Sunday, December 18, 2011

Shoot the Jewish terrorists

Op-ed: Former general says radical rightists behaving like terrorists, should be treated as such

Uri Saguy

Published:

The rioters who attacked IDF soldiers resorted to terror, and terror should be addressed firmly. However, the prime minister declared that these people are not a terrorist organization, thereby showing a leadership failure, to my regret.

In the absence of leadership, we may have to facilitate a confrontation and win it. As the people who ruin us hail from our midst, we must take action. I fear these domestic threats more than I fear the Iranian threat. At this time, we are in the midst of a messianic, delusional process that is violent, belligerent, intolerant, and also un-Jewish.

Blame Game

Blame it on the rabbis / Yakir Elkariv

Op-ed: Radical, violent settlers have been cultivated for many years by extremist rabbis

Full story

My friends and I gave this State our finest years for the sake of an objective that was bigger than us. Yet for the first time in my life I fear for the country’s future and maybe even for its fate.

We grew up here, we raised children here, and we saw our grandchildren being born; all of them contribute to the state and perform the missions they are tasked with.

However, it seems that in a generation or two, we shall be a persecuted minority in a sea of haredim, fanatics, Arabs and parasites. This is not what we were hoping for.

What we have here is not just another political dispute about giving back the territories. This argument is about us and our survival.

I read the words uttered by former IDF Chief Rabbi Avichai Ronsky, who expressed doubt as to his ability to raise his children in such atmosphere. And he lives in Itamar. I disagree with him politically, yet I agree with every word he said.

Grave, chronic disease

While I still served in the IDF, I invited Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz to address my soldiers in the wake of the Six-Day War. He sounded like a prophet of apocalypse, yet to my regret I can today fully endorse his prophecy, which spoke of three phases to follow that war.

In the first stage, he said, we shall see euphoria, upon our return to our ancient sites. Next, we shall see the emergence of messianic, radical and dangerous nationalism. In the third stage, we shall see Israeli society becoming more brutal and the emergence of a police state.

Seemingly, what we see now is merely an abscess, yet in my view this is in fact a grave, deep and chronically disease. At this time, some say that all we can do now is fight for the patient’s quality of life. There are good people among us as well, yet we no longer determine society’s normative code.
I can say one thing, however – we must utilize real force against all these rioters. The restraint shown by the division commander and his deputy during the latest clashes should be lauded, yet had I been there, and people would have hurled a stone at my head and threatened my life, I would have shot them. Terrorists should be shot.

Uri Saguy, former IDF intelligence chief

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4162611,00.html

The virtue of stubbornness

Published 01:06 19.12.11 Latest update 01:06 19.12.11

Netanyahu did well to denounce those who accosted Rosenblit, but it does not suffice: The PM, his cabinet ministers and the entire public sector must mobilize to defeat extremist religious bullying.

Haaretz Editorial

Despite all the differences, it's hard not to connect Tanya Rosenblit, the courageous passenger who, on a bus ride between Ashdod and Jerusalem refused to sit in the back, and civil rights activist Rosa Parks. In December 1955, the latter boarded a bus in Montgomery Alabama and, defying the racist segregation policy in effect at the time, refused to yield her seat to a white person. She was arrested, tried and convicted of disturbing public order. The incident led to the bus boycott led by the Reverend Martin Luther King; thereafter, the law mandating racist segregation was challenged in the courts. Toward the end of 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling, holding that Alabama's segregation law for buses was unconstitutional.

Like Parks, it appears that Rosenblit simply wanted to "go home peacefully" - in this case to her workplace in Jerusalem, though she was turned into a heroine against her will. Her obstinate refusal to acquiesce to the violence of some of the Haredi men around her, and her decision not to compromise after a policeman arrived on the scene and tried to mediate between her and her assailants - this was proof that it is possible to stand up to fanatical elements who are trying to forcibly impose their discriminatory norms on the public, and that one must not be deterred by such elements.

	Ultra-Orthodox passengers waiting for the Jerusalem-bound bus on Friday.
	Photo by: Tanya Rosenblit

Rosenblit thus drew the lines for a civil struggle. From this point, the struggle should be waged hour by hour, day after day, on all bus lines where the Egged company has yielded to pressure and allowed separation between men and women. This is a struggle of supreme importance that should not be relinquished; by the some token, it is totally wrong to allow women to be excluded from other public venues, or to allow their voices to be stifled.

