Within days Israel is rumored to complete its long standing negotiations with HAMAS over a prisoner exchange. In return for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier the al-Qassam Brigades kidnapped while the Israeli army invaded Gaza in 2006, Israel is said to agree to release 980 Palestinian political prisoners.
Toufic Haddad, Palestinian-American journalist based in Jerusalem, speaks to Lia Tarachansky about the significance of this exchange. He says among the released, Israel may free Ahmad Sa'adat (Saadat) and Marwan Barghouti, popular leaders whose freedom will change the political game in the Palestinian leadership.
Toufic Haddad is a Palestinian-American writer based in Jerusalem. He is the co-author and editor of Between the Lines: Readings in Israel, the Palestinians and the U.S ’War on Terror’. His writings on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been featured in Monthly Review Zine, Znet, Counterpunch, the International Socialist Review, and the Journal of Palestine Studies. He has also been translated into French, Spanish, German, Norwegian, Dutch, Hebrew and Arabic.
