MP Ramadan warns ongoing West Bank arrests could 'detonate' unity deal

[ 04/05/2011 - 12:16 PM ]

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Palestinian MP Nazzar Ramadan warned that continued arrests targeting Hamas in the West Bank could detonate Hamas-Fatah unity talks.

West Bank security services rounded up four Hamas men in Nablus, Ramallah, and Al-Khalil and summoned dozens, as ruling parties gathered in Cairo to sign a deal that would end the Palestinian split.

He said it is inconceivable to stand in the way as Hamas and Fatah embark on the historic event.

Reconciliation has been a popular, national demand, he said. An atmosphere must be created to restore confidence in the involved parties.

"How can political cooperation succeed in the management of national affairs if the painful past is not forgotten and we don't return things how they were,” he said. ”Aren't the arrests, summonses, and raids by Palestinians against their brother Palestinians a time bomb that will explode reconciliation talks?”

"The past years that Palestinians have lived in division have had a negative impact on our culture and political discourse and our foreign relations and our prestige and reputation,” he explained.

He said that efforts must be made by everyone to create a suitable atmosphere so that the fate of the unity deal does not turn out like that of the one signed in Makkah.

Gaza Celebrates Reconciliation

Palestinian youth in Gaza celebrate the reconciliation signed between Palestinian factions, including Fatah and Hamas movements.

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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.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

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

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

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

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

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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