Discrimination against women, and efforts to push them into traditional roles, constitutes just the tip of the iceberg in a process by which Israel is being transformed into a backward, fanatic and unenlightened country.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did well Sunday to denounce those who accosted Rosenblit. But this denunciation does not suffice: The prime minister, his cabinet ministers and the entire public sector must mobilize to defeat extremist religious bullying. If they do not, they will be lending support to a dangerously anti-democratic trend.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-virtue-of-stubbornness-1.402205

One racist people

Published 01:06 19.12.11 Latest update 01:06 19.12.11

What's easier for a secular person to hate than an ultra-Orthodox Jew who sets fire to an Israeli flag on the holiday of Lag Ba'omer? The answer is a religious West Bank Jewish settler who torches a mosque on any old day.

By Akiva Eldar

What's easier for a secular person to hate than an ultra-Orthodox Jew who sets fire to an Israeli flag on the holiday of Lag Ba'omer? The answer is a religious West Bank Jewish settler who torches a mosque on any old day.

The shared revulsion of those thugs who have acquired the nickname "hilltop youth" and whose hate crimes have euphemistically come to be called "price tag" attacks assuages the consciences of those who consider themselves secular liberals.

Like this summer's wave of protests for social justice, the recent attacks on Israel Defense Force soldiers have created a national consensus, bringing together cheeseburger eaters and skullcap wearers. All of us are for equality, tolerance and love of humanity. All of us are against the band of rabbis who called for Jews not to rent to Arabs in Safed. All of us are against the fundamentalist rabbis from the settlement of Yitzhar whose students throw stones at army officers.

True, the young Jewish terrorists can usually be seen in the traditional side curls and tzitzit, the ritual fringes worn by religious Jewish males. And in the initial years after the Six-Day War, it was in fact the religious Gush Emunim movement that spread the settlement plague, but there is no wall separating the religious from the secular. Jewish ethnocentrism - and the desire to erase the collective identity of the Palestinians and take control of their land - have been a thread linking religious and secular over the past 44 years.

The late settlement movement leader Hanan Porat resettled the Gush Etzion bloc after the Six-Day War with the blessing of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol of the Labor Alignment. Yigal Alon, the deputy prime minister and a kibbutznik, visited Rabbi Moshe Levinger in his settlement outpost in Hebron. The orders issued by Labor's Shimon Peres, who was defense minister at time, to arrest Gush Emunim activists on their way to the illegal Sebastia settlement "were either given half-heartedly or were negligently carried out," as the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin wrote. And Ariel Sharon, who was the settlers' king of kings (until he withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 ) was a known fan of shellfish, hardly an item to be found in a kosher kitchen.

The most racist legislative proposals have been the product of Knesset members such as Avigdor Lieberman, Avi Dichter, Danny Danon, Yariv Levin, Faina Kirshenbaum and Anastassia Michaeli, none of whom have religious motives. In their holy writ - that is, opinion poll results - it is said that most of the Jewish population supports limiting the right to vote, allowing only those who swear allegiance to the Jewish state to have a say in who gets elected to run the country.

According to a 2010 poll by the Israel Democracy Institute, most of the Jewish population also believes that Jews should be allocated more resources than Israeli Arabs. And the most important and sensitive resources are in fact being allocated, both from a legal and a practical perspective, by the Israel Lands Administration and the Jewish National Fund. It is these mainstream institutions, not the ultra-Orthodox Council of Torah Sages or the Yesha Council of settlements, that are implementing the worldview reflected in the poll. What is the difference between preventing rentals to non-Jews and banning the sale of land to the goyim?

In a courageous article in the most recent issue of the Shalom Hartman Institute journal Dorsheni, Prof. Ishay Rosen-Zvi writes that although arrogance and discrimination vis-a-vis non-Jews may be deeply rooted in the concept of chosen peoplehood, it is the state, guided by the national interest, that decides what the extent of Jewish nationhood is and what special rights derive from it.

