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Palestine: Parliament annuls Abbas’ decision to revoke MPs immunity

Khreisheh reiterated that stripping the immunity of any MP is the “authority of the parliament itself, not anyone else.”

December 22, 2016 at 4:17 pm

For the first time since infighting in 2007, the Palestinian parliament convened yesterday and discussed President Mahmoud Abbas’ decree to strip five Fatah MPs of their parliamentary immunity.

The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), as the parliament is known, decided that Abbas’ revocation of the parliamentarian immunity of the five lawmakers, who are outspoken critics for his policies, was “illegal and unconstitutional”, stressing that parliament was the only institution entitled to take such decisions.

The PLC’s chairman, MP Faraj Al-Ghoul, said: “Abbas’ decision to revoke immunity of five MPs is nonsense.” He stressed that the constitutional court which authorised Abbas to carry out this measure made an “illegal” and “unconstitutional” ruling.

Al-Ghoul reiterated that the MPs enjoy their parliamentarian immunity even after leaving office. He described Abbas’ decision as an attempt to overcome the power of the parliament.

Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker Ahmad Bahar called for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to open the Palestinian parliament’s doors in Ramallah and let deputies do their jobs.

Bahar also criticised Abbas’ actions and called it an “unacceptable interference in the work of the parliament.”

The other Deputy Speaker Hassan Khreisheh, from Ramallah, said: “We support the law and hope that all internal differences can be sorted out through dialogue.”

Khreisheh, who is an independent MP, reiterated that stripping the immunity of any MP is the “authority of the parliament itself, not anyone else.”

Hamas MP Salah Al-Bardaweel said that the meeting was “a victory for the will of the Palestinians and for Palestinian law.”