Israel has detained 17 Palestinian MPs since October last year

The Israeli occupation authorities have detained 17 Palestinian MPs since October last year, the Palestine Prisoners’ Centre has revealed. The PPC noted that 12 of the parliamentarians are still being held in Israeli prisons, Shehab.ps reported on Tuesday.

According to the Director of the PPC, Riyadh Al-Ashqar, the Israelis keep detaining the Palestinian MPs without indictments. “There are either mock trials or they use administrative detention to hold them,” he explained. Prisoners are held indefinitely under administrative detention, with neither charge nor trial.

Al-Ashqar noted that Israel has detained a number of the MPs on more than one occasion over the past two years, citing examples such as Mohamed Jamal Al-Natsheh from Hebron and Mohamed Abu Teir from Jerusalem. Both are currently in prison.

Of the 12 MPs still held by Israel, he pointed out, 10 were detained during the past two years, and two, Marwan Al-Barghouti and Ahmed Sa’adat, were detained earlier. There are two female MPs who have been detained: Samira Al-Halayqa, 53, who spent three months over claims of Facebook “incitement” before being released, and Khalida Jarrar, 53.

Read: Israel frees Palestinian women’s activist after 3 months detention without trial

Jarrar spent 14 months under administrative detention, was released and detained again, and is now spending six months under administrative detention over claims of “incitement”. Israel frequently accuses any Palestinian or pro-Palestinian activist who dares to stand up for their rights of being involved in “incitement” against the Zionist state.