"It was not religious people who coined the phrase 'demographic problem'; it was not they who legislated the Law of Return [giving Jews abroad the right to immigrate to Israel]; it was not they who founded the Jewish National Fund; not they who declared the policy to make the Negev and Galilee more Jewish," he writes.

Rosen-Zvi notes that the decision to expel the children of migrant workers was made by a government with a clear secular majority that provided a secular reason: the desire to maintain Israel's Jewish majority. In the name of democracy, discriminatory ethnic laws of return are the equivalent here of naturalization laws in democratic Western countries. The laws here also grant special rights to relatives of Jews who are not themselves Jewish according to religious law.

At the end of a meeting held last week with rabbis and settlement leaders, President Shimon Peres said: "There is one thing that unites us all: not abandoning this country to a group of people who constitute a major danger to the existence of the state."

Mr. President, it is not a marginalized "group of people" that constitutes the major danger to the existence of Israel as a democratic and Jewish state, rather than a racist and Jewish one. The seeds of lawlessness were sowed by good secular people like you.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/one-racist-people-1.402206

The bottom line: Obama speaks Jewish, Republicans don’t

Published 00:56 17.12.11 Latest update 00:56 17.12.11

Obama knew how to touch all the right buttons of his Reform and liberal Jewish audience during his address to the Union for Reform Judaism.

By Chemi Shalev

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West of Eden

by Chemi Shalev

Published 00:56 17.12.11
Latest update 00:56 17.12.11

The bottom line: Obama speaks Jewish, Republicans don’t

Obama knew how to touch all the right buttons of his Reform and liberal Jewish audience during his address to the Union for Reform Judaism.

By Chemi Shalev

If I were a Republican watching the live stream of President Obama’s speech before the Reform movement’s biennial convention in Washington on Friday, I would have reached two immediate conclusions: 1. Obama, the consummate campaigner who has been more or less missing in action since his inauguration, is back and 2. Forget about the Reform Jewish vote. He’s got that locked up.

Indeed, they must have been tearing their hair out, the Republicans, to see the audience give wave after wave of ecstatic applause and standing ovations to the man who, as Mitt Romney put it, “threw Israel under a bus” - especially after weeks of having fallen over themselves to express their undying love and uncritical support for the Jewish state. Perhaps there won’t be a sea change in the Jewish vote, they might console themselves after this speech, but let’s hope for a modest stream, or a trickle, at the very least.

	U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at the 71st General Assembly of the Union for Reform Judaism, December 16, 2011.
	Photo by: Natasha Mozgovaya

The main reason for dampening the Republican hopes, as Obama clearly showed in his masterful manipulation of his all-too-willing audience, was summed up four years ago by the late Reform Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf of Chicago’s KAM Isaiah Synagogue. He told the Chicago Jewish News a week before the 2008 elections that “Obama is sort of Jewish in a way. His overachieving is Jewish, his intellectualism is Jewish, even his charisma has a Jewish side. I feel like he's one of us.”

"I like McCain too,” Rabbi Wolf added, referring to Obama’s 2008 Republican rival, “but he ain't one of us." And neither are Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Michele Bachman, Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman or Ron Paul, when you come to think of it.

Obama’s long years and close relationships with his numerous Jewish friends and financial supporters in Chicago were prominently on display in his speech, and he knew how to touch all the right buttons of his Reform and liberal Jewish audience: to say Shabbat Shalom, to speak of the weekly Torah portion, to nod to the Reform youth movement NFTY, to invoke the concepts of Hineni and Tikun Olam, to cite the great Jewish support for the black civil rights movement, to quote such liberal Jewish icons as Louis Brandeis and Abraham Joshua Heschel, to speak tough on Iran, to pledge undying devotion to Israel, to claim that his Administration has done more for Israel’s security than any other and to pointedly remind his audience that, unlike his rivals, he has been focused on the next generation rather than the next elections.

And, in what was probably the most human moment in his speech, to recount the arguments with his daughter Malia over the proper length of skirt that she should wear to the weekly bar and bat mitzvahs to which she is invited.

Midway through the speech, an Israeli friend texted me with his one word critique: “boring”, he wrote. Perhaps that’s because Obama wasn’t aiming his speech at Israelis but at American Jews who - as we’ve all been reminded in recent weeks in the controversy over the Israeli government ads aimed at returning Israeli expatriates - are a breed apart.

