OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC and AGENCIES)– International condemnation of the Israeli arrest of 33 Hamas leaders including the Minister of Education a number of elected representatives and elected mayors is gathering momentum.
Voices of condemnation came from the Arab and Islamic world as well as Europe and the USA.
Indonesia the biggest Muslim country condemned on Friday the arrests through the spokesman of the ministry Kriatianto Legowo who said that such kind of arbitrary act could draw new tension and escalate conflicts in the region.
The Indonesian government condemns the arbitrary acts of the Israeli authorities which detained 33 leaders of Hamas he told a press briefing in Jakarta.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini on Friday strongly denounced the detention of Palestinian MPs and cabinet ministers.
Hosseini added in a Foreign Ministry communiqué on the matter “The Zionist regime’s intensified violations of the human rights is blatant norm breaking and shameless violation of the most natural human rights.”
The Swedish Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Bildt on Friday called on the Israeli occupation government to immediately release the detained Palestinian leaders and expressed fears that the deteriorating situation the Gaza Strip could affect the entire region.
He also said that such mass arrests of Palestinian politicians shrink the possibility of having a “constructive political process”.
He called on the Israeli occupation government to respect International Law and on the PA government to act to stop the firing of missiles at Israeli settlements.
He also announced that he will be visiting the Middle East soon to try and calm the escalation which is prevailing in the region.
The French Foreign Ministry for its part called on the Israeli occupation government to release the detained Palestinian officials.
Even the USA Israel’s guardian ally expressed concern at the Israeli measure through the State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey who told reporters on Thursday that even though the United States views Hamas as a terrorist organization that is engaged in ongoing attacks against Israel Israel should consider the effects of its own actions on peace efforts.
“The detention of elected members of the Palestinian government and legislature does raise particular concerns for us” Casey said.
“Our approach to the Israelis on these kinds of issues has always been to stress that while we understand and respect Israel’s need to defend itself we do wish to have them take into consideration the consequences of their actions” he said.
The U.N.’s special envoy to the Middle East Michael Williams also said on Thursday he was “troubled” by Israel’s arrest of the Palestinian education minister and other Hamas legislators.
“Of course legislators cannot be immune from the law. But what worries me is that in most cases as I understand it there haven’t been any charges…let alone trials” Williams added referring to Israel’s arrest of Hamas lawmakers last year.
Chair of Britain-Palestine all-party parliamentary group Friday condemned Israel’s latest kidnapping of elected Palestinian representatives and government ministers as both “illegal and counterproductive.”
In a letter to the Guardian Friday he said that during his visit with four parliamentary colleagues he met Palestinian education minister Nasser al-Shaer who was kidnapped along with other Palestinian leaders and officials.
“By seizing such people Israel is only making matters worse. What the Education Minister wanted to talk to us about “was not how to go to war with Israel but how to promote a durable peace between Israelis and Palestinians” Burden said.
“What they are doing is illegal and MPs here have raised the issue with the Inter-Parliamentary Union which upholds the rights of elected parliamentarians to do their jobs free from persecution” the Labour MP also said.
