Jordanian prisoner freed by Israel after 21 years in jail

By Laith Al-Junaidi
AMMAN, Jordan (AA) – Israeli authorities released Jordanian prisoner Abdullah Abu Jaber on Tuesday, after 21 years in prison, according to a family member.

“Abu Jaber will be taken to his residence in the Baqa’a refugee camp in the capital Amman,” Mustafa Abu Jaber, an activist and a cousin of the freed prisoner, told Anadolu Agency.

He said Abu Jaber will be accompanied by a motorcade of cars, adding that a ceremony to celebrate his freedom will be organized later Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Abu Jaber described the conditions of his detention in Israeli prison as “very difficult”.

In statements to state-run Al-Mamlaka TV shortly after his release, he called for facilitating "the release of the rest of the prisoners” in Israeli prisons.

Abu Jaber, who hails from a Palestinian family but does not hold a Palestinian identity card, was the oldest Jordanian prisoner in Israeli prisons.

He arrived in the occupied territories before the 2000 Al-Aqsa Intifada with a work permit. Israeli forces, however, arrested him on charges of resisting the Israeli forces.

According to groups concerned with prisoners' affairs, 21 Jordanians are detained in Israel.

In 1994, Jordan and Israel signed the Wadi Araba peace treaty, which brought to an end a state of war between the two countries since the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948.
*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar in Ankara