Almagor officials are not celebrating along with supporters of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange deal, but rather they have been doing some research, seeking to learn just what happened with the terrorists released by Israel in previous prisoner exchange deals.

According to Almagor statistics, over 80% of terrorists released in prisoner exchange deals return to acts of terror against Jews. Since 2000, at least 180 Israelis were murdered by released terrorists.

The terror victims association did extensive research towards trying to analyze the hard facts, seeking to see just how high the price for a prisoner release deal really is.

Nasr Abu-Hamid was arrested a number of times, spending a total of 13 years in Israeli prisons. In 1990 he was convicted to a number of life sentences for murdering collaborators, informants who cooperated with Israeli authorities. He was released as part of the agreement surrounding the Oslo Accord, signed on September 13, 1993.

A number of years following his release, during a lynching in Ramallah, he was documented defiling the bodies of two IDF reserve duty soldiers, Vadim Nuritz and Yossi Avrahami HY”D, murdered by the Arab mob in a Ramallah police station on October  12, 2000.

A few months later, on December 21, 2000, Nasr murdered Eli Cohen, 29, from Modi’in in a shooting attack near between Beit Horon and Givat Ze’ev.

On December 31, 2000 he murdered Rabbi Binyamin and Talia Kahane HY”D, husband and wife, in a shooting attack near Ofrah. Five of their children were also wounded in the attack.

On February 27, 2002, who masterminded the murder of Gadi Rejwan (34) in northern Jerusalem’s Atarot Industrial Park.

On February 25, 2002, he masterminded the shooting attack at a bus stop in the N’vei Yaakov area of the northern capital. Police Sgt. Galit Arbiv (21) of Nesher was murdered.

He was also responsible for the attack on March 5, 2002, in a Tel Aviv restaurant, murdering three; Police officer Salim Barakat, (33), of Yarka; Yosef Habi (52), of Herzliya; and Eli Dahan, (53), of Lod. Over 30 people were wounded.

If the release of another terrorist, Rhatab Yunis Avis was prevented, other Jews would be alive as well. In 1991 he was convicted in the deaths of collaborators, given a life sentence. He was released by Israel is a ‘good-will’ gesture to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen).

On November 27, 2001, he sent two terrorists who opened fire at a crowd of people with assault rifles in the Afula Central Bus Station. Murdered in that attack were Noam Gozovsky, (23), of Moshav Ramat Zvi, and Michal Mor, (25), of Afula. Over 50 people were wounded in the attack as well, 10 seriously.

On March 21, 2002 a suicide bomber blew himself up on King George Street in Yerushalayim. Gadi (34) and Tzipi (29) Shemesh, of Jerusalem and Yitzhak Cohen, 48, of Modi’in were killed and 86 people injured 3 of them seriously.

Ramaz Sali Abu Salim was involved in terrorism just seven months after he was released by Israel. On September 9, 2003 he blew himself up in the Hillel Café on Emek Refaim Street in the German Colony neighborhood of the capital.

Murdered in that attack were Rabbi Dr. David Appelbaum, (51), and his daughter Nava Appelbaum, (20), of Jerusalem; David Shimon Avizadris, (51), of Mevaseret Tzion; Shafik Kerem, (27), of Beit Haninah; Alon Mizrahi, (22), of Jerusalem; Gila Moshe, (40), of Jerusalem; and Yechiel (Emil) Tubol, (52), of Jerusalem.

1998: Bassam Abu Sneina and Riyad Asila, both serving life sentences for the murder of yeshiva student Caim Kerman.

1993: Fahad Schludi was part of the cell that abducted and murdered IDF soldier Yaron Chen.

1989: Abdel Hadi Ghanem, an Islamic Jihad terrorist carried out an attack on a number 405 Egged bus murdering 16.

1978: Nael al-Barghouthi, the longest-serving terrorist, was serving a life sentence for the murder of an Israeli security officer.

Almagor has documented 180 victims since 2000, all murdered by terrorists released from Israeli prisons.

Some of the murderers included in the Shalit release are responsible for some of the most heinous attacks ever perpetrated in Israel, including the Park Hotel, the murders of five students from Atzmona, the Café Hillel suicide bombing attack, the murders of Rabbi Kahane and his wife, the suicide bombing attack in the Sharon Shopping Center in Netanyahu, the suicide bombing attack on a Jerusalem bus and more.

ISA (Israel Security Agency – Shin Bet) director Yoram Cohen told the media the deal is a most difficult one to digest, boasting the fact that Israel selected the names of those slated for release, not Hamas, explaining the read hardcore terrorists will remain behind bars.

Interestingly, in his 1995 book, “Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists”, the author, an expert, Binyamin Netanyahu, warns against prisoner exchange deals. He speaks about the repeated mistake made by Israel, the prisoner exchange deals. He authoritatively adds that one of the more correct and important decision made in the war against terror, is the policy to not release terrorists from prison.

“Prisoner releases only embolden terrorists by giving them the feeling that even if they are caught, their punishment will be brief.”

For those who follow Mr. Netanyahu’s career, one knows that when in the opposition, he is the master right-wing orator, but once elected, the People of Israel can count on him to sell ideology down the tubes as quickly as a situation requires. In this most recent prisoner release we did not hear the prime minister’s famous words, that those being released “don’t have blood on their hands”, as if one can dare make such a statement regarding any convicted terrorist.

1996: The government of PM Netanyahu hands over 45 Hizbullah terrorists and the bodies of 100 terrorists in exchange for the bodies of IDF soldiers Yosef Fink and Rachamim Alsheik.

1997: 750 terrorists were released as part of the Hebron Agreement, as well as an additional 250 terrorists in the Wye Plantation Agreement.

Even when he was not prime minister, and had the luxury of voting his conscious, Netanyahu showed his true colors in 2003, when as finance minister in the government of Ariel Sharon he supported the prisoner release involving 430 terrorists. In that deal, Sharon brought home an old army buddy and reserve duty officer of the rank of colonel, who was taken hostage while involved in illicit business dealings, Elchanan Tannenbaum. Israel also received the bodies of IDF soldiers Adi Avidan, Benny Avraham and Omar Sawayid.

He also voted to release prisoners in 2005.

He did however vote against a prisoner release surrounding the Sharm el-Sheikh Agreement. (Published on 1st Day Chol Hamoed in Eretz Yisrael)

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)