Palestinian Authority's only reason for peace negotiations with Israel is to bring about the release of prisoners.

Palestinian Authority's only reason for peace negotiations with Israel is to bring about the release of prisoners.HT: Palwatch.

Fatah spokesman: 

We "blackmailed" Israel

 to release the prisoners

PA's threat to have Israel prosecuted

at the International Criminal Court
is "a weapon... an important card...

We've been waving it around for two years"

Senior PA leader Nabil Shaath:

"Due to the prisoners we haven't stopped negotiations"

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

The Palestinian Authority's only reason for agreeing to and continuing the peace negotiations with Israel is to bring about the release of prisoners, Fatah's spokesman Ahmad Assaf has indicated. Stating that the PA "blackmailed" Israel to release the prisoners, Assaf explained that by virtue of the PA's membership in the UN, the PA is able to threaten Israel with taking it to the International Criminal Court. Assaf maintains that to prevent the PA from doing so, Israel agreed to release 104 prisoners, most of them serving life sentences for murder.

Senior PA leader Nabil Shaath explained already in November and again in December 2013, that the reason the PA has not "stopped negotiations," is because the PA wants to first fulfill its goal of having all the prisoners Israel arrested before the Oslo Accords released.

Israel agreed to release the 104 terrorists from prison because it was the Palestinian Authority's precondition for starting negotiations at all. But Fatah's spokesman calling the release of the prisoners "blackmail," together with Shaath's statement that they are just waiting for the prisoners to be released before they stop the negotiations, indicates that for the PA, the current round of peace talks may have been a charade.

Israel has already released 78 of the prisoners, and has not yet announced if it will release the remaining 26.

Fatah's spokesman further elaborated that the threat to go to the International Court is "a weapon that's in our pocket... an important card... We've been waving it around for two years now":

Fatah spokesman Ahmad Assaf:  "Our membership in the UN is also a weapon. And that's an important card. It's a weapon that's in our pocket. I didn't use it on day one. I didn't say, as soon as I got membership in the UN, that I want to go to the International Criminal Court - no. We've been waving it around for two years now: We've obtained the release of the prisoners, we blackmailed [Israel], that is, in quotation marks, and we've taken important positions because we have a card that we're waving around."


[Official PA TV, March 19, 2014] Click to view

Nabil Shaath, Fatah MP and Central Committee member and Commissioner of International Relations stated in November 2013 that "due to the prisoners (of whom only half have been released) [parentheses in source], we haven't stopped negotiations and haven't petitioned the UN." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 30, 2013]

He reiterated this again a second time, the official PA daily reported:

"Shaath emphasized that the leadership did not move forward on joining international organizations [until now] for one reason - which is ensuring the release of the remaining veteran prisoners who were arrested by Israel before the Oslo Accords, and that the leadership is awaiting their release." 

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 2, 2013]

Click to see more statements by PA and Fatah leaders expressing their view on the peace talks.