Shihab calls for stopping political arrests, security cooperation in W. Bank

[ 04/05/2011 - 09:25 AM ]

CAIRO, (PIC)-- Senior Islamic Jihad official Dawoud Shihab hailed the reconciliation agreement that was signed by the Palestinian resistance factions in Cairo on Tuesday as a positive step and demanded an immediate cessation of the security cooperation with the Israeli occupation in the West Bank.

In a press statement to the Palestinian information center (PIC), Shihab said the signing of the reconciliation agreement in Cairo was a first step and a new start that must protect the Palestinian people's interests, rights and national constants.

He stressed the need for sincerely translating this agreement into reality and closing the file of political arrests in the West Bank.

"There are many obstacles in the way of the reconciliation agreement that we should overcome and eliminate, especially the political arrests and the security cooperation with the occupation," the Islamic Jihad official underlined.

"Stopping the security coordination and releasing the detainees are steps that we should start with in order to build confidence, and I like to say clearly, 'we cannot close our eyes to the arrests happening to our brothers and sons at the hands of the security apparatuses and everyone will be in embarrassing situation if this continues,'" the official added.

In this regard, secretary-general of the Palestinian resistance committees Kamal Al-Neirab called for necessarily protecting the resistance and ending political arrests.

Neirab made his remarks on Tuesday during the meeting that was attended in Cairo by senior officials of the Palestinian factions to sign the reconciliation agreement.

The head of the resistance committees also called for forming a body of Palestinian factions assigned to protect the Palestinian resistance according to a unified vision in order to confront the Zionist schemes.

For its part, the family committee of political detainees in West Bank jails demanded de facto president Mahmoud Abbas to end the political arrests and summonses in order to create an atmosphere for the success of the national reconciliation.

In a statement, the committee said the Fatah-affiliated security apparatuses' persistence in carrying out political arrest campaigns in the West Bank raises questions over the feasibility of the reconciliation and reflects attempts to frustrate the agreement in this regard.

It called for immediately releasing all political detainees from West Bank jails in order to prove good faith and thus prevent the Israeli occupation from hindering the reconciliation agreement.

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Haneyya calls for ending political arrest, media campaigns

[ 03/05/2011 - 12:20 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya called for closing the file of political detention, stopping all media campaigns and promoting the culture of national harmony between the Palestinians.

Haneyya during his meeting with chief editors of newspapers and director of satellite channels on Monday said his government is ready to respond to the reconciliation agreement and its entitlements.

He noted that the next government is only entitled to prepare for the presidential and legislative elections and work on reconstructing the bombed areas in Gaza and having the blockade lifted.

The premier stressed that the signing of the inter-Palestinian reconciliation agreement should not be the end of the road, but it should be a new stage of concerted efforts and good faith so as to achieve all the Palestinian people's aspirations.

Islamic Jihad: Fatah security keeps arresting our cadres in Tulkarem - Haneyya calls for end to West Bank political arrests as unity deal culminates

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Islamic Jihad: Fatah security keeps arresting our cadres in Tulkarem - Haneyya calls for end to West Bank political arrests as unity deal culminates

[ 02/05/2011 - 03:05 PM ]

TULKAREM, (PIC)-- The Islamic Jihad Movement said the Fatah-affiliated security apparatuses still arrest its cadres in Tulkarem city, north of the West Bank.

In a press release on Sunday, Islamic Jihad added that this persistence in arresting its cadres raises questions about the future of national relations.

"The political detention and the security coordination [with the Israeli occupation] always aroused considerable controversy at the domestic level and were a major cause of the failed reconciliation efforts previously, the Movement stated.

According to an official from the Movement, the Fatah-affiliated intelligence apparatus has been holding a number of Islamic Jihad members from Ateel village in Tulkarem for the third consecutive time without allowing their families and lawyers to see them.

All detainees held by the Fatah intelligence spent some time in Israeli jails.

The official called for refraining from this policy which is detrimental to the Palestinian people's interests and their internal relations.

He also demanded the Palestinian factions meeting in Cairo to issue a code of ethics prohibiting the political arrest and the security cooperation with the Israeli occupation and protecting the national constants and rights.

Haneyya calls for end to West Bank political arrests as unity deal culminates

[ 02/05/2011 - 03:10 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haneyya has called for a halt on West Bank political arrests as the national rift is about to end in national reconciliation.

Haneyya reiterated while meeting with several newspaper editors and TV stations in the Gaza Strip on Monday that the government in Gaza is willing to pave the way for reconciliation and urged all factions to sign the deal.

The premier also called on the PLO to retract its recognition of Israel and aid the resistance movement.

