VOA常速英语2007年-Israel Releases 429 Palestinian Prisoners

By Jim Teeple
Jerusalem
03 December 2007

Israel has released 429 Palestinian prisoners, in a bid to boost support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, following the Annapolis Mideast peace conference last week. As VOA's Jim Teeple reports from Jerusalem, Palestinian officials say they would have liked to have seen more prisoners released.

Israeli prison officials say they sent 408 prisoners to the West Bank and 21 to Gaza, saying they have released 770 Palestinians from jails, since July.

Palestinian officials had requested that 2,000 prisoners be released. Ashraf Ajrami, the Palestinian minister for prisoner affairs told the Voice of Palestine Radio that Israel could have done more.

Ajrami calls the Israeli move a unilateral action that does not meet the needs of the Palestinians. He says more prisoners who have served long sentences should also have been released.

Israel holds about 10,000 Palestinians in its jails. Mark Regev a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, says Israel wants to help Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but many Palestinians in Israeli jails have been convicted of serious crimes.

"You know everyone who is sitting in an Israeli jail is there for a reason. And, we have a situation where too many people have been arrested and convicted for crimes against humanity, trying to kill innocent people and all sorts of heinous¹, terrorist acts," he said.

The prisoner release is the first so-called confidence-building measure taken by Israel since last week's Annapolis Mideast peace conference.

Speaking Sunday, Prime Minister Olmert sought to downplay expectations from the meeting, saying Israel would not commit to a 2008 deadline for a peace agreement, as long as Palestinian militants² continue to attack Israelis.

Monday, Israeli Defense³ Minister Ehud Barak, who heads Israel's Labor⁴ Party, said he supports a measure to compensate⁵ Israelis who voluntarily leave settlements in the West Bank. The proposal was condemned⁶ by West Bank settler groups, who have also strenuously⁷ objected to Prime Minister Olmert's pledge to halt settlement construction in the West Bank.

About 450,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements and in East Jerusalem - land Israel captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

1 heinous   

adj.可憎的，十恶不赦的

参考例句：

• They admitted to the most heinous crimes.他们承认了极其恶劣的罪行。
• I do not want to meet that heinous person.我不想见那个十恶不赦的人。

2 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

3 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

4 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

5 compensate   

vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消

参考例句：

• She used her good looks to compensate her lack of intelligence. 她利用她漂亮的外表来弥补智力的不足。
• Nothing can compensate for the loss of one's health. 一个人失去了键康是不可弥补的。

6 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

7 strenuously   

adv.奋发地，费力地

参考例句：

• The company has strenuously defended its decision to reduce the workforce. 公司竭力为其裁员的决定辩护。
• She denied the accusation with some warmth, ie strenuously, forcefully. 她有些激动，竭力否认这一指责。