Released Prisoners Return to Kill Israelis

In the past, Israel has engaged in several one-sided "prisoner exchanges," in which thousands of Arab prisoners have been released in return for the freedom of a handful of Israeli hostages or prisoners of war. Still thousands more prisoners were released as so-called "confidence-building" measures during the years following the Oslo Accords.

A study released this week by Almagor Terror Victims Association, an Israeli terror victims advocacy group, demonstrates the damage that such one-sided exchanges may do to Israeli security. The study showed that of 6912 prisoners released between 1993-1999, 854 of them, 14%, were arrested subsequently for murder or attempted murder. At least 14 of the major terrorist attacks in recent years were carried out by terrorists released from prison in the context of such “good will gestures” and Israeli prisoner deals.

Moreover, the Israeli government gave assurances to the public that all of the prisoners released in these deals had no "blood on their hands," i.e., had not actually killed any victims. One can imagine what the statistics would be if the released prisoners included convicted murderers such as Samir Kuntar. (See previous post.)

More details on the report, including examples of the carnage wrought by just 9 of the released prisoners, appear in this Israeli National News/Arutz 7 article.