RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities on Tuesday released the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, Aziz Duweik, following a year in administrative detention. The Ahrar Center for Prisoners and Human Rights Studies said that Duweik, 67, was released from the Ofer prison near Ramallah after paying a fine of 6,000 shekels ($1,565). Duweik, who is a member of Hamas, was detained from his home in Hebron during a massive arrest campaign in June 2014, known as "Operation Brother's Keeper," which was carried out in search of three missing teenage settlers. During the campaign, which lasted until June 30 when their bodies were found, Israel arrested hundreds of Palestinians, most of them members of Hamas, including leaders and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), Palestine's parliament. Commentators suggested that Israel's real motive had been to drive a wedge between Hamas and Fatah, which earlier that month formed a national unity government. ...

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) denounced an Israeli decision to put Khalida Jarrar, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PCL), under a six-month administrative detention. PCHR calls upon the international community to practice pressure on Israeli authorities to put an end to the administrative detention policy, which violates the right to a fair trial. On Sunday, 05 April 2015, the Israeli military commander issued an order putting PLC member Khalida Jarrar (52) under a six-month administrative detention. According to human rights sources, a hearing is supposed to be held at the military court in Ofer, west of Ramallah, on 08 April to confirm or reduce the detention order. The order came four days after Jarrar had been arrested on Thursday morning, 02 April, when Israeli forces raided her house in al-Bireh and took her to Hasharon prison for women in Israel. It should be noted that Ms. Jarrar is a PLC Member representing Abu Ali Mostafa Bloc and a memb...

Palestinian Parliament speaker Aziz Dweik is being held by Israel along with dozens of other parliamentarians STRASBOURG, February 1, 2012 (WAFA) – A group of 26 members of the European Parliament Wednesday called on Israel to release 26 Palestinian lawmakers it is holding in prison, including the speaker of the Palestinian parliament. In a letter of appeal, the 26 European Union parliamentarians, who represent a broad spectrum of the European parties, urged “the EU and its Member States to take immediate action” in order to ensure the release of all detained members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC). They recalled the European Parliament resolution of September 4, 2008 calling for “the immediate release of the imprisoned members of the Palestinian Legislative Council including Marwan Barghouti.” The EU lawmakers condemned the arrest of PLC speaker Aziz Dweik, who was arrested two weeks ago and sentenced to six months in administrative detention without charge or trial, a...

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- An Israeli military court on Tuesday ordered the detention of Palestinian parliamentary speaker Aziz Dweik for six months without charge. Dweik, who was seized by Israeli forces at a Ramallah checkpoint on Thursday, heads the Palestinian Legislative Council. His lawyer Fadi Qawasmi said Ofer military court gave the administrative detention order early Tuesday, after a Sunday hearing was postponed. The PLC speaker's office denounced the order as an "abusive decision without any charge or legal justification," accusing Israel of trying to stop a parliamentary session scheduled for next month. "It is an Israeli attempt to thwart Palestinian reconciliation," the statement said. more

The State of Israel raided on Monday the Jerusalem headquarters of the International Red Cross and detained two Palestinian members of parliament. Khaled Abu Arfa and Mohammed Totah, both members of the political wing of the Hamas movement and elected MPs, were detained from the IRC headquarters, having spent over 18 months seeking refuge in the building following Israel's revocation of their Jerusalem residency. Mickey Rosenfeld told Reuters that the men had been detained due to their participation in "Hamas activities". The IRC building is located in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem where Palestinian residents have been subjected to eviction from their homes by Israel, allowing settler families to take the homes in their place. more

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Friday called on the PLO to suspend talks with Israel until PLC speaker Aziz Dweik is released. "A Palestinian should not shake the hand of his enemy, the enemy who arrests the symbols of Palestinian legitimacy," Haniyeh said after Friday prayers in Gaza City. "This is the minimal response to the detention of Dweik and all lawmakers until they're freed." Israeli forces detained Dweik, the speaker of the Palestinian parliament, at a checkpoint near Ramallah on Thursday. Witnesses told Ma'an the MP was blindfolded and handcuffed during the arrest. On Friday, Israeli soldiers detained MP Khaled Ibrahim Tafesh, 50, from his home in Bethlehem and confiscated his computer and mobile phone. The detentions raise the number of Palestinian parliamentarians in Israeli jails to 25, according to figures from prisoner rights group Addameer. more

