As part of its continuous aggression against Palestinians, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have continued to arrest members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and other political leaders.
 This coincides with Israel’s forced eviction and displacement of thousands of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, while Jewish families are simultaneously encouraged to take up residence in emptied Palestinian houses and Jewish-only settlements.
 These acts come amidst the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip and the ongoing attacks there.
 Most recently, the IOF arrested Dr.
Aziz Dweik, speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), raising the number of PLC detainees to 25.
  According to sources with the Change and Reform Bloc, Hamas’s political party in Gaza and the West Bank, on Thursday 19 January 2012, the IOF arrested Dr.
Dweik while he was at an Israeli checkpoint northeast of Jerusalem.
 Dr.
Dweik was on his way from Ramallah to Hebron after meeting with South Africa’s representative to the Palestinian Authority when he was arrested.
 The IOF compelled Dr.
Dweik to get out of his car and then handcuffed and blindfolded him before taking him to an unknown location.
  It’s worth noting that this is the second time Dr.
Dweik has been detained.
 The IOF arrested Dweik in August 2006 and released him in September 2009 after he had served three years’ imprisonment following an Israeli military court ruling imposing a 36-month prison sentence, 24-month probationary period, and NIS 6000 fine.
  A few hours after Dr.
Dweik’s arrest, in the morning hours of Friday 20 January 2012, the IOF surrounded and broke into the house of Khalid Tafish, a PLC member.
 Tafish had previously served three years in prison from August 2006, when the IOF launched a campaign of arrests against members of the PLC, elected municipal councils, and government ministers.
 The IOF continues to hold Ahmed Sa’adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and Marwan Barghouthi, a Fatah PLC member.
  The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights strongly condemns the arrest of Dr.
Dweik, PLC members, and other Palestinian leaders.
 Al Mezan reiterates its previous condemnation of Israel’s systematic and grave violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) against the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).
 Al Mezan views the arrest of PLC members and political leaders as a violation of IHL and international human rights law.
  Al Mezan further deplores the timing of this arrest, which comes just as a positive atmosphere had begun to prevail in the Palestinian reconciliation process.
 Arresting Dr.
Dweik will hinder the democratic process in the oPt, as Dweik is an important personality pushing the Palestinian reconciliation process forward.
  Al Mezan calls on the international community to promptly intervene and to oblige Israel to respect IHL and human rights principles in its dealings with Palestinians in the oPt.
 Al Mezan also calls on parliaments around the world to intervene and to exert political and diplomatic pressure to release Dr.
Dweik and other PLC members and political leaders.
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