Israeli occupation forces issued a four-month administrative detention order against Hatem Qufeisha, 56, Palestinian parliamentarian, only five days after arresting him, invading his home in Al-Khalil on 24 January.
He is held in Ofer prison, with no charge or trial. He has spent over 143 months in administrative detention in the past and has been repeatedly imprisoned.
Meanwhile, on 28 January, Israeli occupation forces arrested and imprisoned Palestinian parliamentarian Mohammed Abu Teir – and at least 22 other Palestinians in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem – in early-morning raids.
Abu Teir has spent 32 years in Israeli prison under numerous arrests; he is a Palestinian Jerusalemite whose residency was stripped on 8 October 2010 by the Israeli occupation, forced into the West Nank from his home city, on the basis of “betrayal of loyalty to Israel” because he ran in the Palestinian Legislative Council elections on the Change and Reform Slate, associated with the Hamas movement.
He was last released in July 2015 after 25 months in administrative detention.
Abu Teir and Qufeisha join five more imprisoned members of the Palestinian Legislative Council: prominent leftist, feminist and prisoner advocate Khalida Jarrar, serving 15 months in Israeli prison; Palestinian political leader and general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Ahmad Sa’adat, serving 30 years in Israeli occupation prisons; Palestinian political leader and member of the Fateh Central Council, Marwan Barghouti, serving five life sentences; Mohammed Jamal Natsheh of al-Khalil, of the Change and Reform Bloc, held in administrative detention without charge or trial since March 2013; and Hassan Yousef of Beitunia, a senior Hamas leader and member of the PLC, held in administrative detention without charge or trial since 20 October 2015.
Dozens of members of the Palestinian Legislative Council have been imprisoned by the Israeli occupation, many serving lengthy periods held in administrative detention without charge or trial. The Inter-Parliamentary Union, a global alliance of parliamentarians, has called for the freedom of imprisoned Palestinian parliamentarians.