After months of relentless and often ruthless Republican attacks on his record and faced with prognostications of pollsters and pundits of the potential Jewish flight from his camp, Obama used his appearance before an excited home crowd to send a clear message to his concerned supporters and to his cocky critics. If one may be so presumptuous as to borrow a famous quote from American naval hero John Paul Jones, Obama’s message was crystal clear: “I have not yet begun to fight”.

http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/west-of-eden/the-bottom-line-obama-speaks-jewish-republicans-don-t-1.401904

Israel reactor casesheds light on nuclear safety faults

Published 01:06 19.12.11 Latest update 01:06 19.12.11

Workers at Dimona Negev Nuclear Research Center claim that they incurred cancer and other diseases as a result of extended exposure to radiation at work.

By Gili Cohen

The examination in Petah Tikvah's District Court of claims by 44 employees of the Dimona Negev Nuclear Research Center (NNRC ) has shed light on what occurs behind the scenes at one of the country's most secret facilities. After two weeks of open hearings, many details have surfaced pertaining to safety procedures and monitoring of radioactive materials at the center.

The reactor workers claim that they incurred cancer and other diseases as a result of extended exposure to radiation at work. It bears mention that about half of those mentioned in the case are no longer alive. Members of their families regularly attend the proceedings, where they are amazed to learn about the conditions their relatives faced, which have been kept under wraps until now.

	The nuclear research center in Dimona.
	Photo by: Reuters

The proceedings are being monitored continually by NNRC representatives who are responsible for information security and have some influence after certain details are described in the hearings.

A clear majority of the 44 were employed directly by the NNRC, and some worked for sub-contractors in the 1960s and 1970s. A large proportion were employed in the reactor in what were called "hot areas," meaning they were exposed to radioactive materials as part of their daily work. Others worked in the reactor's "cold areas," in offices and other places considered to be sterile and impervious to radiation.

During the last hearing, on Wednesday, prosecutor Ilan Kaner presented an internal memorandum that attests to apparent safety malfunctions that lead to radioactive leakage. A quote from a November 1992 memo written by a defense witness, Dr. Dan Litai, who served as deputy director of the reactor's safety division, was cited in the hearing. Litai disclosed in the memo that a cabinet in a cold area that was ostensibly free of radiation held radioactive materials.

Attorney Kaner presented other evidence from internal memoranda from the NNRC, which included statements such as, "This is not the first time radioactive particles have been discovered in a cold area."

While the defense objected to the use of internal information as evidence in this case, Judge Esther Dudkiewicz commented that the state's prosecutors are expected to present authentic documents in court that bear witness to safety malfunctions.

For his part, Litai testified that he was aware of leakage in the past of radioactive materials in the reactor's cold areas. "There were such mishaps," he said. He added that when such circumstances occur, "an area is cordoned off, and the problem is handled."

Litai stated that "the NNRC is not a completely sterile institution. There have been accidents. There were mishaps starting the day the facility was established, and I assume that these have continued to the present day."

In recent years, NNRC officials have been forced to confront accusations that the reactor's facilities, built about a half-century ago, are old and that this presents a danger to the surrounding areas. The officials claim, however, that the reactor adheres to international safety standards.

In a hearing last week, Judge Dudkiewicz leveled criticism against NNRC's management regarding its policy of classifying information related to internal examinations of employees in the so-called hot areas. Her comments came in response to a disclosure that documents bearing data about such examinations had been destroyed, and cannot be restored.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-reactor-casesheds-light-on-nuclear-safety-faults-1.402191

Israel Interior Ministry still letting Chief Rabbinate decide 'who is a Jew'

Published 01:06 19.12.11 Latest update 01:06 19.12.11

Ministry continues to condition the granting of citizenship to those who underwent Orthodox conversions abroad on the approval of the conversion by the Chief Rabbinate - despite agreements to the contrary.

By Yair Ettinger
The Interior Ministry is continuing to condition the granting of citizenship to those who underwent Orthodox conversions abroad on the approval of the conversion by the Chief Rabbinate - despite agreements to the contrary.

Recently, applications for citizenship by two American converts under the Law of Return were refused because the Chief Rabbinate did not recognize the rabbinical court that converted them.

