The Jibril Agreement ( ar, اتفاقية جبريل, Ittifāqīyat Jibrīl) or "Jibril Deal" ( he, עסקת ג'יבריל, Iskat Jibril) was a
prisoner exchange
A prisoner exchange or prisoner swap is a deal between opposing sides in a conflict to release prisoners: prisoners of war, spies, hostages, etc. Sometimes, dead bodies are involved in an exchange.
Geneva Conventions
Under the Geneva Convent ...
deal which took place on May 21, 1985 between the
Israeli government
The Cabinet of Israel (officially: he, ממשלת ישראל ''Memshelet Yisrael'') exercises executive authority in the State of Israel. It consists of ministers who are chosen and led by the prime minister. The composition of the governmen ...
, then headed by
Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres (; he, שמעון פרס ; born Szymon Perski; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the ninth president of ...
, and the
(an organization often known as just 'PFLP-GC'). As part of the agreement, Israel released 1,150 security prisoners held in Israeli prisons in exchange for three Israeli prisoners (Yosef Grof, Nissim Salem,
Hezi Shai
Hezi Shai ( he, חזי שי, born 1954) is a former tank commander in the Israeli Defense Forces. During the 1982 Lebanon War, he was one of five Israeli soldiers declared missing in action after their tanks were hit during the Battle of Sulta ...
) captured during the
First Lebanon War
The 1982 Lebanon War, dubbed Operation Peace for Galilee ( he, מבצע שלום הגליל, or מבצע של"ג ''Mivtsa Shlom HaGalil'' or ''Mivtsa Sheleg'') by the Israeli government, later known in Israel as the Lebanon War or the First L ...
. This was one of several prisoner exchange agreements carried out between Israel and groups it classified as terrorist organizations around that time.
Among the prisoners released by Israel were
Kozo Okamoto—one of the perpetrators of the
Lod Airport Massacre
The Lod Airport massacre"They were responsible for the Lod Airport massacre in Israel in 1972, which was committed on behalf of the PFLP." Jeffrey D. Simon, ''The Terrorist Trap: America's Experience with Terrorism'', Indiana University Press, ...
in May 1972, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment—and
Ahmed Yassin
Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin ( ar, الشيخ أحمد إسماعيل حسن ياسين; 1 January 1937 – 22 March 2004) was a Palestinian politician and imam who founded Hamas, a militant Islamist and Palestinian nationalist organiz ...
, a
Gazan Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...
leader who was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment in 1983 and who later became the spiritual leader of
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
. Another prisoner released was Ali Jiddah, who had served 17 years for planting of a bomb near a Jerusalem hospital in 1968 that wounded nine Israelis. Another prisoner released was
Ziyad al-Nakhalah
Ziyad al-Nakhalah ( ar, زياد نخالة; April 6, 1953) is a Palestinian Islamic militant, leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) since 28 September 2018, which has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United States, the Euro ...
, who was serving a life sentence, and who has been the leader of
Palestinian Islamic Jihad
The Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine ( ar, حركة الجهاد الإسلامي في فلسطين, ''Harakat al-Jihād al-Islāmi fi Filastīn''), known in the West simply as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), is a Palestinian Islamist par ...
since 28 September 2018.
Abdullah Nimar Darwish
Sheikh Abdullah Nimar Darwish (1948 – 14 May 2017) was the founder of the Islamic Movement in Israel.
Biography
Darwish was born in Kafr Qasim in 1948. After completing his religious studies in Nablus, he returned to Kafr Qasim and began advoc ...
, on the other hand, renounced violence by Palestinians within
Israel's pre-1967 borders.
The Israeli government faced harsh public criticism for agreeing to release the 1,150 security prisoners, among them those sentenced to life imprisonment and responsible for the killing of many Israeli citizens, particularly since the exchange did not include the three IDF soldiers who were declared missing in action after the
Battle of Sultan Yacoub in 1982. One of the Israeli negotiators resigned in protest against the agreement. All of the government ministers, with the exception of
Yitzhak Navon
Yitzhak Rachamim Navon ( he, יצחק נבון; 9 April 1921 – 6 November 2015) was an Israeli politician, diplomat, playwright, and author. He served as the fifth President of Israel between 1978 and 1983 as a member of the centre-left ...
, supported the agreement.
[
Many of the ]Palestinian
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
prisoners released in this agreement later went on to form the backbone of the leadership of the First Intifada
The First Intifada, or First Palestinian Intifada (also known simply as the intifada or intifadah),The word ''intifada'' () is an Arabic word meaning "uprising". Its strict Arabic transliteration is '. was a sustained series of Palestinian ...
, which broke out less than three years after the agreement.
The agreement with the PFLP-GC reportedly took nearly a year to negotiate. The nickname for the agreement came about as a reference to Palestinian militant leader Ahmed Jibril
Ahmed Jibril ( ar, أحمد جبريل; April 1937 – 7 July 2021) was a Palestinian militant, the founder and leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC).
During the Syrian Civil War, Jibril wa ...
.[
On 30 June 1985, 39 foreigners seized on a ]TWA Flight 847
Trans World Airlines Flight 847 was a flight from Cairo to San Diego with en route stops in Athens, Rome, Boston, and Los Angeles. On the morning of June 14, 1985, Flight 847 was hijacked shortly after take off from Athens. The hijackers demande ...
en route from Athens to Rome, hijacked to Beirut, were released. On July 1 1985, Israel announced that it was ready to release Shia
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...
detainees from its prisons. Over the next several weeks, Israel released over 700 Shia prisoners, but Israel denied that the prisoners' release was related to the hijacking.Lebanon - The Hostage Crisis
/ref> In July 1985, 331 Lebanese Shias freed from Israeli detention claimed their release was part of a prisoner exchange deal, but the Israeli government formally denied that connection.
See also
* List of Israeli prisoner exchanges
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
* The Bhamdoun abduction operation (1982)
* Ahmed Jibril
Ahmed Jibril ( ar, أحمد جبريل; April 1937 – 7 July 2021) was a Palestinian militant, the founder and leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC).
During the Syrian Civil War, Jibril wa ...
* (PFLP-GC)
References
{{reflist
1985 in Israel
1985 in international relations
Israeli prisoner exchanges