Muslim parliamentarians protest Israeli deportation plan

By Mohammad Ben Hussein

AMMAN - Members of the Muslim Parliamentarians Forum staged a sit-in outside the UN headquarters in Amman on Tuesday in solidarity with Palestinian MPs who face deportation by Israel.

Protesters handed over a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging him to intervene and put an end to Israel’s plan to deport Palestinian MPs and other activists.

Former MP Azzam Huneidi, who headed the Islamic Action Front (IAF) bloc in the 15th Parliament, criticized what he described as international silence over Israel’s deportation plan.

“The latest Palestinian legislative council member to be deported is Mohammad Abu Teir; the world must take a stance on this violation of all international rules and accords,” he said in front of a crowd that included current and former MPs as well as activists from the Islamist movement.

“We deplore the silence of the United Nations and the Security Council as well as Arab countries that take no action to end this farce,” Huneidi added.

He also called on Arab countries that have diplomatic relations with Israel to “stop normalization with the enemy and end all types of cooperation, be it political or economic”.

Protesters chanted slogans in support of the MPs who face deportation and slammed the Palestinian National Authority for what they claimed was “conspiracy against resistance with the enemy”.

“The Palestinian leadership is coordinating with Israel at all levels to end resistance and hunt down fighters in order to provide Israel with an easy occupation in the Palestinian territories,” Huneidi charged.

“Dissolving the Palestinian Authority has become a necessity in order to fight the occupation,” he added.

The protesters also called on the UN to stop Israel from carrying out its plan to empty Palestine and Jerusalem of its Arab inhabitants.

“We call on Arab countries to end their shameful silence and provide the resistance with all needed support and end all relations with the Zionist entity,” Huneidi said.

Abu Teir is one of four senior Hamas officials Israel has been seeking to expel, sparking concern among Palestinians across East Jerusalem about their future residency status.

The others are Khaled Abu Arafeh, a former Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs, and MPs Ahmed Atun and Mohammed Totah.

Many Palestinians fear the expulsion of the four men could set a precedent for the removal of more of the nearly 270,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967 and annexed in a move never recognized by the international community.

Palestinians living in East Jerusalem need Israeli-issued residence permits to allow them to travel freely in Israel and the West Bank, collect government benefits and vote in Israeli municipal, but not national, elections.

Israel regards the whole of Jerusalem as its “eternal, indivisible” capital, while the Palestinians lay claim to its eastern sector as the capital of their promised state.

5 January 2011

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=33181.