	Rabbi Shlomo Amar, center, at a conference in 2008.
	Photo by: Archive: Ouria Tadmor / Jini

"We've reached a new low with respect to converts," declared Rabbi Seth Farber, director of Itim, the Jewish Life Information Center, which received both complaints.

Ironically, while Reform and Conservative conversions performed abroad must be recognized by the Interior Ministry as per a 1988 High Court of Justice decision, people undergoing Orthodox conversions - particularly those performed by non-ultra-Orthodox rabbis - have had problems.
In February, Thomas Dohlan, a Canadian citizen married to an Israeli, applied to immigrate after undergoing an Orthodox conversion. His application was refused because the rabbinate did not recognize the court that converted him. Dohlan waged an intense campaign and won his battle for citizenship.

But his story exposed a broader phenomenon: of the Interior Ministry giving the Chief Rabbinate unprecedented authority to determine "Who is a Jew" abroad. In the past, the only body determining whether a community was "recognized," or whether conversions had been properly performed was the Jewish Agency.

The Knesset held two debates on the issue, and under the threat of a petition to the High Court, a procedural agreement was reached, signed by ministry's Population and Immigration Authority head Amnon Ben Ami.

This agreement states that, "In the decisive majority of cases" the authority to determine whether a conversion was carried out properly in a "recognized community" lay with the Jewish Agency, and it was responsible for recommending whether a convert was eligible to immigrate under the Law of Return, as it does for Jews by birth.

According to the agreement, "in the few cases where there is a doubt regarding the identity of the converting rabbi, if it emerges that the chief rabbi does not recognize the conversion ... the Jewish Agency will be asked for clarifications regarding the community and its institutions" before a decision is made by the Population and Immigration Authority.

But this was not the case with the two people Itim dealt with, both American converts who underwent lengthy Orthodox conversions.

Neither wished to be identified and only one agreed to tell her story, under an assumed name. "Ruth," a doctoral student, said she became curious about Judaism after meeting Jews during her travels, and arranged to spend long periods in Israel in the framework of her studies.

A few years ago, she affiliated herself with a Manhattan congregation, and began studying Judaism seriously with its rabbi. After a year of rigorous study, the community's rabbinical court approved her conversion.

A few months ago she arrived in Israel for another stay, but this time the Interior Ministry refused to renew her student visa, suggesting that if she wanted to remain, she had to submit an application to immigrate under the Law of Return. She did so - and the application was refused.

The Jewish Agency told Haaretz that it had approved the conversion. But apparently the Interior Ministry, which consulted the Chief Rabbinate, decided otherwise.

In a letter dated November 1, the ministry said Ruth must leave the country by November 14, but the letter only reached her on November 16. More to the point, the letter reveals an apparent deviation from the procedures described above.

"According to ... the Chief Rabbinate, this is a conversion that is not recognized for the purpose of obtaining status in Israel," the letter reads - although as noted, the Jewish Agency had approved the conversion.

"Despite the new procedure, the clerks in the Population Authority are continuing to do as they please," said Itim's Farber. "I don't know who's giving them their instructions: If it's coming from above, it's a catastrophe, and if they are doing these things independently, then it's even more serious.
"If the ministry doesn't allow Orthodox converts to receive [citizenship], we will go to court to make sure the agreement is being upheld," he added.

The Population and Immigration Authority said: "The case in question is being examined ... and the authority will act in accordance with all agreements, among them what appears in the letter," written by Ben Ami in June.

The seeming absurdity of putting foreign Orthodox converts through closer scrutiny than Reform and Conservative ones actually stems from the High Court decision in 1988, which left the decision on approval of Orthodox converts to the Interior Ministry.

Knowledgeable sources say that since Orthodox communities abroad are diverse and don't answer to one central body, evaluating their converts is complex. Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar told the Knesset's Immigration and Diaspora Affairs Committee that Orthodox converts must be scrutinized, particularly after a few well-publicized cases of Orthodox rabbis "converting" people in return for bribes.

