Dweik stands in 'full solidarity' with Manara Square protesters

[ 11/04/2011 - 07:20 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) Speaker Dr. Aziz Dweik has declared his ”full solidarity” with the Manara Square hunger strikers, who have demanded the outlawing of political arrests in the West Bank.

Dweik, accompanied by PLC members Hamed al-Beitawi and Mohammed Abu Teir, paid a visit to those protesters on Monday and called the political arrest phenomenon a ”national crime against the Palestinians who suffer from the Zionist occupation and live in a phase of national liberation.”

He said that he called for the immediate release of all political prisoners in the West Bank while meeting with Abbas to discuss ways to end the Palestinian political split.

Dozens of Palestinian youth have gone on hunger strike while staging a sit-in at Manara Square downtown Ramallah since March 15, amid demands that the Palestinian Authority security agencies release those prisoners in the West Bank who have been ruled free men by the Palestinian Supreme Court.

Five of those protesters have been hospitalized after their health deteriorated due to the fasting, one of the protesters has told our correspondent.

The youth were promised during a meeting with Abbas that all of those prisoners would be released within 72 hours, but eight days has passed since then.

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