Minister of Justice Tzachi Hanegbi said in an interview published in Haaretz on January 22nd that “I plan soon to submit requests for the extradition of the murderers of Ita and Efraim Tzur and if this request is not fulfilled I will demand that the negotiations with the Palestinians unilaterally stop.”

IMRA asked the spokeswoman for the Minister of Justice last week if there has been any change in Hanegbi’s position linking the talks to the extradition request.

The spokeswoman replied today that “the requests were submitted at the end of March and the talks are frozen.”

The spokeswoman also told IMRA that the Israeli government has not yet presented a request to the Palestinian Authority (PA) for the transfer of the three terrorists from the Tzurif Hamas cell that the PA has been holding since early April so they can be prosecuted in Israel. The cell was responsible for a series of murderous attacks, including the kidnap-murder of Sharon Edry.

On May 1st, the spokeswoman explained that the Ministry of Justice is preparing the request and that it is not yet possible to predict when the request will be completed.

Today the spokeswoman said that the matter was still under the investigation of the security branches.

A number of government and opposition MK’s have come out in support of the Edry family’s call for Israel to demand the immediate transfer of the three terrorists for trial and Minister of Justice Hanegbi also made several public statements calling on the PA to transfer the terrorists at the time.

AaronLerner is Director of IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)

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