In general, when it comes to North America, the Chief Rabbinate is prepared to accept conversions done under Haredi auspices or those of the Rabbinical Council of America - but not by other Orthodox organizations such as the International Rabbinic Fellowship.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israel-interior-ministry-still-letting-chief-rabbinate-decide-who-is-a-jew-1.402198

Jerusalem Municipality calls for demolition of Bab al-Magarbeh Bridge to Al-Aqsa Mosque

Sunday, 18 December, 2011 | 21:17

Silwan, Jerusalem (SILWANIC) --

The Jerusalem Municipality Districts Committee is sponsoring a campaign to prevent Muslims from entering the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque via legal means. The decision was taken after Municipality engineer Shlomo Ashkoul authorized a shut down of Bab al-Magarbeh Bridge, an access ramp from the Wailing Wall plaza to the Al-Aqsa compound, claiming the bridge’s structural integrity was compromised and not safe for use. Municipality lawyer Ya’ear Ghabai has begun collecting signatures for a petition seeking the demolition of the bridge in order to increase pressure on Islamic bodies to fall in line with Municipality orders.

Dung Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City is already under total control of Israeli forces, who allow only Jewish Israelis and tourists to enter the Al-Aqsa complex through the gate. Dung Gate is the same entrance to the complex that was used by former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon in 2000, accompanied by several hundred Israeli soldiers. The event is generally regarded as that which sparked the Second Intifada.

Bab al-Magarbeh Bridge to Al-Aqsa Mosque

http://silwanic.net/?p=22919

Palestine’s Prisoner Released and Back Home – Dec 18, 2011 – in pictures

Pictures will be uploaded continuously…

URGENT APPEAL: Prisoner exchange list NOT INCLUDES ALL children – PDF

Palestinian relatives of prisoner Younis Jahjouh decorate the street ahead of his release from Israeli prisons in the Qalandia refugee camp near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Saturday, Dec 17, 2011. Israel is set to release 550 Palestinian prisoners Sunday, the final stage of a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and the resistance Hamas group. In October, Israel released 477 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, who was held by Hamas in Gaza for five and a half years.(AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Palestinian relatives of prisoner Younis Jahjouh decorate the street ahead of his release from Israeli prisons in the Qalandia refugee camp near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Saturday, Dec 17, 2011. Israel is set to release 550 Palestinian prisoners Sunday, the final stage of a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and the Resistance Hamas group. In October, Israel released 477 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, who was held by Hamas in Gaza for five and a half years.(AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

Tahseen Karkari decorates the entrance to his family's house in Salem near Nablus

Tahseen Karkari decorates the entrance to his family's house in the West Bank village of Salem near Nablus December 18, 2011, as he prepares for the release of his brother Palestinian prisoner Naseem Karkari from an Israeli jail. Israel plans to release 550 Palestinian prisoners, including Karkari, on Sunday in the second stage of a deal with Hamas that brought home soldier Gilad Shalit after five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Abed Omar Qusini

Khamees Karkari decorates the entrance to his family's house in Salem near Nablus

Khamees Karkari decorates the entrance to his family's house in the West Bank village of Salem near Nablus December 18, 2011, as he prepares for the release of his brother Palestinian prisoner Naseem Karkari from an Israeli jail. Israel plans to release 550 Palestinian prisoners, including Karkari, on Sunday in the second stage of a deal with Hamas that brought home soldier Gilad Shalit after five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Abed Omar Qusini

Relatives of Palestinian prisoners decorate a street in al-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah

Relatives of Palestinian prisoners decorate a street in al-Amari refugee camp in the West Bank city of Ramallah December 18, 2011, as they prepare for their release from Israeli jails. Israel plans to release 550 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday in the second stage of a deal with Hamas that brought home soldier Gilad Shalit after five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

A relative of a Palestinian prisoner hangs a Palestinian flag in al-Amari refugee camp in the West Bank city of Ramallah December 18, 2011, as he prepares for his release from an Israeli jail. Israel plans to release 550 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday in the second stage of a deal with Hamas that brought home soldier Gilad Shalit after five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

Palestinian women wave their national flags while waiting for the release of Palestinian prisoners outside the Israeli Ofer prison in West Bank on December 18, 2011. Israel prepares to release 550 Palestinian prisoners to complete a swap deal which brought about the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit. AFP PHOTO/ABBAS MOMANI

