Al Mezan Welcomes Dr. Aziz Dweik to Freedom and Hopes his Presence will Activate the Role of the Palestinian Legislative Council and Advance Internal Dialogue

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have released Dr.
Aziz Dweik, speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), after imprisoning him for nearly three years after an Israeli military court ruling imposed on Dr.
Dweik a 36 month prison sentence, a 24 month probationary period and a NIS 6000 fine.
  The IOF arrested Dr.
Dweik after surrounding and then searching his house in Ramallah at around 9.
30pm on Saturday 5 August 2006.
The arrest of Dr.
Dweik came in the context of an arrests campaign targeting PLC members and ministers of the tenth Palestinian government with the IOF arresting eight ministers and 21 PLC members at dawn on Thursday 29 June 2006.
  Al Mezan Center for Human Rights welcomes Dr.
Dweik to freedom and renews its condemnation of IOF arrest operations targeting representatives of the Palestinian people and its political leadership.
According to Israeli government statements at that time, these arrests were conducted for political bargaining.
The arrests form a part of IOF policy aimed at consolidating the absence of the rule of law in the occupied Palestinian territory and undermining the role of the PLC.
This has led to a further deterioration in the human rights situation.
  Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights would like to emphasize that the speaker of the PLC has regained his freedom at the most difficult time in the history of the Palestinian people.
Therefore, Al Mezan looks forward to an effective role for Dr.
Dweik in bridging differences between the Fatah and Hamas movements in order to forward internal dialogue and end the internal Palestinian political division along with its implications - at their forefront political arrests and the targeting of individuals based on political affiliation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
It is the people who are paying the price of this situation, especially members of the Fatah and Hamas movements.
    Al Mezan also stresses the need for the freed PLC speaker to reconsider the role of the PLC in oversight, accountability and law making, and not to consider legal the laws or law-decrees issued that were driven by the division.
  Al Mezan urges that the issue of prisoners be given the attention it deserves, especially in terms of imprisoned representatives of the Palestinian people.
This issue must be prioritized by the Palestinian Authority and all political parties.
    Ends