Prisoners committee: EU backing culprit against victim

GAZA, — The higher national committee for prisoners has described as “sheer hypocrisy” the European Union’s demand for the release of Israeli captured soldier Gilad Shalit while ignoring thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails.

Riyadh Al-Ashqar, the committee’s spokesman, said in a press release on Wednesday that the EU resolution, which also failed to condemn the Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla, was “imbalanced”.

He said that the resolution only encouraged Israel to commit more crimes against the Palestinian people and their prisoners, turning the EU into an accomplice in those crimes since it provides the legal and political cover for them.

Ashqar asked the EU about the agreement and humanitarian doctrines that its members signed and promised to punish those violating them. Is the EU incapable of condemning Israel for violating the international and humanitarian law in dealing with Palestinian captives, and is it incapable of asking Israel to release Palestinian prisoners in return for Shalit’s freedom?, he elaborated.

The spokesman asked the EU to change its policy toward the Palestinian people, to be neutral, and not to be more Zionist than the Zionists who are asking their government to release Palestinian prisoners in return for the freedom of Shalit.