Israel releases Qarabseh murderer

A few hours after US Peace Envoy Dennis Ross left back to Washington as he rounded up a ten day mediation effort, Israel released the Jewish settlers who was charged with shooting to death Iyad Qarabseh, a Palestinian youth from the village of Ein Arik near Ramallah.

The Israeli court released Avishalom Lerney of Dolev settlement and placed him under house arrest, perhaps to allow him to spend the Jewish holidays with his family. Palestinian officials expressed their harshest criticism of the release noting that a murderer should not be accorded this special treatment. They argued that had the suspect been a Palestinian who shot dead an Israeli, he would never be blessed with such a preferential treatment.

Palestinian Cabinet Secretary Ahmad Abdul Rahman said the release "is a blatant call for settlers to kill Palestinians and get away with it; it is the law of the jungle." "We condemn the crime and condemn those who released the murderer; we consider them accomplices in the crime and we call upon all international organizations to rush to the aid of the Palestinian people who are suffering from occupation and settlements."

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's advisor, Ahmad Tibi, attacked remarks made by the court judge who released the settler in which he said he was a good citizen. "Did the judge admire the death of the Palestinian youth? Or was it the shooting itself? Or was it the number of bullets shot," said Tibi. Tibi said Palestine has formally asked Israel to extradite the Jewish settler who opened fire because he committed the crime in an area under Palestinian control in Beitounya on the western outskirts of Ramallah. Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu's media advisor David Bar Ilan claimed that the Oslo Accords did not stipulate Israel handing over Israelis to the Palestinians "but the agreement states that the PA must hand over terrorists and murderers."