Freedom for Resisitance Detainees in PA and Israeli Jails

DFLP: Abbas's security imprisons NRB elements

[ 08/07/2009 - 09:26 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Central committee member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) Talal Abu Dharifa has revealed that West Bank security apparatuses loyal to former PA chief Mahmoud Abbas were holding elements of his Front's armed wing, the National Resistance Brigades (NRB), in their jails.

Abu Darifa told Safanews in a statement on Tuesday that the security apparatuses in the West Bank should differentiate between resistance fighters and common criminals, calling on the government in the West Bank to re-consider its security policy.

He noted that armed wings in Gaza have agreed on the formation of coordination committees that would later develop into a joint operations rooms to settle any field problems.

The DFLP official championed dialog to solve all internal troubles, warning that coups would not solve the problems but would rather drag the Palestinians into a civil war.

Al-Ghoul: IOA still detains 36 MPs and 3 former ministers

[ 08/07/2009 - 09:24 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- The minister of prisoners' affairs in the PA government in Gaza, Mohammed Al-Ghoul, sent his congratulations to MP Ibrahim Abu Salem on his release after serving 38 months in Israeli occupation authority (IOA) jails.

Ghoul pointed out that the release of MP Abu Salem decreases the number of MPs detained in IOA prisons to 36 out of 132 MPs, in addition to 3 former ministers.

The minister labeled the IOA arbitrary arrest of MPs and former ministers as illegal and in contravention of international conventions and charters, adding that international laws don't permit the detention or prosecution of members of parliament.

He called on the international community to enforce and implement the law upon all without exception.

Haneyya gov’t condemns PA security for its ongoing arrest campaigns in West Bank

[ 08/07/2009 - 09:23 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- The Palestinian government headed by premier Ismail Haneyya strongly denounced the PA security apparatuses for its persistent arrest campaigns in the West Bank especially against women, stressing that these arrests have no moral or legal grounds.

During the weekly cabinet meeting, the government considered the PA practices in the West Bank a real obstacle to the efforts made to achieve reconciliation and heal the internal rift.

As for the issue of the Israeli siege, the government urged the international activists to intensify their efforts to break the siege on Gaza, saying these efforts are a real challenge to the unjust siege imposed on the Gaza people.

The government pointed out that it followed up closely the conditions of summer visitors to Gaza shores and the state of public freedoms, hailing the state of security and stability in the Strip.

The government hailed, in another context, the ministry of interior for its role in discovering new spy rings that provided Israel through the PA with information about targets in Gaza. It also saluted the citizens who cooperated with the ministry.

For his part, spokesman for the interior ministry Ihab Al-Ghussein on Tuesday said that the members of spy rings, who were arrested recently in Gaza, were intending to restore the state of security chaos at the behest of the PA in Ramallah.

In a press statement, spokesman Ghussein affirmed that these spy rings were dismantled, noting that some members of these rings fled Gaza to the West Bank through Beit Hanoun crossing.

He revealed that these spy rings was collecting information on Palestinian officials as well as homes and camping locations of resistance fighters, adding that Israel intends to use such information in any future war against the Gaza Strip.

In the same context, head of the parliamentary interior and security committee Ismail Al-Ashqar called for prosecuting all members of the spy rings who were arrested by the interior ministry in Gaza and inflicting the severest punishment on them to make them an example to others.

Ashkar: 122 Gazans serve life terms in jail amidst deliberate medical neglect

[ 08/07/2009 - 09:14 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- The PA ministry of prisoners and ex-prisoners' affairs has disclosed on Tuesday that 122 Palestinian citizens from Gaza Strip were serving life terms in Israeli jails in harsh conditions amidst deliberate medical neglect.

In a press release he issued and a copy of which was obtained by the PIC, Riyadh Al-Ashkar, the ministry's information officer, explained that at least one of those detainees, Saleem Ali Al-Kayyal, had been in jail for more than 25 years, 16 captives had, so far, served between 20-25 years, 75 of them served more than 15 years but less than 20 years, four served between 10-15 years in jail, and 20 detainees served between 5-10 years, and six of them had been in jail for about five years.

He added that 53 of the detainees were affiliated with Fatah faction, 50 from Hamas Movement, 12 were from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and seven from the Islamic Jihad.

According to Ashkar, 37 of the detainees hail from Gaza city and the surrounding suburbs, 26 of them hail from northern Gaza Strip cities, 24 from the central Gaza governorate, 25 from Khan Younis city and the south eastern part of the Strip, and ten were from Rafah district.

Ashkar also highlighted that at least 30 of the detainees suffer different kinds of serious and mild diseases, including two detainees identified as Raed Mohammed Daraybeh, and Emad Al-Dein Ata Zurab who suffer from cancer.

According to Ashkar, Daraybeh endured a rare kind of back cancer that seriously affected his health condition and caused muscle waste despite the surgical operations carried out on him in Israeli hospitals due to the deliberate delay in treating him on the part of the Israeli prisons authority (IPA).

"Doctors of Daraybeh recommended an urgent surgery for him in the spinal cord; but the IPA were wittingly ignoring the doctors' recommendation, thus putting his life at extreme risk", Ashkar pointed out.

He also revealed that Palestinian prisoner Awedha Mohammed Kullab, who had been in jail since 1988, was suffering from serious psychological disease that made him unable to recognize his own family and to reject their visitation.

The ministry stressed the need to pay more attention to the issue of the prisoners, and not to deal with it as an issue of numbers only, adding that each and every Palestinian prisoner in the Israeli jails has in his mind tens of stories of pain and suffering throughout the years he served in jail, in addition to the suffering and agony of their families that is no less than the suffering of the prisoners themselves.

Khreisha: Political regime in West Bank exerts no effort to free MPs

[ 08/07/2009 - 09:19 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- MP Dr Hasan Khreisha has charged that the political system in the West Bank made a little effort to help release the MPs held in Israeli occupation authority (IOA) prisons for more than three years.

Khreisha, who is the second deputy speaker of the Palestinian legislative council (PLC), said in a press release that former PA chief Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian negotiators have not given weight to the issue of MP detainees, confirming the absence of this issue from the agenda of talks with the IOA.

He voiced concern that a number of parties had contributed to the paralysis of the PLC, underscoring that the PLC had become part of the internal Palestinian political crisis and would not be reactivated unless a solution was reached on ending the current discord.