Berri calls for release of Palestinian prisoners
11
Feb
2013
Speaker Nabih Berri urged Monday the heads of international, Muslim, Arab, Asian, Francophone and Euro-Mediterranean parliamentary federations to act to stop Israel’s repressive measures against the Palestinian people, particularly thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails. In letters to the heads of the parliamentary federations, Berri said: “At a time when the Middle East is facing threats to its security and peace as a result of major foreign-Israeli maneuvers in the region, accompanied by a surge in settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories ... the number of Palestinian prisoners has increased.” “In 2012, around 3,200 detainees, including 55 women and Palestinian citizen Samer al-Issawi, have been added to the detention list,” Berri said. He added that the number of Palestinian prisoners has reached 14,000, with some of them, including women and children, having spent more than 20 years in Israeli jails. Referring to the continued detention of the president of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Aziz Doueik, and a number of council members, Berri called for parliamentary action by governments to secure the release of the MPs and all the Palestinian prisoners and also “reveal the fact that Israel represented the world’s largest prison for political detainees.”
