Tuesday, 28 June 2011

Bahar says arrest of West Bank MP aimed at disrupting unity deal

[ 28/06/2011 - 04:59 PM ]
GAZA, (PIC)-- Deputy Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council Ahmed Bahar has called Israel’s arrest of PLC member Nasser Abdul-Jawwad (Nablus) a bid to disrupt the PLC, which was reactivated after the signing of the national unity deal.

Bahar said that Israel’s foiling the unity deal by breaking down the PLC and ridding the West Bank of its elected members “will only reap failure and loss, and will only lead to more determination and steadfastness until Palestinian national rights are restored”.

Bahar also pointed out that the recent string of arrests targeting Palestinian officials marks Israel’s “bankruptcy” in facing the Palestinians and signals the “depth of the dilemma plaguing Israel by its ongoing policies and crimes.”

Also condemning the arrest, Hamas members of the PLC in the West Bank have condemned the world’s silence over Israel’s “crimes” against Palestine’s elected legislature.

“Israel would not be able to keep abusing PLC members without the strange silence,” they said in a statement after the arrest Tuesday before dawn.

They highlighted that elected officials are supposed to enjoy parliamentary immunity.

Israel is punishing PLC members because of their commitment to national constants, they added, emphasizing the need for Palestinians to protest on international forums.

Israel has embarked an even wider ranging campaign to silence the Palestinians including the media and rights groups.

Also on Tuesday, Israeli forces arrested journalist Nawaf al-Amer, the program coordinator for Al-Quds channel in the West Bank.

The Palestinian Journalist Forum condemned the act, considering it as part of a plan to suppress freedoms of expression.

Amer was arrested on several prior occasions and was one of the 450 exiled to Marj al-Zuhur in southern Lebanon in 1992. He was the first to return due to his poor health condition.

Israeli occupation forces also arrested the director of Ahrar prisoner studies center and former prisoner Fuad Khuffash the same morning.

As a major rights activist and spokesman for Palestinian prisoners, his community in Nablus told our correspondents how the prisoners will never forget his strong stances in trying to support their cause.

We the families of prisoners are entitled to call him the voice of the prisoners, said the mother of a life prisoner.

In a separate statement, the Palestinian Center for the Defense of Detainees called the string of arrests a crime punishable by international and humanitarian law.


PA court sentences 5 Hamas cadres
[ 28/06/2011 - 03:57 PM ]
AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- A Fatah-controlled court in Al-Khalil city on Tuesday passed a one and a half year sentence on five Hamas cadres, including one still held in Israeli jail, in blatant disregard of the reconciliation agreement.

The committee of relatives of detainees said on its Facebook page that Nabil Al-Natshe, held in Israeli custody, was among those sentenced.
The PA preventive security apparatus was holding those detainees in its jails for the past six months and their hearings were adjourned on several occasions the latest over a week ago.
Natshe was detained by the Israeli occupation army soon after the PA freed him after media and human rights pressures since he had neck cancer and suffered difficult health condition.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

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