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces on Thursday detained the head of the Palestinian Legislative Council Aziz Dweik at a checkpoint near Jerusalem, witnesses said. Israeli soldiers handcuffed and blindfolded Dweik and took him to an unknown destination, witnesses told Ma'an. An Israeli military spokesman had no immediate comment on the report. Some 23 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council are currently imprisoned in Israel, according to the prisoner rights group Addameer. more

GAZA, (PIC)-- First deputy speaker of the Palestinian legislative council (PLC) Ahmed Bahr said that Israel's military escalation is aimed at imposing what he called the formula of a unilateral "truce with continued killing" in the Gaza Strip. In a press release on Thursday, Bahr stated that the Israeli occupation state wants the Palestinian people to keep their arms folded and stay idly watching it shedding their blood. He stressed that the Palestinian people rejects such a dysfunctional equation and that the truce must be mutual and unconditional in order to survive and last. The occupation government wants to tailor the truce to its own desires, so that it can give itself the right to violate it at will, the lawmaker said. "The truce proposed by the occupation is aimed to impose the terms of surrender and submission on the Palestinian people and their resistance, and this cannot be accepted in any way," he added. more

GAZA, ( PIC )-- First deputy speaker of the Palestinian legislative council (PLC) Dr. Ahmed Bahar has condemned the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) for abducting the council member Khaled Abu Tous. He affirmed in a press release on Saturday that the policy of kidnapping Palestinian lawmakers had completely failed in absenting them from the political arena and social work in the West Bank. Bahar said that the detention of Abu Tous reflected the state of confusion prevailing among Israeli decision-makers and their wish to spread tension in the Palestinian arena. The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) failed in curbing the growing role of those MPs in the West Bank despite the plots against them, the deputy speaker said. Bahar questioned the role of international organizations and human rights groups vis-à-vis such practices, which they condemn in various other world areas but remain dead silent when it comes to Israeli practices. He urged all parliamentary blocs in the PLC to stand unite...

NABLUS ( Ma’an ) -- Israeli forces detained two members of the Palestinian Legislative Council from the Hamas and Fatah blocs overnight on Wednesday, following raids on their homes in Nablus and Tulkarem, official sources told Ma'an. Fatah lawmaker Hussam Khader, a long-time proponent of reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, was taken from his home at 2 a.m., officials said. Witnesses said 50 Israeli military jeeps had arrived in the Balata refugee camp, surrounded the home and searched its contents before taking Khader to an unknown location. more

EDINBURGH, ( PIC )-- Scottish lawmaker HughO'Donnell, the spokesman for the liberal democratic party, strongly denounced the arbitrary policy of kidnapping Palestinian lawmakers and their detention in Israeli jails for more than three years. O'Donnell,in a letter addressed to the Israeli ambassador in Britain on Tuesday, expressed his strong condemnation of Israel’s clear violation of international law and the fourth Geneva convention through detaining Palestinian lawmakers in its jails. He stressed in the letter that the kidnapping of lawmakers is not only a violation of democracy, but also a contempt for the will of the Palestinian people and their voice. The letter demanded the Israeli ambassador to answer a number of questions about the reasons behind the detention of lawmakers, and the charges leveled against them as well as the expected time of their release.

Hamas on Monday described the PA trial and sentencing of a Hamas member as a "serious precedence" and tantamount to putting the Palestinian resistance on trial. Fawzi Barhoum, the Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said that the court in Ramallah was acting in concert with the Israeli occupation authorities by arresting resistance fighters, collecting their weapons, smearing the struggle and their reputation. Such act runs contrary to the Cairo national dialogue talks and are breaking the promises made on the release of political detainees, he charged. "We view this step with the utmost concern," Barhoum underlined, adding that such steps will only deepen the rift in the Palestinian arena. A PA military court in Nablus on Sunday sentenced Mohammed Katnani, 33, to one and a half years in jail for owning weapons and establishing armed cells aimed at toppling the PA in Ramallah. Katnani was arrested on 26 July last year after 18 months in hiding. He was subjected to brutal tortu...

A senior leader of the Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement on Thursday accused Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement of blocking the work of the Hamas-dominated parliament (pictured above). "The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) was disabled after Israel arrested 40 of its Hamas-affiliated members," said Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader based in Gaza. He added that Hamas' bitter rival Fatah "rejected Hamas' plans to obtain authorization from the detained lawmakers to vote on their behalf." "Fatah proposed a safety network which means that it can withhold any law or decision that Hamas parliamentary block makes," Zahar said, adding that Fatah prevented Hamas from keeping its majority in the parliament. Israel arrested the West Bank-based Hamas legislators in 2006 after the Islamic movement captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid near the Gaza Strip. more