The statements came as Palestinian Authority security agencies continue an arrest campaign targeting Hamas's men in the West Bank.

Chief security officials in the West Bank have openly rejected the reconciliation deal and vowed to continue arresting Hamas's men.

Several men were summoned Monday for questioning in Nablus in the north. Two were arrested in Nablus and Bethlehem including a university lecturer.
Both of the men were previously detained by Israeli security services.

Separately, in Al-Khalil, PA security militias released journalist Ahmed Mohammed Halaika from Shuyoukh hours after was arrested during an interrogation.

• PA to hold municipal elections despite reconciliation deal

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Families of detainees want their sons free from PA jails

[ 01/05/2011 - 09:51 PM ]

WEST BANK, (PIC)-- Families of Palestinian detainees in PA jails in the West Bank said Sunday that the immediate release of their sons from jails would be the most important indicator and introduction to national reconciliation.

"despite the pains and agonies that still exist in the hearts of hundreds of Palestinian mothers, wives, and children of the political detainees in the PA jails, we welcome the Palestinian reconciliation that would unite our people again and would restore the Palestinian social fabric on the right track", said the committee of the detainees' families in a statement they issued Sunday.

They also confirmed that they have received promises from high-ranking Palestinian leaders that their loved ones would be released soon from jails, warning that any breach of those promises would constitute big blow to the reconciliation efforts.

Moreover, the committee urged media outlets to contribute into halting political detention by exposing any political arrests or summonses, calling for the immediate halt of such abhorred practice once and for all.

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Israel withholds PA tax revenues after Palestinian reconciliation

[ 01/05/2011 - 11:47 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israel has decided to freeze tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority in response to the reconciliation signed by ruling parties in Palestine.

Israel sees the unity agreement as a threat to the future of its relations with the PA as it has classified Hamas as a terrorist organization, the Israeli daily Ynet said on Sunday.

The occupation country fears that elections could put resistance forces in power.

Practical steps have already been taken to implement the decision to discontinue customs revenues, which constitute 37 percent of the PA's budget.

The talks involve monies collected by Israel through a customs duty imposed on Palestinian goods imported by land, air and sea, according to the Oslo Accords.

Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steints has insructed his staff not to attend a meeting scheduled Sunday with the PA's tax official to decide to transfer NIS 300m (around USD 89m) to the PA.

The position comes as Israeli professor Saul Meshal has predicted that if elections were to be held today they would result in a landslide victory for Hamas.

The expert said that the wave of Arab revolutions paired with the decline of Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas are working in favor of Hamas that currently runs the Gaza Strip.

He said one of the main reasons why Hamas maintains respect in the Gaza Strip is that the funds it receives are not distributed among its leaders but are shared with the needy through salaries, grants, and aid.

He also factored in that security agencies in the West Bank have proven notorious for waging war against freedoms and stopping peaceful protests as well as arresting hundreds of Hamas's men creating a situation of malice and insecurity.

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Insider: The Shin Bet chooses all PA security trainees

[ 23/04/2011 - 02:25 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- An insider of the de facto interior ministry in Ramallah city said the Shin Bet interferes in choosing the Palestinian trainees to be given training in the security or military field at home and abroad.

The source told the Palestinian information center (PIC) on condition of anonymity that the selection of participants in any security and military training courses requires that the Palestinian Authority (PA) send a list of their names to the US military envoy who checks it along with the Israeli side before making a new list approved by the Shin Bet.

This is not confined to the training courses provided by the CIA, but it includes all kinds of training which the PA police and security members receive in Arab and Islamic countries, the source added.

"Even those who are assigned training courses in Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Tunisia, and Algeria and other countries are subject to this Israeli security check through the American side," he affirmed.

He noted that the Israeli criteria in this context are clear that the trainees should not have directly or indirectly any kind of links to resistance activities against Israel or related to resistance fighters.

In a separate incident, the PA security militias kidnapped an ex-detainee called Mohsen Shareem from Qalqiliya city after releasing him from their jails.

Shareem suffers from diabetes and hypertension and was released by a court order due to his deteriorating medical condition.

• Palestinian man arrested in Al-Khalil Saturday morning
• Palestinian prisoners suffer amid medical neglect

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Qabaha urges Abbas to release Natsheh from jail

[ 22/04/2011 - 01:59 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Former minister of the prisoners and ex-prisoners Wasfi Qabaha has urged Thursday Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas to immediately release Palestinian businessman Nabil Al-Natsheh from PA jails.

According to Qabaha, the persistent detention of Palestinian leaders and prominent figures in the Palestinian community in PA jails contradicts the allegations of Fatah Movement of being keen on ending the Palestinian internal rift, stressing that Natsheh has an honorable record in serving the Palestinian people.

