A new government bill seeking to allow for early administrate release from prison to relieve overcrowding in Israel's prisons will not apply to security prisoners or terrorists, chairman of the Knesset Internal Affairs Committee Yoav Kisch said Tuesday.
"The government bill is committed to reality, but I will not finish the legislative process before I ensure that no terrorist or security prisoner will be released [from prison] as a result of it.
"Anyone who thinks I'll allow a bill designed to reduce overcrowding in Israeli prisons to be exploited so that terrorists can be released even a day earlier is mistaken. I won't let that happen," Kisch vowed.
Meanwhile, some 100 families from the Choosing Life Forum for bereaved families who have lost loved ones to terrorism have contacted Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan to demand that several hundred imprisoned terrorists stay behind bars if the legislative proposal passes.
"If this [bill] is passed, it will be a slippery slope that will lead to a lot of prisoners with blood on their hands – some of whom killed our own children, parents, wives, husbands, and other loved ones – returning to terrorism and murdering more Israelis.
"The fact that the Israeli government seeks to release more prisoners makes a mockery of us," the families said in a letter to Erdan.
The families asked Erdan to issue instructions that "the decision be canceled immediately. If, heaven forbid, it is enacted, it means the blood of more Israelis. Many could find themselves part of the circle of mourning, stricken by terrorism," they said.
