Winnipegger's Palestinian killer freed

SomeWinnipeggers are torn over a dramatic prisoner swap underway in the Middle East.

This week more than1,000 Palestinian prisoners are being releasedin exchange for an Israeli soldier,Gilad Shalit, who was seized in a cross-border raid by Palestinian militants five years ago.

One of the Palestinian prisoners being released in the exchange is responsible for a July 1989 attack that killed Winnipegger Fern Shawna Rykiss, along with 15 other civilians.

"Very sweet, great sense of humour, very intelligent," is how Jeremy Feuer described his friend Rykiss to CBC News on Tuesday.

Rykiss and the others were killed when Abd al-Hadi Ghanayem, a 25-year-old Islamic Jihad militant, hijacked a commuter bus en route from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

He seized the steering wheel and drove the bus over a steep precipice. Itplunged more than120 metresdown a ravine whereit crashed and caught on fire.

In addition to those killed, another27people were wounded, including al-Hadi Ghanayem.

At the time of the attack, 17-year-old Rykiss hadrecently graduated from Joseph Wolinsky Collegiate, a Winnipeg private school. She and other students from the school had just completed a seven-week work-study program in Israel.

'It's bittersweet in that it comes at such a high price.To have her murderer freed, it sort of brings back all the memories of it and the hurt of it.' Pam Cohen

Most had gone their separate ways and Rykiss was the onlymember of the group on the bus.

"I went to see some relatives on the coast and she ended up heading out to the coast and going back to Jerusalem," Feuer recalled.

"It was on the bus back to Jerusalem that this man had seized control of the bus and forced it off the cliff."

Pam Cohen, who was in the school group with Rykiss, said she was happy when she first heard Shalit was being released, but was then stunned when she discovered al-Hadi Ghanayem was also being freed.

"A thousand prisoners, OK, and then when you find out one of those prisoners is somebody that killed somebody close to youall of a sudden it feels very different," Cohen said.

"It's bittersweet in that it comes at such a high price," she added. "You know, Shawna, she won't be able to be held by her family. To have her murderer freed, it sort of brings back all the memories of it and the hurt of it."

Messages posted on Facebook

Similar comments are being posted on aFacebook page set up for Rykiss.

"I wish I could comfort her family and friends during this time while Gilad Shalit's family will be able to embrace him," Dana Kanter Prottas posted.

"Know there are many out here in the world that will never forget her beautiful soul. May her memory always be for a blessing."

Rykiss's sister, Winnipeg singer Romi Mayes, told CBC Newsshe did not want to talk about the exchange, saying the family wants to keep it private.

But Mayes had postedon the Facebook page that whileshewas happy for Shalit and his family, sheargued that no one is thinking about the prisoners released, many of whom she accused of being murderers.

"It's an embarrassment to any justice system," she wrote, adding, "I would think the odds of at least one of those prisoners repeat offending are pretty good."

Feuer agreed: "I think it's a lopsided deal when you consider that nearly 300 of the 1,000 had received multiple life sentences for murder," he said.

But Dov Shlenger, a former Israeli soldier whonow teaches in Winnipeg, said the prisoner swap is a good thing and he wishes he was back in Israel to celebrate Shalit's release.

Shlenger said he feels bad for the victims of the prisoners who have been released, but he argued that Shalit's freedom means everything to those who have lost friends and loved ones to the conflicts.

"I think it's more important to have a live one than to keep all the others in jail," he said.