PCHR Condemns Detention of PLC Speaker, Dr. Aziz Dwaik, and PLC Member Khaled Thwaib

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the detention of the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), Dr. Aziz Dwaik, and PLC Member Khaled Tafish, both from the Change and Reform Bloc affiliated to Hamas. PCHR believes that this measure is a continuation of targeting the elected PLC Members following the Palestinian legislative elections of 2006. PCHR views such detentions as a retaliatory act and a form of collective punishment prohibited under Article 33 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 1949.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 20:30 on Thursday, 19 January 2012, as Dr. Aziz Salem Murtada Dwaik, 63, Speaker of the PLC, was on his way from his work in Ramallah back to his house in Hebron. Israeli soldiers stationed at Jaba’ checkpoint, northeast of occupied Jerusalem, stopped the car in which he was traveling together with his driver, the director of his office. Israeli soldiers forced the three to step down from the car and seized their ID cards. Approximately 10 minutes later, Israeli soldiers informed Dr. Dwaik that he was being detained, and ordered his driver and the director of his office to leave the area. Israeli soldiers were seen handcuffing and blindfolding Dr. Dwaik and forcing him to get into a military jeep that traveled away from the area. This morning, it was revealed that Dr. Dwaik was taken to Ofar detention facility, southwest of Ramallah.

At approximately 03:00 on Friday, 20 January 2012, Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) moved into Za’tara village, southeast of Bethlehem. They raided the house of PLC Member Khaled Ibrahim Tafish Thwaib, 48. According to Thwaib’s wife, Aaisha Jameel Thwaib, 50, IOF raided the house and after verifying the ID cards of members of the family, they forced her husband out. They held him under the rain, and held his five sons in one room. Aaisha Jameel insisted on being present while Israeli soldiers were searching the house. IOF confiscated PLC Members Thwaib’s mobile phone, laptop and phone book, a hard disk of a computer set and some documents relating to his work. They then handcuffed and blindfolded him and transported him in a military jeep to an unknown destination. On the following day, it was revealed that he was taken to Ofar detention facility, southwest of Ramallah.

With the detention of the PLC Speaker and PLC Member Thwaib, the number of PLC Members detained by IOF has mounted to 26, the majority of whom are from the Change and Reform Bloc affiliated to Hamas. It is worth noting that such detentions are part of an ongoing Israeli campaign against PLC Members from the Change and Reform Bloc, ministers and members of local councils in the West Bank since late June 2006, after Hamas has won the majority of seats in the PLC in the Palestinian elections of January 2006.

PCHR condemns the detention of the PLC Speaker and PLC Member Thwaib, and:

1. Emphasizes that such detentions are part of a plan to undermine the results of the Palestinian legislative elections, which were organized in a fair and democratic atmosphere on 25 January 2006;

2. Reiterates that such detentions constitute a form of retaliatory acts and collective punishment against the civilian population, prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention; and

3. Calls for the immediate release of the PLC Speaker and all Ministers and PLC Members who have been detained in Israeli jails.