Egypt – An American law student from Queens who also has Israeli citizenship and was arrested in Egypt in June, charged there with spying for Israel, is expected to be released in the coming days in exchange for scores of Egyptians held in Israel.
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The exchange for the student, Ilan Grapel, 27, who attends Emory Law School in Atlanta, would follow an Egyptian-brokered exchange between Israel and Hamas, set for Tuesday, in which an Israeli soldier, Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit, was expected to be returned home from Gaza for the first batch of what was expected to be the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Representative Gary Ackerman, Democrat from Queens, said in a telephone interview that he had been working closely on the Grapel case from the beginning.
“We are extremely close in this complicated deal,” he said. “We are going to be exceedingly happy to get our citizen back.”
In Egypt, senior security sources said the final agreement between Egypt and Israel would occur only after the Shalit deal was completed. Israeli officials declined comment but media reports said that 80 Egyptians who had been arrested over the Israeli border on drug and other charges would be exchanged for Mr. Grapel.
As usual, as an Israel -First member of Congress, Ackerman is misleading. Grapel was not detained because he is an American citizen, but because he is a citizen of the State of Israel accused of spying for the State of Israel.
so its a 1000/1 hamas to Israeli and 80/1 ratio with the egyptians, who comes up with these numbers!?!?!
Just as well. It costs a lot of money to incarcerate
And what about Assam Assam an Israeli Druze in an Egyptian jail for many years on trumped up espionage charges, couldn’t have Israel made an 80/2 ratio deal in lieu of an 80/1 ratio?
#2 your a bigger hater then the Arabs