30 March 2009

GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Mohamed Awad, the secretary-general of the Palestinian cabinet, stated Monday that the committee on government in the national dialog agreed to identify the functions and the name of the next Palestinian government in addition to some general principles during the second round of reconciliation talks held in Cairo.

In a press release received by the PIC, Dr. Awad underlined that some of the general principles the committee agreed on was that the results of all committees should be announced simultaneously and as a package deal and that there should be scheduled mechanisms for the implementation of what was agreed upon.

The Palestinian official added that the committee also agreed on the principle of separation of powers and the independence of the judicial system in addition to the termination of the political arrest file before ending the national dialog and forming the government.

In another context, the Palestinian interior ministry in Gaza affirmed Monday that it had closed long time ago the file of political detention and there are no political prisoners in Gaza.

In a statement received by the PIC, the interior ministry noted that all the prisoners mentioned by Fatah lawmaker Ashraf Jomaa were the names of convicts and criminals such as killers, spies and drug dealers, adding that many human rights organizations and media institutions are in touch with the detainees and regularly visit them.

Israel's attempts to force Hamas to release its soldier would not succeed

MP Mushir Al-Masri, the secretary-general of Hamas parliamentary bloc, said Sunday that all Israeli attempts to intimidate Hamas would not force it to make concessions on the prisoners' swap deal, stressing that the Israeli soldier would never see daylight if Palestinian prisoners did not return to their families.

Commenting on the Israeli escalation against Hamas, MP Masri stated that this cheap Israeli policy of blackmail would only impose on the Movement further adherence to its demands to release the Israeli soldier, warning that Israel is the only side which would be fully responsible for the consequences of any negative developments in the swap deal.

The Israeli government escalated lately its arbitrary measures against Hamas through kidnapping its leaders and lawmakers in the West Bank and imposing more restrictions on its prisoners in order to force it to release the Israeli captive soldier according to its own conditions.

For his part, Dr. Abdelsattar Qassem, a professor of political sciences in the university of Najah, underlined that the Israeli government would comply sooner or later with the demands set by the Palestinian resistance in order to get its captive soldier released.

Dr. Qassem added that the Israeli escalation against Palestinian prisoners in order to pressure the resistance is a waste of time and will be doomed to failure.

In the same context, the Palestinian center of the defense of prisoners on Sunday called on the Palestinian resistance to work hard to kidnap more Israeli soldiers in order to swap them for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

In a statement received by the PIC, the center also urged the Palestinian resistance factions to raise the ceiling of their demands and include more Palestinian prisoners in any future swap deal, hailing the resistance for its remarkable steadfastness in the face of the Israeli intransigence.

It strongly denounced the Israeli government for tightening the detention conditions of Palestinian prisoners through imposing more punitive measures and depriving them from their most basic rights guaranteed by international conventions.

The center also called on all international and regional institutions concerned with human rights to pressure Israel to stop its aggressive and racist acts which would trigger clashes between prisoners and Israeli jailers.