Palestinian Official Blasts West's Discriminatory Policies on Zionist, Palestinian Prisoners http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9004075324

Palestinian Minister for Captive's Affairs Ataollah Abul-Sabah slammed the western countries' double-standard policies on Palestinian and Zionist captives, saying that the West ignores thousands of Palestinian inmates imprisoned in Israel, while it does whatever it can to release a Zionist captive."The westerners have closed their eyes to the sighs and groans of over 7,000 Palestinian captives and only seek freedom of one Israeli captive," Abul-Sabah told FNA on Tuesday.

He made the remarks, referring to the recent comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he called for intensifying punitive measures against Palestinian captives, while the western countries kept silent and showed no reaction to his statements. Abul-Sabah lamented that the world arrogant powers headed by Washington are used to supporting butcher regimes and ignoring victims.

Netanyahu announced Thursday that he had instructed Israel's prison service to toughen conditions for Palestinian detainees to pressure Hamas to release Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Hamas forces in a 2006 cross-border raid."I'm not going to detail the measures, but I can tell you the party's over," the prime minister said. Analysts say the crackdown is an attempt to distract attention from the government's failure to free the soldier, and that Netanyahu is, in ridiculous statements, comparing Shalit to over 7,000 Palestinians prisoners, some of whom have been in Israeli custody for over 30 years.