"Indeed, I expected that Abbas would order the release of all Palestinian political prisoners incarcerated in his jails across the West Bank on the Palestinian Prisoner Day, but sad to say it didn’t happen," Qabaha said in a statement he issued on Thursday.

He said that he passed a message of appeal through Palestinian prominent figure and businessman Munib Al-Masri on two occasion urging him to release Natsheh and other Muslim figures in Al-Khalil city, including Nedal Al-Qawasmi, Anas Rasras, Bilal Al-Muhtaseb, Zain Shabaneh, Anwar Haerb, Mohammed Al-Kharoof and others but to no avail.

Natsheh, according to Qabaha, suffers of neck cancer and that his health was badly deteriorating while in solitary confinement where he lives in extremely harsh conditions, underlining that the bad treatment and humiliation he received at the hands of the PA security forces couldn’t be grasped and imagined by the Palestinian people.

"The fact that the detention of Natsheh persisted despite all those appeals and in spite of his clean record indicates that there was indeed a group that doesn’t want to achieve the Palestinian national reconciliation.

In this regard, Qabaha called for the establishment of a wide and comprehensive national campaign to pressure the PA in Ramallah into releasing all political prisoners from jail, stressing that "chivalry and the principle of supporting the oppressed call on us to do so. "We can't accept the humiliation of the symbols of the Palestinian people at any cost," he stressed.

For their part, families of the kidnapped Palestinian citizens in Abbas’s jails didn’t buy the allegations of Fatah that it was striving hard to end the Palestinian internal rift, underscoring that he who indeed want to achieve national reconciliation shouldn’t arrest and torture his fellow Palestinians just because they oppose him politically.

Palestinian legislator MP Mohammed Abu Juhaisha, for his part, condemned the detention of Natsheh, stressing that Natsheh should be honored not denigrated, calling on high-profile and family leaders in Al-Khalil city to join hands in pressuring the PA into freeing him immediately and unconditionally.

Natsheh, who spent years in Israeli occupation jails and was among the 415 Palestinian leaders deported by the Israeli occupation authorities to south Lebanon in 1992, was kidnapped on December 7, 2010 at the hands of elements of the infamous preventive security apparatus in Al-Khalil city. No charges were tabled against him till now.

• Lawyer Essawi freed along with her two brothers from Israeli jails
• Palestinian captive placed into solitary because he asked to be treated as a POW

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Third intifada website bypasses Facebook closure - Abbas: I won't allow a new intifada

Abbas: I won't allow a new intifada

[ 20/04/2011 - 03:26 PM ]

TUNIS, (PIC)-- De facto Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said that he would not allow the outbreak of a new intifada (uprising) against Israeli occupation.

Abbas, speaking to Tunisian journalists on Wednesday during his current visit to Tunisia, said that as long as he remained president of the Palestinian Authority he would not allow the eruption of a new intifada.

"I won't allow any security or military flare-up in the West Bank or any other Palestinian area," he said, adding that he wants to preserve the life of the Palestinians. "Those who speak about resistance or armed intifada let them do that away from the Palestinian people," he said.

Abbas also said that the PA was interested in resuming serious negotiations with Israel over "key issues".

Third intifada website bypasses Facebook closure

[ 20/04/2011 - 02:13 PM ]

WASHINGTON, (PIC)-- Palestinian youths in the United States have launched a website similar to Facebook to support calls for a third intifada (uprising) against Israel on May 15 timed to commemorate the Palestinian Nakba.

The organizers said the site, dubbed Al-Quds Moon, was launched to support the ”struggle of the Palestinians to restore their full legitimate rights as stipulated by United Nations resolutions”.

They confirmed the site does not follow the agendas of any political parties, but only the Palestinians in the occupied territories, according to the introduction page.

They added that the site is not subject to the control as was the case for a popular similar websites hosted by Facebook; and it cannot be blocked by U.S. authorities because it supports a peaceful uprising.

The organizers also clarified that the page is not a substitute for the multiple Facebook pages serving the same cause. ”It is complementary to these efforts,” they said, ”and it could serve as a substitute if the Facebook administration shuts the pages down.”

The site has many of the same features as Facebook and allows members to create groups, upload photos and post videos as well as to write blogs and chat using voice and image.

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90% of detained Palestinian minors tortured in Israeli jails

[ 19/04/2011 - 05:04 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- The Palestine branch of the international movement for the defense of children said in a statement on Tuesday that 90% of Palestinian minors detained in Israel were tortured one way or another.

It said the Israeli occupation forces rounded up 1000 Palestinians less than 18 years old during 2010 mostly in Jerusalem and areas adjacent to the separation wall.

