MPs call for immediate release of detained Palestinian parliamentarians

27 MPs call for the immediate release of the elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council detained by Israel, in a letter to the Guardian on Wednesday 13 September.

An Israeli military court ruled today (Tuesday 12 September) that 18 Palestinian Legislative Council members, including three cabinet members, should be released from custody, following their abduction and imprisonment by Israel.

However, the judge ruled that the implementation of this would be deferred until Thursday so prosecutors could appeal, and the release order does not apply to all the abducted Palestinian parliamentarians.

This decision follows international pressure, including from the Inter Parliamentary Union and MPs in Britain, 27 of whom, from the Labour Party, Conservative Party, Liberal Democrat Party and the Scottish National Party, have expressed their concern that the abduction and imprisonment of the Palestinian parliamentarians as an ’attack on the fundamental principles of democracy’, and have called for the immediate release of those parliamentarians. Their statement is below.

For further details:
Sarah Colborne, Palestine Solidarity Campaign: 07971 424296

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Imprisonment of elected members of Palestinian Legislative Council

Israel has abducted and imprisoned 33 democratically elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council including the Speaker, and five ministers, including the Deputy Prime Minister.

We consider the imprisonment of democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian Authority by Israel as an attack on the fundamental
principles of democracy.

The Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006 were declared as
fair by international observers including former US president Jimmy Carter. Following the elections, Jimmy Carter commented: ’Among the 62 elections that have been monitored by us at the Carter Center, these are among the best in portraying the will of the people’.

We support the demand by the Inter Parliamentary Union, the international organisation of parliaments of sovereign states, that the Palestinian parliamentarians should be ’released immediately’.

Norman Baker MP
Roger Berry MP
Peter Bottomley MP
Richard Burden MP *
Martin Caton MP
Katy Clark MP
Michael Connarty MP
Jeremy Corbyn MP
David Drew MP
Andrew George MP
Neil Gerrard MP
Helen Goodman MP
Paul Holmes MP
Mike Hancock MP
Kelvin Hopkins MP
Stewart Hosie MP
Lynne Jones MP
Christine McCafferty MP
Kerry McCarthy MP *
John McDonnell MP
Shahid Malik MP *
Angus Robertson
Clare Short MP
Marsha Singh MP
Phyllis Starkey MP
Mike Weir MP
Derek Wyatt MP

* Monitors of the January 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council election