Prisoners swap dominates dailies’ headlines

The aftermath of the Hamas-Israel agreement to swap prisoners remained the main topic of Thursday's issue of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies. The papers, however, varied in what to say about this subject. Al-Ayyam’s main headline said: “Final touches put to implement the swap deal.” Al-Hayat al-Jadida said: “List of prisoners to be swapped will not be published before Friday or Sunday.” Al-Quds, which has the largest distribution of the three papers, said: “Factions, nationalist figures welcome the swap and hope it will be the start to liberate all prisoners.” The ongoing prisoners’ hunger strike for the last two weeks also took prominence on the front pages of the three dailies, as well as President Mahmoud Abbas’ visit to Latin America and his meeting with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Other front page stories focused on reconciliation efforts and Wednesday night's meeting between the Fatah official to the talks, Azzam Al-Ahmad, and Hamas’ Khaled Mishaal and Mousa Abu Marzouk in Cairo. The US opposition to legalizing Jewish settlement outposts in the West Bank was also featured on the front pages, as well as a request by Amnesty International to the Canadian government to arrest former US President George Bush on war crimes and torture charges during his presidency. The column writers in Al-Ayyam and Al-Hayat al-Jadida focused on the prisoners swap and so did the editorial in Al-Quds.