Qufaisheh: The world cares for Shalit and ignores Palestinian prisoners
[ 02/11/2009 - 11:11 AM ]
GAZA, (PIC)-- Hamas lawmaker Hatim Qufaisheh stated Sunday that the international community does not care about the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails or considers the justice of their cause while its voice is heard when it is related to Israeli captive soldier Gilad Shalit.
In a press statement to the Palestinian information center (PIC), Qufaisheh strongly denounced the world for demanding the Palestinian resistance to release Shalit and having no concern for thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
He said that Israel and its prison authorities violate all international conventions and norms which protect the rights of prisoners.
In a related context, the Palestinian Prisoners' Society reported Sunday that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) kidnapped more than 62 Palestinian citizens from Al-Khalil city during October, adding that among these detainees were 16 children, 23 students and six patients.
The club affirmed that most of these kidnappings took place after night raids on Palestinian homes in all villages of Al-Khalil, during which the IOF troops ransacked and damaged the furniture inside these homes.
It pointed out that the IOF troops, during one of the raids in the village of Sa’eir, severely beat the family of Abdullah Shallaldah, a shepherd, and kidnapped him when he was trying to defend his family with a knife, adding that the Israeli troops also physically assaulted other citizens during their raids on homes.
For his part, Abdelrahman Al-Mutawaq told the Wa’ed society for detainees and ex-detainees that the Israeli court of Beersheeba sentenced his 20-year-old son to 12 years in prison, adding that his son was kidnapped in January 2008 from the Gaza Strip and now he is in Eshel jail.
Mutawaq said that his son finished his high school last year and enrolled at the university, noting that the prison administration prevents him from seeing his son.
He appealed to human rights organizations especially the Red Cross to pressure Israel to allow him to visit his son.
The Wa’ed society, for its part, said that Israel deliberately fights Palestinian prisoners psychologically through issuing tough sentences against them despite their young age or the simple charges leveled against them.
In another related context, the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) renewed the administrative detention of senior Hamas leader Sheikh Hasan Amara, 50, for seven months despite the end of his six-month sentence.
Fouad Al-Khafsh, the director of Al-Ahrar center of prisoners’ studies, strongly denounced this extension decision issued against Amara as a testament to Israel’s racism and criminal mentality.
Khafsh stressed the need to pool the efforts to expose the policy of administrative detention pursued by Israel against Palestinian prisoners in blatant violation of international law.
Palestinian MP freed from Zionist dungeon
[ 01/11/2009 - 09:30 PM ]
From Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank
The Israeli occupation authorities on Sunday freed Hatem Qafisha, a member of the Legislative council after a protracted administrative detention in Israeli concentration camps and dungeons.
The “administrative detention” is often referred to as open-ended incarceration without charge or trial and is primarily meant as a reprisal against Palestinian political activists.
Israel rounded up Qafisha and most other Islamist lawmakers in the mid-2006, giving them hefty prison sentences ranging from 35 months to 48 months for taking part in elections under the umbrella of a militant organization.
The Israeli occupation authorities arrested Qafisha numerous times the last of which occurred in November 2007. All in all, Qafisha spent more than 9 years in detention.
He was never accused of any concrete charges apart from generalized and concocted charges pertaining to resisting the Israeli occupation and identifying with a militant organization.
In an interview three years ago, Qafisha intimated that he pressed the Jewish military judge to inform him why he was arrested.
The Judge said he couldn’t tell him because the evidence was secret. Then Qafisha confronted the judge, saying, “then how do you expect me to refrain from committing the same violation again if I don’t know what it is?”
During his prolonged imprisonment, Qafisha was able to earn his Ph.D. in political science by correspondence. His dissertation is titled “the erosion of the Israeli deterrence.”
Several Islamic detainees have also been able to earn Master and doctorate degrees through correspondence.
Qafisha joined the Muslim Brotherhood, the Arab world’s largest Islamic political movement, in 1978. In 1991, he was deported to southern Lebanon along with more than 400 Islamic political activists.
Then Israel’s Prime Minister Isaac Rabin thought that the draconian measure would weaken Hamas and stop the resistance against the Israeli occupation.
However, the deportation seemed to have significantly strengthened Hamas, prompting Rabin to step up autonomy talks with the PLO leadership under the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
In 2006, Qafisha won a seat in the Palestinian legislative elections while languishing in Israeli custody.
Qafisha was also briefly arrested by the Palestinian autonomous authority.
Abu Anas (his nom de guerre) is considered a prominent civic leader in the al-Khalil District who played an active role in the creation and management of charitable organizations in the city.
Qafisha, 47, is father to eight children.
[ 01/11/2009 - 09:30 PM ]
From Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank
The Israeli occupation authorities on Sunday freed Hatem Qafisha, a member of the Legislative council after a protracted administrative detention in Israeli concentration camps and dungeons.
The “administrative detention” is often referred to as open-ended incarceration without charge or trial and is primarily meant as a reprisal against Palestinian political activists.
Israel rounded up Qafisha and most other Islamist lawmakers in the mid-2006, giving them hefty prison sentences ranging from 35 months to 48 months for taking part in elections under the umbrella of a militant organization.
The Israeli occupation authorities arrested Qafisha numerous times the last of which occurred in November 2007. All in all, Qafisha spent more than 9 years in detention.
He was never accused of any concrete charges apart from generalized and concocted charges pertaining to resisting the Israeli occupation and identifying with a militant organization.
In an interview three years ago, Qafisha intimated that he pressed the Jewish military judge to inform him why he was arrested.
The Judge said he couldn’t tell him because the evidence was secret. Then Qafisha confronted the judge, saying, “then how do you expect me to refrain from committing the same violation again if I don’t know what it is?”
During his prolonged imprisonment, Qafisha was able to earn his Ph.D. in political science by correspondence. His dissertation is titled “the erosion of the Israeli deterrence.”
Several Islamic detainees have also been able to earn Master and doctorate degrees through correspondence.
Qafisha joined the Muslim Brotherhood, the Arab world’s largest Islamic political movement, in 1978. In 1991, he was deported to southern Lebanon along with more than 400 Islamic political activists.
Then Israel’s Prime Minister Isaac Rabin thought that the draconian measure would weaken Hamas and stop the resistance against the Israeli occupation.
However, the deportation seemed to have significantly strengthened Hamas, prompting Rabin to step up autonomy talks with the PLO leadership under the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
In 2006, Qafisha won a seat in the Palestinian legislative elections while languishing in Israeli custody.
Qafisha was also briefly arrested by the Palestinian autonomous authority.
Abu Anas (his nom de guerre) is considered a prominent civic leader in the al-Khalil District who played an active role in the creation and management of charitable organizations in the city.
Qafisha, 47, is father to eight children.
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