Palestinian and Arab MPs expressed on Sunday their condemnation of the Israeli kidnapping of Palestinian MPs describing it as “political piracy and confiscation of democracy”.
During a seminar held in Gaza they stressed that kidnapping MPs is a flagrant violation of the international law and human rights pointing to the Israeli crime of kidnaping the Palestinian MP Samira Halaiqa and holding her in administrative detention despite her bad health condition.
The head of the Change and Reform bloc Mahmoud al-Zahhar said that kidnapping Halaiqa confirms that Israel does not take law into account affirming that kidnapping and attacking the Palestinian MPs indicate that “they are following the right path”.
Zahhar lashed out at the Arab silence vis-à-vis such violations and denounced the “Western hypocrisy” that champions democracy while remaining tight-lipped towards the Israeli violations of Palestinian democracy.
For his part the MP from the Fatah bloc Ashraf Jumaa said that 12 Palestinian MPs are in Israeli custody charging that their incarceration infringes the Palestinian people’s right of electing their representatives.
Jumaa called on all parliamentary blocs to stand together to respond to these violations practiced against members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC).
MP Hasan Khreisha said that the Israeli occupation started an arrest campaign in 2006 against the Palestinian MPs including the PLC speaker without clear justifications pointing out that Palestinian MPs have no immunity under the Israeli occupation. He called for imposing sanctions on Israel and boycotting it for such crimes.
The Algerian MP al-Bashir Jarallah representing “Parliamentarians for Jerusalem” affirmed that Israel violates the international law and the parliamentary immunity by kidnapping Halaiqa and other Palestinian MPs.
Jarallah called for prosecuting the Israeli occupation authority and criminalizing its practices.
The Palestinian MP Khalil al-Hayya stressed that the PLC is the best representative of the Palestinian people that must be protected asking the Palestinian presidency and government to stand for the kidnapped MPs.
