Is Suha Bishara on Hizbollah deal list?
Lebanon-Israel, Politics, 6/5/1998

A deal between Hizbollah and Israel is eminent and Israeli sources said it could be reached in days. The confirmation that came from Israeli sources was vague and did not go into any details out of fear that the deal might be blown up in the last minute.

Israeli sources said premier Benyamin Netanyahu believes it is preferable not to elaborate on what is a delicate subject and hopes that progress is being made.

The Israeli confirmation followed statements made by Hizbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday in which he said that an agreement had been reached in theory about the number of prisoners to be exchanged for the body of Israeli naval commando soldier, Itamar Iliya. Iliya was killed during the aborted Israeli naval raid in Lebanon last September. "There are 40 bodies and a good number of prisoners. We have agreed on the number. What we have now is an issue over the names. We are focusing on those prisoners who have been detained the longest and those who are ill," Sheikh Nasrallah told a Lebanese television on Thursday.

Israeli military sources ruled out the possibility that names like Mustafa Dirani or Sheikh Abdul Karim Obeid were enlisted in the deal but declined to give more details saying that Israel would pay a heavy price. An Israeli commando unit kidnapped Sheikh Obeid nine years ago while Dirani was kidnapped some four years ago, also in a special operation in Lebanon by an Israeli commando unit. Both have since been detained in maximum-security lockup centers. Sheikh Nasrallah emphasized that the return of his son's body, Fadi Nasrallah, will be an integral part of the deal. He too could not confirm if Dirani or Obeid were to be included.

As to the subject of the captured Israeli navigator, Ron Arad, who has been missing since the mid-80s, Sheikh Nasrallah said his organization has no information on his whereabouts but denied reports he could be held in Syria. He even shed doubt over reports suggesting that Arad was held in Iran. "There is no proof," said the Sheikh, "we have contacted our Iranian brothers and they are taking an interest in the subject. In a certain stage of the negotiations, we had such offers that it would be worth moving worlds to find him. Let's say the Iranians have him, what would they be doing with him? Any side who had him would be trying to exchange him for Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners and get a better deal." Israeli sources said the interview with Sheikh Nasrallah has not contributed at all to their efforts to locate the missing navigator. "He has said this kind of things before and they never proved to be helpful, a military source was quoted as saying on Friday.

Most of those who expect to be released once the deal is struck are Lebanese and Palestinians held in Al Khayam prison in South Lebanon. The prison itself is under the direct responsibility of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army militias but Israel has the upper hand over there. Among those who have been the longest-held prisoners is Suha Bishara from Lebanon who was arrested on 7 October 1988 after she tried to assassinate SLA commander Antoine Lahd. Lahd was seriously wounded but later ameliorated. Bishara was immediately arrested and since then has been held with trial in solitary confinement in AL Khayam. Nobody in Israel could confirm if her name was on the list but there is a big chance that she will be among those to be released in the deal. Bishara, a Christian Lebanese, was a member of the Lebanese Communist Party when she carried out the attack on Lahd.

Since her arrest, Bishara has been denied visitations by family relatives or lawyers until 1995, when the Israeli authorities allowed relatives and a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit her. The ban, however, was renewed in September 1977 and has been in effect since then.

A few years ago, Amnesty International said Bishara "prisoner of conscience and a hostage" and stated that her arrest contravened international laws and the Geneva conventions. Two years ago, an organization was set up in France calling itself: The movement for the release of Suha Bishara."

All appeals to the Israeli judicial system, including the High Court, have led to nowhere since Israel claimed in all those cases that the Al Khayam prison was beyond Israel's control and that the SLA were in charge of the lockup center in South Lebanon. Israeli left wing lawyer Lea Tzemel, who filed one of those petitions to the High Court, argued that Israel was the chief security controller of South Lebanon. The Israeli government had no grounds to hide behind a screen of inaccurate claims of not being in charge of South Lebanon, she said.

Previous Stories:
  Annan and Netanyahu discuss Lebanon withdrawal   (5/16/1998)
  Hizbullah officials: War with Israel not yet finished   (5/5/1998)
  Hizbullah - Israeli progress in swap deal   (12/16/1997)

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