Olmert Announces More Prisoner Releases
CBNNews.com
November 12, 2007
CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM, Israel - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel will release 400 more Palestinian prisoners ahead of the U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland.
"These will not be prisoners with 'blood on their hands,'" Olmert said. "This is a goodwill gesture aimed at improving the trust between the sides," he said.
Meanwhile, senior Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Palestinians would not recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
"There is no country in the world where religious and national identities are intertwined," he said on Radio Palestine.
Erekat also said the Palestinian Authority would demand a signed agreement from Israel stating that all Palestinian prisoners would be released.
A staffer in the prime minister's office quoted Olmert as saying that recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is a prerequisite for Israeli recognition of a Palestinian state.
According to Member of Knesset (MK) Yuval Steinitz (Likud), former chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Olmert said the rocket attacks launched by Gaza-based Palestinians on southern Israel would not cause him to discontinue his talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
Source: The Jerusalem Post
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