Shalit deal gives Palestinian prisoners unprecedented media exposure

It's doubtful the organizers of the International Conference on Palestinian Prisoners ever believed it would get this kind of media exposure. But the flurry of news items on an imminent prisoner exchange deal has brought reporters from around the world to the conference, held Tuesday at the plush InterContinental Hotel in the tranquil West Bank city of Jericho.

The hotel event hall was packed with hundreds of people, most of them family members of Palestinian prisoners.

Several women sat in the courtyard, next to the swimming pool - the mothers and sisters of Israeli Arab and East Jerusalemite prisoners. Arabic-language press report that their sons and brothers have become a central stumbling block to completing the prisoner exchange, as Hamas is demanding their release, while Israel long ago rejected such a possibility out of hand.

Umm Nidal, the sister of an inmate from the East Jerusalem village of Silwan who was linked to Islamic Jihad, said, "The Palestinian Authority has forgotten about us. Israel is persecuting our sons while the PA doesn't even talk about them because they're from East Jerusalem, which isn't under PA jurisdiction."

She said family members' previous attempts to organize a protest similar to the kind put on by the Shalit family and its supporters met a number of obstacles. "The Israelis aren't letting us march in Jerusalem or stage demonstrations," she said. She added that she admired the actions of the Shalit family to keep their abducted son in the public consciousness. "Well done for the organization that is doing that for them," she said.

Beside her sat Sumeya Yunis, the mother of Karim, an Israeli Arab imprisoned since 1983. "After 27 years, what can be done? He has lived more years in prison than he has outside of it," she said. "He was recently chosen to be the prisoners' spokesman, and his condition is certainly good. But until this day, I still remember the day he was arrested - they took him at 10 A.M. from Ben-Gurion University, where he was studying."

The mother of Mohammed and Ibrahim Agbariyeh of the village of Mushreifeh in Wadi Ara held up a picture of her sons. "We hope our sons are released. Among other things, our relations with our Jewish neighbors will improve," she said. "I heard the mother of Gilad Shalit say she wants to see him back home. That's what I want too."

	Palestinians holding pictures of their jailed relative during a protest in the West Bank Tuesday.
	Photo by: (Reuters)