PM to promote Gilad Schalit bill

Jerusalem Post

By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
02/05/2010 21:45

Photo by: AP

Legislation to limit Hamas prisoner privileges to advance Schalit's release.

 

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decided Sunday to advance during next weeks government meeting the Gilad Schalit bill, as a coalition sponsored initiative, sources close to the bill told The Jerusalem Post Sunday night.


The bill’s sponsor, MK Danny Danon (Likud), has tried unsuccessfully for months to garner government support for the initiative, which would limit the privileges enjoyed by Hamas security prisoners, in an effort to create pressure to advance the release of captive IDF soldier Gilad Schalit. 

The Prime Minister’s Office neither confirmed nor denied that Netanyahu would support the measure. Until now, the government had bowed to what they said were concerns expressed by security officials that any worsening of Hamas prisoners’ conditions could lead to chaos in the prison system. 



The bill would reduce to the minimum required by international humanitarian protocols the privileges enjoyed by the Hamas prisoners, who are currently entitled to visits from family members, where as the bill would limit visits to Red Cross observers. Further more, prisoners would no longer be given access to televisions or the Prisons Service’s education program.