It said that by the end of 2010 around 213 of those minors were still in custody and the number increased to 226 by March 2011.

The legal coordinator of the movement lawyer Iyad Misk said that 700 Palestinian minors from the West Bank face trials each year at the hands of the Israeli occupation authority after detention and interrogation.

1. Relatives of prisoners appeal for allowing visits
2. Israeli prison administration forces women prisoners to wear orange costume
3. PA militias kidnap three Hamas members in W. Bank
   

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Six Palestinians kidnapped in West Bank raids, Six citizens from Hamas taken prisoners by W. Bank militias

[ 18/04/2011 - 02:17 PM ]

WEST BANK, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) kidnapped at dawn Monday six Palestinians from different West Bank areas.

The Hebrew radio said the Israeli army stormed at an earlier hour the cities of Al-Khalil, Bethlehem, Nablus and Ramallah and ransacked homes before detaining six Palestinians claimed to be wanted by the intelligence.

Local sources from Dura and Surif towns in Al-Khalil told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that two Hamas-affiliated Palestinians from Awawdeh family were kidnapped separately today.

The IOF carry out daily raids on West Bank cities and villages during which all security elements of the Palestinian authority are ordered to return to their headquarters until the invading Israeli soldiers finish their missions.

Six citizens from Hamas taken prisoners by W. Bank militias

[ 18/04/2011 - 02:24 PM ]

WEST BANK, (PIC)-- The Fatah-affiliated security militias in the West Bank are still persistent in their divisive acts and their security cooperation with Israel culminating their latest raids with the kidnapping of two Hamas-affiliated citizens in Nablus and Qalqiliya cities.

According to local sources on Monday, the militias kidnapped an ex-detainee called Khaled Assussa from Nablus. He previously spent two years in a Palestinian authority jail.

In Qalqiliya, they also detained a student called Mu'ad Barri, still pursuing his higher studies at Annajah university, after summoning him for interrogation. He was an ex-detainee in PA jail.

Citizen Omar Mara'I from Bani Hassan village in Salfit city still suffers from harassment by PA militias who summoned him yesterday for interrogation for the third consecutive week.

In a separate report, the PA preventive security in Nablus summoned ex-detainee Ammar Assad following his release from an Israeli jail. He spent eight years behind Israeli bars and was released a week ago.


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Family of cancer patient appeals for releasing him from PA jail

[ 14/04/2011 - 12:44 PM ]

Al-KHALIL, (PIC)-- The family of prisoner Nabil Al-Natsha, detained by the Palestinian authority preventive security, appealed to human rights organizations and the Palestinian leadership to intervene to have him released, especially since he suffers from cancer.

His family said that Natsha has been in isolation cell for four months at the preventive security headquarters and in dire need for continuing medical treatment.

Meanwhile PA militia men from the preventive security kidnapped at dawn Thursday Sheikh Abdulkarim Halayka, 55, from his home in Al-Shyukh village, east of Al-Khalil city.

Earlier on Wednesday, militias from the intelligence apparatus broke into and ransacked the house of Hamas leader and ex-detainee Hasan Al-Wardiyan in Bethlehem city.

Local sources told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that a group of intelligence officers stormed the house of Wardiyan at 10 o'clock in the evening and wreaked havoc inside it.

They said the militias confiscated private documents and CDs, and handed his family a summons for interrogation at the intelligence headquarters in the city.

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PA prisoners' families call for their release

[ 13/04/2011 - 04:01 PM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- With Palestinian Prisoner Day coming next Sunday, the families of Palestinians held by the Palestinian Authority security agencies in the West Bank have renewed calls for the freedom of their relatives and to turn the pages of the past.

The PA currently holds more than 500 of such men in its prisons as the de facto PA chief Mahmoud Abbas has made fresh calls for a unity government with Hamas.

"Prisoner Day calls for us to turn the pages of the past and open a new page of brotherly ties and to pave the way for reconciliation and an end to the split by releasing those who have been abducted and held as political prisoners," said Mohammed Natshe, whose brother from Al-Khalil is currently held by the PA.

”It is irrational that Prisoner Day events are held and that the day gets special mention in West Bank schools without mentioning the suffering of more than 500 prisoners in the PA who are held on the same charges as the more than 6,000 male and 40 female prisoners in the Israeli prisons,” he said.

Separately, a Palestinian youth movement to end the Palestinian political split has condemned the PA security agencies after they destroyed a sit-in tent the movement set up in the West Bank city of Salfit. The militia men also summoned the activists to conduct investigations.

According to a statement released by the youth movement, the militia men engaged in a number of actions that clearly displayed ”tyranny and suppression of freedoms”. The PA intelligence service also summoned some of those activists for questioning.

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