Bahr calls on parliaments to confront the policy of kidnapping MPs

The deputy head of the Palestinian Legislative Council Ahmed Bahar stressed that behind the Israeli campaign of arresting Palestinian MPs and leaders Israel aims to isolate them from their constituencies and imprison them with no regard for human rights or diplomatic immunity.

In a statement that arrived in Safa on Wednesday, Bahar condemned the re-abduction of the Maqdisi MP Mohammed Abu Teir, who has been deported to Ramallah. He pointed out that the occupation is concerned about the possibility of the success of the Legislative Council march   and especially that of the West Bank MPs. The combined success would mean a successful parliament.

He explained that the occupation is always messing with and failing the MPs democratic experiment. This policy of absenting MPs and attempting to present their experience as a failure requires action at a national level.

Bahar called on the Arab, Islamic and international parliaments to make a firm stand against the Israeli policy of kidnapping MPs and arresting Palestinians.

He urged them to exert serious pressure on the Israeli government in all regional and international forums in order to force it to respect the parliamentary immunity of the Palestinian parliament deputies, respect the rights of prisoners in jail, and abide by international norms and conventions in this regard.

He also demanded that they raise the issue of the abduction of MPs in the international parliamentary forums in order to disclose the practices of the occupation that breach all international laws, norms and conventions, and do not respect the diplomatic immunity enjoyed by MPs who were democratically elected in elections that the world witnessed as fair.