Ramallah - Ma'an - Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative Mustafa Barghouthi on Tuesday described the freeing of 429 Palestinian prisoners as an attempt by Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, "to mislead global public opinion about the true intent of Israel.
"Barghouthi explained that since the last prisoner release on October 1, Israel has arrested 808 new prisoners, including 22 children.
"This means that the liberation of 429 prisoners is not even a return to the situation of 2 months ago. The total number of Palestinian prisoners is in fact increasing," he said in a statement.
"The international community should not be misled: the current Israeli government is no partner for peace," the statement added.
Barghouthi underlined that this "release some and at the same time arrest even more" behaviour was common practice for the Israeli government, which sees Palestinian prisoners as "inexpensive bargaining chips."
"The Israeli military carries on a relentless arrest campaign against Palestinians and these 'goodwill gestures' never really bring down the number of Palestinians detained, currently standing at about 11,000," the statement added.
The Palestinian National Initiative is calling for the immediate release of all prisoners, the end of the siege of the Gaza Strip and "real peace negotiations between a united and democratic Palestinian leadership and Israel on the basis of international law."
