Palestine Legislative Council Member and Palestine Forum founder Munib al-Masri said on Wednesday he considered the release of 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in the Israel-Hamas prisoner swap a “great victory” not only for Hamas but for every Palestinian.
Third-party Palestinian leader Munib al-Masri at a meeting of the World Economic Forum (PNN Archive).
He called for reconciliation between the two parties and said a dialogue must be initiated to end the Palestinian division.
Al-Masri told the London-based al-Hayat newspaper, “Everybody wants and needs this deal because we all live in a hard situation. A [reconciliation] deal, without a doubt, would be a breakthrough for every Palestinian”.
Al-Masri, speaking in the name of independent voters, said Hamas and all Palestinian parties would have to work together to stop the division and make reconciliation a top priority. National unity, he said, is very important especially after the Palestinian Authority’s moves at the United Nations toward the recognition of a Palestinian state.
“The swap was delayed and Shalit was held for more than five years in Hamas custody because of shocking Israeli intelligence failures,” said al-Masri. “This failure and the political conditions in Egypt and Syria led Israel to put this deal into action.”
Al-Masri said that after the Shalit deal negotiations were paramount, but that Israel would continue to delay them. The current situation Palestinians live through, he said, demands that Israel “show its good side” and release other prisoners such as Marwan al-Barghouthi, Ahmad Saadat, Jamal Abu al-Hayjah and others.
Al-Masri said it was now incumbent on Abu Mazen to visit Gaza.
PNN - Palestine News Network
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