A Palestinian flag is attached to the barbed wires of Israel's Ofer prison in West Bank, while the families wait for the release of Palestinian prisoners outside the prison on December 18, 2011. Israel prepares to release 550 Palestinian prisoners to complete a swap deal which brought about the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit. AFP PHOTO/ABBAS MOMANI

The mother of Palestinian prisoner Abu Fool holds his picture before his release from an Israeli jail in Gaza City

The mother of Palestinian prisoner Ali Abu Fool holds his picture before his release from an Israeli jail, in Gaza City December 18, 2011. Israel plans to release 550 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday in the second stage of a deal with Hamas that brought home soldier Gilad Shalit after five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

The mother of Palestinian prisoner Al-Kedra sits next to his picture before his release from an Israeli jail in Gaza

The mother (R) of Palestinian prisoner Ayman Al-Kedra sits next to his picture before his release from an Israeli jail, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip December 18, 2011. Israel plans to release 550 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday in the second stage of a deal with Hamas that brought home soldier Gilad Shalit after five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Palestinian Etedal (R), mother of Mohammed Abed Rabu sitting next to her mother holds the portrait of her son, a Palestinian who spent 5 years out of his 10 years sentence in prison, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on December 18, 2011. Israel prepares to release 550 Palestinian prisoners to complete a swap deal which brought about the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit. AFP PHOTO/MUSA AL SHAER

Family of Palestinian prisoner, Mahmud Amer Ferrarjah, a 34 years old Palestinian who spent 8 years out of his 14 years sentence in prison, hold his picture next to a portrait of late leader Yasser Arafat, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on December 18, 2011. Israel prepares to release 550 Palestinian prisoners to complete a swap deal which brought about the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit. AFP PHOTO/MUSA AL SHAER

A Palestinian man holds a Fatah flag with a portrait of late leader Yasser Arafat while waiting for the release of Palestinian prisoners outside the Israeli Ofer prison in West Bank on December 18, 2011. Israel prepares to release 550 Palestinian prisoners to complete a swap deal which brought about the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit. AFP PHOTO/ABBAS MOMANI

Palestinians celebrate as they wait at the Beituniya checkpoint for released Palestinian prisoners to cross into the West Bank city of Ramallah, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011. Israel was wrapping up preparations to release 550 Palestinian prisoners late Sunday, in the second and final phase of a swap with Hamas that brought home an Israeli soldier after five years in captivity. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

A Palestinian man decorates the house of prisoner, Mahmud Amer Ferrarjah, a 34 years old Palestinian who spent 8 years out of his 14 years sentence in prison, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on December 18, 2011. Israel prepares to release 550 Palestinian prisoners to complete a swap deal which brought about the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit. AFP PHOTO/MUSA AL SHAER

A Palestinian youth distributes sweets to celebrate the second stage of a prisoner swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip December 18, 2011. Israel plans to release 550 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday in the second stage of a deal with Hamas that brought home soldier Gilad Shalit after five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Relative of Palestinian prisoners Nouman and Mamduh Abu Rabiee decorates a street in Hebron

A relative of Palestinian prisoners Nouman and Mamduh Abu Rabiee decorates a street in the West Bank city of Hebron December 18, 2011, as they prepare for their release from an Israeli jail. Israel plans to release 550 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday in the second stage of a deal with Hamas that brought home soldier Gilad Shalit after five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Relatives of Palestinian prisoner Nouman Abu Rabiee hang a banner with his image in Hebron

Relatives of Palestinian prisoner Nouman Abu Rabiee hang a banner with his image in the West Bank city of Hebron December 18, 2011, as they prepare for his release from an Israeli jail. Israel plans to release 550 Palestinian prisoners, including Abu Rabiee, on Sunday in the second stage of a deal with Hamas that brought home soldier Gilad Shalit after five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

A relative of Palestinian prisoners Nouman and Mamduh Abu Rabiee decorates their home in Hebron

A relative of Palestinian prisoners Nouman and Mamduh Abu Rabiee decorates their home in the West Bank city of Hebron December 18, 2011, as he prepares for their release from an Israeli jail. Israel plans to release 550 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday in the second stage of a deal with Hamas that brought home soldier Gilad Shalit after five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Relatives of Palestinian prisoners wait at Rafah crossing before their release from Israeli jails December 18, 2011. Israel plans to release 550 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday in the second stage of a deal with Hamas that brought home soldier Gilad Shalit after five years of captivity in the Gaza Strip. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

