Israeli settlers block Palestinians from visiting political prisoner family members

NETANYA, Israel, March 23 (UPI) -- Israeli demonstrators demanding the release of a kidnapped soldier blocked visitors from seeing Palestinian prisoners Monday, witnesses said.

The protesters blocked the entrance to the Sharon prison near the northern Israeli town of Netanya, demanding that the same conditions be placed on high-security Palestinian prisoners as Cpl. Gilad Shalit's Hamas captors have imposed on him, Ynetnews.com reported.

The group, led by the Im Tirtzu extra-parliamentary movement and joined by the World Likud, the Beitar Movement and representatives of the Kibbutz Movement, demanded that government recommendations for sanctions against Palestinian security prisoners be imposed to speed up Shalit's release.

"The government talks and the citizens do -- we will not allow prison visits," the demonstrators chanted.

"This must be done today already," Yoel Marshak of the Kibbutz Movement told Ynetnews. "We are here to protest and arouse public opinion and to show Hamas that we can also block visitation to their prisoners, as long as they are not allowing anyone to see Gilad Shalit."

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