Round-Up: Palestinian Prisoners to Freedom, Lebanon on Strike

Nour Rida 

Palestine Lives a Wedding...Seven Phases in Seven Different Places..."Israelis" and Palestinians prepare for historic prisoner swap and many other titles made the headlines of Lebanese Press as the two sides put the final touches on the swap deal on Monday, where 447 Palestinian prisoners will be released, some after more than 30 years of imprisonment. 

Monday's swap deal represents the highest price ever paid by the "Israeli" entity, as it will release 1027 Palestinian captives in return for the "Israeli" soldier Gilad Shalit. 

Also, Lebanese Press tackled domestic issues, particularly the general strike Lebanon will see on Wednesday. The strike is organized by the Syndicate Coordination Committee in which the Association of Public Administrations' Employees evening will take part. 

The association added that they will join the strike considering the situation of employees amid the current economic and financial situation.
The strike, which was set to last two weeks, became open-ended following the government's decision to establish a new ministerial committee to carry out further studies on the pay raise.

On the political level, President Michel Suleiman called Monday for a quick solution for the poverty problem and tackling unemployment by creating more job opportunities. He declared that Lebanon's future will not be bleak amid the prospects of the country becoming an oil producer. 

Suleiman spoke at a ceremony launching the national program to support the poorest families. Organized by the Ministry of Social Affairs, "It is a pleasure to meet today to launch the national program to support the poorest families in Lebanon, at this historic institution of the Beirut Bar Association, to bolster the efforts, measures and decisions that will reinforce our national capabilities in addressing the accrued economic and daily life challenges weighing heavily on the Lebanese citizens," Suleiman said.

On another note, Taimur Jumblatt, the son of the National Struggle Front leader MP Walid Jumblatt, has been appointed as a "guiding member" of the party, in a step that would allow him to later run for its leadership council and consequently head the party, reported Voice of Lebanon radio on Monday.
Meanwhile, on Friday Jumblatt spoke of a "shock" he will present during the party's general assembly scheduled for the end of the month, reported al-Akhbar newspaper on Saturday.

Sources predicted that he will call on the party leadership to resign in order to allow a new wave of young members to assume administrative positions in the party.

As for the case of Sheikh Hassan M. which stirred a major controversy over the past year, as many were suspicious that his arrest by Syrian authorities was actually linked to suspicions of collaboration with "Israeli" intelligence services.
The case, however, is now in the hands of the Lebanese judiciary as the ISF Information Branch completed the first stage of investigations with him, which revealed that suspicions against him "are very solid." 

On the Palestinian level, the actual implementation of the prisoner-swap deal signed between Hamas and "Israel" has effectively entered the implementation process after the "Israeli" High Court of Justice rejected all appeals filed by "Israelis" against it. Shalit is now in Egypt; Egyptian sources reported.

The deal will set 1027 Palestinian detainees free on two phases in exchange for the release of corporal Gilad Shalit. Media sources reported that Shalit was moved to Egypt in preparation to be handed to "Israel" after it releases the first 477 detainees.

The second phase will ensure the release of 550 detainees two months after the first phase is concluded.
The implementation of the first phase of the deal started at 2 a.m. on Tuesday at dawn when 96 detainees were moved from the Negev Detention Camp to the Ofer Prison in preparation to be released into the West Bank.

334 detainees were loaded onto buses that will drive them to the Kerem Shalom (Karem Abu Salem) Crossing between "Israel" and Gaza.

Among the prisoners to be released are Walid Anjas, who received 36 life sentences over a 2002 attack on a al-Quds (Jerusalem) bar that killed 11 "Israelis", and Nasr Yateyma, who was convicted of planning the 2002 Passover bombing which killed 29.