GREAT NEWS!!! 9 PLC members will be freed from Israeli Prisons!!

[mary <humdrum2 at libero.it>]

There is finally a piece of great good news to celebrate. After 3 long years of imprisonment after their kidnapping, 9 (well, we still have a long way to go, but we will not give up now!!!) members of the Palestinian Parliament (The Palestinian Legislative Council), are going to be released from their illegal imprisonment in Israeli Jails. This is indeed joyous news, and it is - at least for us activists - an important sign that what we do counts and that we have to concentrate our efforts on keeping these issues on the table, fighting for them and making sure that legality and real justice prevails.

This issue of extremely serious overthrowing of democratic principles and violation of human rights had seemingly been kept under wraps while we were witnessing other barbarities (naturally, through the Israeli filter which framed the war as a retaliation to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers). It occurred in concommitance with the atrocity of the war against Lebanon - which itself covered the dropping of experimental weapons of mass destruction on the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, so it is not surprising that this gross violation of all that democracy should stand for, allowing elected officials to govern their own people to be kidnapped in the middle of the night, thrown into foreign jails and turning off the lights about it, became a non-issue.

Every day and night that these men and women are separated from their loved ones and from their people and their duty of administrating their land is an insult to democracy and another instrument of torture that we all will pay a dear price for. Yet, the revival of interest in this issue, I believe, has been important, and the efforts that activists around the world have made to turning the lights on has been quite possibly an element that we can consider relevant to this turn of events.

The International Campaign for the Release of the Abducted Members of the Palestinian Legislative Council has brought the international public to the awareness of this crime, PTT and other sites, the chance to mention this campaign in my intervention on the Press TV show, as well as the dedicated letter writing and dissemination of this by activists around the world who joined this campaign may have played a part in this first step towards total liberation from the hell of Israeli jails of not only the PLC members, the cabinet members and the municipal governors, but it will one day lead to the freedom of all Palestinian political prisoners.

So, in announcing this momentous event, I wish to ask all of us to not let down the gauntlet now, but rather, to insist upon this and all of our campaigns, because evidently, public awareness and pressure do have an effect on reality and the shame Israel brings upon itself by imprisoning foreign elected officials should be brought to the general public whom Israel depends upon keeping well in the dark.
 Long live the people of Palestine!

Palestinian MPs and Cabinet members STILL in Israeli jails after illegal abduction UPDATE!!!

By
Mary Rizzo
• Aug 28th, 2009 at 23:25 • Category:
Action
Alert,
Biography
,

Counter-terrorism, No thanks!,
Israel,
Newswire,
Palestine
,
Petitions
,

Resistance

UPDATE! ISRAEL WILL RELEASE NINE PLC MEMBERS!
Ramallah – Ma'an – Israel has decided to release nine Hamas lawmakers
from prison, a Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) official confirmed
on Wednesday.

According to PLC Secretary Mahmoud Ar-Ramahi, the members slated for
release are: Khalid Abu Hassan, Khalid Yahiya, and Ibrahim Dahbour of
Jenin, Reyad Radad from Tulkarem, Imad Nufel of Qalqiliya, Nasser Abed
Al-Jawad of Salfit, Yaser Mansour and Hassan Al-Burini of Nablus, and
Muhammad Abu Jahsheh of Hebron.

The release lowers the number of Hamas deputies still in detention to 23.
Seven of the remaining members are spending time in administrative
detention. Prominent Fatah and leftist lawmakers also remain in
prison.

Ar-Ramahi said that even with this release of these men, the council
still faces obstacles in ending two years of political stalemate. “The
problem of the Legislative Council is political and not a legal
problem," he said, adding that he hoped that all internal
differences will be solved

According to Ar-Ramahi, the released were greeted in Hebron before being
transported to their home cities. source:

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=223171

Israel has many thousands of Palestinian political prisoners locked up in
their jails. Men, women, even children are deprived of their freedom and
forced to live in a cage precisely because of their love of justice and
freedom. Among these prisoners are 21 Palestinian Members of Parliament
(Palestinian Legislative Council) and 8 Cabinet Ministers. Shocking but
true, these people are still locked away in prison cells three years
after their night-time abduction as if they were criminals! In what
country would this be condoned or permitted? The international community
exhibits a deafening silence, but let's not forget these men and women
who lost their liberty because their people voted them into office
against the desires of Israel. We have to keep these prisoners in the
public eye, let them know they are not abandoned and that their freedom
will come. Let's sign the endorsement letter of the campaign and
especially, add their plight to our campaigning work so that the world is
aware that Israel abducts Parliament members of another government, jails
them and keeps the world silent about it.

 From the International Campaign for Releasing Abducted Members of
Parliament (Free PLC) site:

Three years have passed since PLC members were abducted by Israeli
occupation forces before the eyes and the hearing of the world in a
dangerous precedent as a political crime and in atrocious violation of
the principles of international law and Geneva Fourth Convention, besides
trespassing the rules of democracy and principles of respecting the
people's wills.

Israeli occupation insists on violating the dignity of democracy and even
trying it through its persistence in abducting the MPs and prosecuting
them and going too far in extending their unlawful imprisonment after its
end with the aim of keeping them behind the prison bars during all the
parliamentary term.

Out of our care for peace among people, our respect for their will to
choose their representatives and for consolidating the rules of the free
democratic and parliament action, our decisive rejection of the abducting
and trying of MPs which has been a trial of democracy and abducing of its
consequences, our awareness of the fact that the place of those abducted
MPs in not jail but their parliamentary seats for which the Palestinian
people have chosen them through the ballot boxes, we have decided to
conduct the International campaign for freeing the abducted MPs in
continuation of efforts exerted in defense of this cause and to unite the
abilities of the parliamentarians and freemen of the world so as to
ensure the dawn of freedom for the abducted MPs.

