After three years in Israeli prison Speaker of Palestinian Parliament released from Israeli prison June 25, 2009
Palestine News Network PNN
Ramallah
After three years in Israeli prisons the democratically elected Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council was released.
The Israeli government targeted PLC officials from the Change and Reform Bloc affiliated with the Hamas party within three months of their election. Dr. Aziz Dweik was among them and whose case drove international protest and the question: “what country could imprison elected members of parliament from others?”
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights issued a call to the international community to exert pressure on the occupying Israeli government to all Palestinian prisoners, including the approximately 40 PLC members who are currently detained in Israeli jails.
Beyond Change and Reform members are Ahmad Sa’adat, the well-known leftist and Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Marwan Al Barghouti, the head of the Fateh movement in the West Bank.
The well-respected PCHR wrote from Gaza City today, “These detentions represent blatant IOF intervention into the work the Palestinian legislature. Consequent to the detentions of PLC members it is currently impossible to achieve quorum in the PLC.”
Now that Dr. Dweik is out of prison he has been welcomed at several receptions, including in Tulkarem on Tuesday. However it remains unclear whether under the current conditions of internal strife between Hamas and Fateh he will resume his position as Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
The PCHR wrote today that it hopes he will.
LINK: http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5894
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