Press Release,
As a direct result of ICSPR’s follow-up of the file of violations against Palestinian deputies …
The International Commission (ICSPR): welcomes the decisions of the International Parliamentary Union and calls for pressure on the Israeli occupation authorities to release the deputies in their prisons.
The International Commission to Support Palestinians’ Rights (ICSPR) followed with great interest the adoption of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in its 206th session during the virtual extraordinary session held on 3 November 2020 in Geneva. Two decisions in which the Board of Directors of the Inter-Parliamentary Union expressed its concern about conditions of detention in Israeli prisons, especially for Mr. Marwan Barghouti and Mr. Ahmed Saadat, given the limited number of visits they have received since 2017.
It is reported that the Board of Directors of the Inter-Parliamentary Union annually adopts important decisions related to the Palestinian parliamentary life, the most important of which are the six decisions issued at the 203rd session held in Geneva on 18 October 2018, as the decisions confirmed the illegality of the Israeli occupation forces ’continued detention of MP Marwan Barghouti and MP Ahmed Saadat, who are subjected to torture, ill-treatment and other acts of violence during their arbitrary arrest and detention, especially with the absence of fair trial procedures, and it condemned again the Israeli policies towards deputies and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council in the West Bank and Jerusalem, especially the policy of arbitrary detention, administrative detention, inhuman detention conditions, failure to follow legal procedures, absence of fair trials, and imposing house arrest against a large number of deputies and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council; it also expressed concern about the lifting of the immunity of 13 members of the Legislative Council by a presidential decision; the lack of respect for the parliamentary immunity of MPs, the absence of the rule of law and separation of powers, the violation of freedom of opinion and expression, the violation of freedom of movement and travel, and the cutting of the salaries of some deputies in an unjustified political retaliation.
ICSPR affirms that these two decisions came as a direct result of its follow-up of the total violations that the deputies of the Legislative Council are subjected to with the Inter-Parliamentary Union and other international bodies concerned, ICSPR declares its continued work with the Inter-Parliamentary Union, especially the Human Rights Committee, and hoping that the Inter-Parliamentary Union will work hard to put these decisions and recommendations into practice, and at the very least to declare a boycott and withdrawal of the Israeli Knesset membership from the union, therefore:
- ICSPR commends the efforts of the International Parliament, and calls on it to work hard to draw the attention of the international community to the serious Israeli violations against the deputies and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
- ICSPR calls on the Inter-Parliamentary Union, to work hard to secure the immediate release of the detained deputies in the Israeli military occupation.
- ICSPR warns of the consequences of continuing violations by the Palestinian Executive Authority interventions in the work of the Legislative Council, and calls on it to work hard to stop the violations against Legislative Council deputies and to work for the abolition of decisions to withdraw immunity and decisions not to pay employees’ salaries.
- ICSPR calls for action to stop the deterioration in the political system, and end the state of division and restore national unity on the basis of partnership and the rule of law, in order to ensure the rebuilding of the Palestinian political system with its three powers on constitutional, consensual, and participatory democracy, and to work to prepare the environment for Presidential, legislative and National Assembly elections as soon as possible to get out of the deep crisis afflicting the political system.
