OCCUPIED
JERUSALEM, November 9 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The
Israeli cabinet on Sunday, November 9, approved a
"conditional" prisoner swap with the Lebanon-based resistance
movement Hizbullah by a slim majority, Israeli public radio and
television reported.
Following
several months of German mediation, the exchange was approved by the
narrowest of margins with 12 ministers voting in favor and 11 against.
But
Housing Minister Effi Eitam told public radio that Samir Kantar, the
longest-held Lebanese prisoner, was excluded from the deal, reported
Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon specified unequivocally that Samir Kantar will not
be included in the exchange," he told public radio.
Finance
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu further introduced a clause preventing the
release of prisoners "with blood on their hands" which
effectively rules out Kantar.
The
cabinet's hardliners opposed the deal for fear that it will send a
signal to "Israel's enemies that violence pays off and consolidates
(Hizbullah Secretary General Hassan) Nasrallah's standing in the Arab
world."
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Kantar
could scupper the prisoner swap
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Arrested
by Israel in 1979, the 41-year-old Kantar was sentenced to 542 years in
prison in 1980 for killing an Israeli scientist and his daughter, and
wounding a senior officer in Nahariya in northern Israel.
Nasrallah
said on Saturday night, November 8, that the German-brokered exchange
deal would not go ahead
unless Israel released all Lebanese captives.
"Any
deal that excludes any Lebanese prisoner will be refused and the
exchange will not happen," he vowed.
Kantar's
Druze family said Saturday they have "full confidence" in
Nasrallah, issuing a statement saying that "the release of Samir
Kantar must be an irrevocable requirement".
"The
enemy must understand firmly and definitively, that the exchange cannot
take place unless all the Lebanese prisoners are released, with Samir
Kantar at the fore," the statement said.
The
swap, if finalized, is expected to result in the release by Israel of
some 400 Palestinians and 19 Lebanese in exchange for the liberation
byHizbullah of four Israelis.
Among
them are three soldiers captured in October 2000 and thought to be dead,
and businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum, abducted around the same time and
accused by Hizbullah of spying.
