to 16 years for attempted murder – i.e., shooting attacks or bombings – as well as many convicted of lesser crimes, such as aiding more senior terrorists, illegal weapons possession or membership in a terrorist organization.

The third vote, held at Dichter’s request, related to freeing another prisoner – the only one on the original list of names who comes from Gaza. Dichter argued that no Gazans should be released until Shalit is freed, and the other ministers accepted this position, voting to strike him from the list.