A Palestinian woman wearing a Hamas headband waits at the Beituniya checkpoint for released Palestinian prisoners to cross into the West Bank city of Ramallah, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011. Israel was wrapping up preparations to release 550 Palestinian prisoners late Sunday, in the second and final phase of a swap with Hamas militants that brought home an Israeli soldier after five years in captivity. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi)

Relatives waiting at Ofer prison for the release of their loved ones. Dec 18, 2011

Relatives waiting at Ofer prison for the release of their loved ones. Dec 18, 2011

Relatives waiting at Ofer prison for the release of their loved ones. Dec 18, 2011

Relatives waiting at Ofer prison for the release of their loved ones. Dec 18, 2011

Relatives waiting at Ofer prison for the release of their loved ones. Dec 18, 2011

Soldier at Ofer prison while relatives wait for the release of their loved ones. Dec 18, 2011

Relatives waiting at Ofer prison for the release of their loved ones. Dec 18, 2011

An Israeli border police officer fires tear gas towards Palestinian stone-throwers during clashes near Ramallah

Israeli military attacks unarmed families of Palestinian prisoners waited outside the Ofer prison in the occupied West bank, near Ramallah, for the release of loved ones by Israel on December 18, 2011. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman

Clashes break out between the families o

Clashes break out between the Palestinia

Clashes break out between Israeli securi

An Israeli military fires at unarmed families of Palestinian prisoners waited outside the Ofer prison in the occupied West bank, near Ramallah, for the release of loved ones by Israel on December 18, 2011. AFP PHOTO/ABBAS MOMANI

Relatives of Palestinian prisoners wait outside the Ofer prison in the occupied West bank, near Ramallah, on December 18, 2011, as the Jewish state was preparing to release 550 Palestinian prisoners who will be freed after nightfall to complete a swap deal which brought about the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit. AFP PHOTO/ABBAS MOMANI

An Israeli military fires tear gas at Pa

Israeli Tear Gas Suffocates People near Ofer Prison – WAFA – Dec 18, 2011

People are silhouetted as they wait for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails at Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip December 18, 2011

Palestinians celebrate as they wait at Rafah crossing border for released Palestinian prisoners to cross into Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday Dec. 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Palestinians celebrate in Ramallah as they wait for the arrival of released prisoners.

Palestinians celebrate in the West Bank city of Ramallah December 18, 2011, as they wait for the arrival of released prisoners. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside

Palestinians gather around fire waving yellow Fatah flags as they wait at Rafah crossing border for released Palestinian prisoners to cross into Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday Dec.18, 2011. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

People warm themselves as they wait for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails at Rafah crossing in the Gaza Strip

People warm themselves as they wait for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails at Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip December 18, 2011. A view into a house, through a hole caused by a missile or shell during the War on Gaza 2008-2009. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

People wait for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails at Rafah crossing in the Gaza Strip

People wait for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails at Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip December 18, 2011. Watch the bullets and shellholes in the building. remainings of the 2008-2009 Israeli offensive on Gaza, operation Cast Lead. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

People wait for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails at Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip December 18, 2011. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

People wait for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails at Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip December 18, 2011. Watch Gaza. Waiting at a fence. Waiting for released prisoners who go from one prison into another one. World's largest open air prison called; Gaza. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

People celebrate as they wait for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails at Rafah crossing in the Gaza Strip

People celebrate as they wait for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails at Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip December 18, 2011. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

People celebrate as they wait for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails at Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip December 18, 2011.REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Palestinians women wave yellow Fatah flags as they celebrate at Rafah crossing border for released Palestinian prisoners to cross into Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday Dec.18, 2011. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

A Palestinian woman waves yellow Fatah flag in front of a poster of late Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin, as they celebrate at Rafah crossing border for released Palestinian prisoners to cross into Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday Dec.18, 2011. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Palestinians look at a poster of late Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin, as they wait at Rafah crossing border for released Palestinian prisoners to cross into Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday Dec.18, 2011. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

A Palestinian chants slogan as he celebrates at Rafah crossing border for released Palestinian prisoners to cross into Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday Dec. 18, 2011. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)