In this campaign we are keen on sending the following telegrams:

First: our decisive rejection of the Israeli piracy and harsh
intervention in the internal Palestinian affairs and the incessant
attempts to change the Palestinian political map through the abducting of
MPs and blowing up the democratic choice.

Second: the necessity of the World Community's movement to protect human
values and democratic morals and confront Israeli violation of
International conventions and agreements.

Third: inviting all parliamentarians and free personalities of the world
to join the international campaign for freeing the abducted MPs and bear
their responsibility in defending democracy and to form a world public
opinion pressing for releasing the PLC members and incriminating this
serious Israeli policy.
Document of liberty

Out of our desire to see peace prevailing all over the world, our
keenness to have mutual respect among all the peoples of the Earth and
our observance of the results of the democratic process and the peaceful
exchange of authority, we declare our rejection of kidnapping of the
elected Palestinian members of parliament which has been a dangerous
precedent and an atrocious violation of international laws and
conventions.

We warn that this silence towards such crime means directing a
deathblow to democracy, social peace and world peace, it means a threat
to stability in the world and empowering the law of the jungle which
trespasses civilized development and modern human regulations.

We hereby call on the world community the human rights organizations
and all those who are able to practice pressure an the Israeli occupation
to act seriously and effectively for the prompt release of the symbols of
Palestinian legitimacy, the members of parliament.

And jointly let us act for the freeing of Palestinian members of
parliament kidnapped in the prison of Israeli
occupation.      

http://www.freeplc.org/ (in English
and Arabic)
http://www.freeplc.org/en/home.php?page=c2hvd1RocmVhZA==&id=NA==&type=Zml4ZWQ
=

SIGN THE SUPPORT DOCUMENT:

http://www.freeplc.org/en/home.php?page=Z3Vlc3RCb29r 

See also: for background

http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=10670&CategoryId=2

Jerusalem, 29 June 2006: The Palestinian Initiative for the
Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH) is deeply alarmed at
the escalating situation in the occupied Palestinian territories
following Israel’s abduction of 21 Palestinian members of parliament (PLC
members) and 8 cabinet ministers from the West Bank late last night and
during the early hours of this morning.

In a wide-scale assault against various Palestinian cities and towns in
the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army launched a wave of abductions
against what it called “members of a terrorist organization,” which
included senior political figures from the democratically-elected Hamas
government and PLC members, as well as members of other Palestinian
political groups.

The arrested ministers are: Mohammed al-Barghouthi - Minister of Labor,
Omar Abdul Razeq - Minister of Finance, Samir Abu Eisheh - Minister of
Planning, Wasfi Kabaha - Minister for Prisoners Affairs, Nayef Rjoub -
Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs, Khaled Abu Arafeh - Minister for
Jerusalem Affairs, Issa al-Ja'bari - Minister of Local
Government.

The arrested members of parliament include: Ahmad Attoun - PLC member
(Jerusalem), Mohammed Abu Teir - PLC member (Jerusalem), Wael al-Husseini
- PLC member (Jerusalem), Anwar Zboun - PLC member (Bethlehem), Mahmoud
al-Khatib - PLC member (Bethlehem), Riyadh Raddad - PLC member
(Tulkarem)

The Israeli army also arrested the mayor of the northern West Bank city
of Qalqilya, Wajih Qawwas, and his deputy Hashem al-Masri.

In addition to the above, Israeli military forces abducted 30 other
Palestinian activists throughout the West Bank.

The Israeli government has downplayed claims that it carried out the wave
of abductions in an attempt to bargain the release of Gilad Shalit, an
Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian resistance fighters in the Gaza
Strip last Sunday. Shalit was taken hostage during a military operation
against Israel’s occupation and in response to the wave of terrorist
attacks by the Israeli army against the Gaza Strip last month, which
claimed the lives of at least 20 Palestinian civilians, including 7
members of the same family.

MIFTAH equally expresses grave concern regarding Israel’s premeditated
military offensive campaign against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza
Strip, which began early Wednesday with a wave of air and ground attacks,
so far resulting in the complete destruction of basic infrastructure in
the Strip, including the cut off of electricity from the southern Gaza
districts.

There are serious fears among the civilian Palestinian population in the
Gaza Strip that Israel’s aggression in the coming days will aim to
inflict unprecedented degrees of pain and destruction, particularly in
the Rafah district. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has condemned
Israel’s military offensive and called it “collective
punishment.”

MIFTAH calls on the international community to take immediate steps in
order to prevent a serious humanitarian crisis in the already
impoverished and shattered Gaza Strip, and urges governmental and
non-governmental organizations to intervene to bring an end to Israel’s
punitive measures against the civilian population of the occupied
Palestinian territories, particularly in the Gaza Strip.

MIFTAH also calls for the immediate release of all Palestinian cabinet
ministers, PLC members, and activists, and calls upon the international
community to hold Israel accountable for its violation of their immunity
as elected members of the Palestinian political leadership.

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and
Democracy, MIFTAH, is a non-governmental, non-partisan Jerusalem-based
institution dedicated to fostering democracy and good governance within
Palestinian society through promoting public accountability,
transparency, the free flow of information and ideas and the challenging
of stereotyping at home and abroad.

For further information, please contact:
Media and Information Programme, MIFTAH
Tel: +972 2 585 1842
Fax: +972 2 583 5184
E-mail: mip at miftah.org
Website: www.miftah.org

 

The International campaign for freeing kidnapped members of
parliament

"A political crime and Fettered Democracy"