Families of imprisioned Palestinians pressuring Israel

Families of Palestinians living inside Israel whose sons are held in Israeli jails have started a campaign to exert pressure on the Israeli government and secure the release of their children.

The Association for the Protection of Prisoners in Nazareth had, on different occasions, called on the Israeli government to consider releasing the security prisoners from within the so-called pre-1967 Green Line, mainly following the signing of the interim peace agreement between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel.

Those calls have so far been ignored by all the Israeli governments since then. Ahmad Habiballah, a lawyer and head of the association, said the prisoners feel they have been forgotten since no progress has been achieved in their cause. He noted that the PNA had tried to negotiate their release, but Israel said it won't discuss the matter until after the PNA drops its hunt for collaborators who worked closely with the Israeli occupation authorities prior to 1994.

The PNA rejected such a linkage between the freedom fighters and the collaborators and so did the prisoners and that is why nothing is moving, said Habiballah.