After it was recently revealed that President Isaac Herzog is considering commuting the sentence of Ami Popper, (a Jewish security prisoner who has served 35 years of a 40-year sentence for killing seven Palestinians in 1990), the pressure campaign on the President’s Residence is intensifying. 

Fifty-five members of Knesset and ministers from the coalition, including 11 ministers and 44 MKs, signed a letter to Herzog demanding the release of Jewish security prisoners, in light of the release of Palestinian terrorists as part of the hostage deal.

The letter was signed by representatives from all coalition parties — Otzma Yehudit, Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism, and Religious Zionism. The initiative was led by MK Limor Son Har-Melech of Otzma Yehudit, together with the right-wing organization Honenu, which is working for the release of about 25 Jewish prisoners convicted of nationalist crimes, among them Amiram Ben Uliel, who allegedly murdered members of the Dawabshe family in 2015.