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Welcome to Palestine Today, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, www.imemc.org for Thursday April 26, 2012.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights campaigns for the right of detainees of the Internal Security Service to be visited by their lawyers, and Palestinian Presidency Spokesperson states that “words about the willingness to achieve peace” are not sufficient to realize this peace on the ground. These stories and more coming up, so stay tuned.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) is concerned over the restrictions imposed by the Internal Security Service (ISS) against lawyers’ visits to their clients, who are detained at detention centers of the ISS, which is a clear violation of legal principles.
In the past few days, PCHR’s lawyers tried to visit a number of their clients held in these detention centers in accordance with a verbal agreement recently reached with the Director of Central Detention at ISS.
However after not receiving a reply to a recent request, lawyers headed to the detention centre and were denied access to two of the detainees.
PCHR warns against the impact of obstructing the detainees’ visits at ISS detention centers. It also reiterates its concerns that those restrictions were imposed on illegal grounds and possibly used to hide torture and other forms of cruel treatment practices against detainees.
Meanwhile at Ramla Prison Hospital, Palestinian political prisoner, Tha’er Halahla, entered his 58th day of hunger-strike despite warnings from prison doctors that his body is losing its immune system and his organs might be failing.
Despite his deteriorating health condition, Halahla told his lawyer that he is determined to continue his strike until Israel lifts the administrative detention order against him, and called on human rights groups to pay attention to the miserable conditions sick detainees are subject to at the Ramla Prison Hospital.
Halahla is from Kharas village, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron; he was kidnapped by the army in June 2010, and has been held under administrative detention without charge since this time.
And finally, Palestinian Presidency Spokesperson, Nabil Abu Rodeina, stated that “words about the willingness to achieve peace” are not sufficient to realize this peace on the ground, adding that Israel talks about peace but continues to build illegal settlements.
His statements came in response to a statement made by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who told CNN that “he is willing to reach a peace agreement that establishes an independent Palestinian State”.
Abu Rodeina said that if Israel is really interested in peace it must stop all of its illegal settlement activities, especially in occupied Jerusalem, in addition to dismantling its settlements under any peace agreement with the Palestinians.
He further stated that Israel must clearly announce its acceptance to the two-state solution based on the boarders of June 4, 1967, and all related international resolutions, including the full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories, and the Right of Return of the Palestinian refugees.
“Should Israel start acting within International Law and all related United Nations and Security Council resolutions, the Palestinians will be fully willing to return to the negotiations table, and reach a comprehensive peace agreement “, Abu Rodeina concluded.
All Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, including those in and around Israeli controlled East Jerusalem, are illegal under international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention to which Israel is a signatory.
And that’s all for today from IMEMC News. This was the Thursday April 26th daily roundup of news from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www.imemc.org. Today’s report has been brought to you by Husam Qassis and me Sarah Steele.
