Thirty-three US congressmen on Friday petitioned Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and FBI Director Robert Mueller to put Palestinian terrorists freed by
Israel in exchange for Sgt.
First Class Gilad Schalit on the US terrorist
watch list, the American political journalism organization Politico
reported.
RELATED:
'US concerned over some Palestinians freed in swap'
41 Palestinian prisoners exiled to foreign states
Palestinian prisoners warned against returning to terrorIn the petition, they wrote, “Each of these released
Palestinian prisoners has been convicted of a terrorism-related offense and
should be treated as such,” according to the report.
Israel agreed to
release 1,027 Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for Schalit.
On
October 18, 477 Palestinian prisoners were released at the same time as Schalit,
who had spent more than five years held captive by Hamas. Many of those released
were imprisoned for murdering Israelis. Another 550 prisoners are slated to be
released.
According to AFP, the United States praised Israel for agreeing
to the prisoner swap, but also conveyed security concerns.
State
Department spokesman Mark Toner, while refusing to go into detail over which of
the 477 caused the concern, said some posed a threat and that the US had
objected to their freedom.
Toner said, however, that Washington was not
aware of any Palestinians who were denied release because of US concerns, saying
the deal was a “sovereign decision” on Israel’s part, AFP
reported.
Reuters contributed to this report