In protest against political detentions by the Palestinian Authority, the resistance group, Islamic Jihad in Palestine (IJP) has decided not to attend the planned meeting of Palestinian factions slated to take place at the end of the month in Cairo.
“We will not join the meeting for secretaries general of the Palestinian factions hosted by Egypt before the release of our brother fighters from the Palestinian Authority (PA) prisons,” IJP’s Secretary General Ziyad al-Nakhala said.
This came amidst a detention campaign carried out by the PA against Hamas and IJP members, as well as university students in the occupied West Bank.
On Monday night, the PA security forces raided Jalazoun Refugee Camp in Nablus to detain Palestinian fighters, but they left without detaining anyone after a fierce exchange of fire with them.
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The rights group, Lawyers for Justice said that it has delt with more than 300 cases of political detention by the PA’s security services, including 80 since the start of May.
The Committee of Palestinian Political Prisoners in the West Bank said that the PA has committed 411 violations against Palestinians in June.
Palestinian factions have said that they received an invitation for a meeting for the secretaries general of the Palestinian factions from Egypt.
The meeting, which will discuss the Palestinian situation in light of growing Israeli violence is scheduled to take place on July 30.
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In a recent editorial, Palestinian journalist and author Ramzy Baroud argued that “the PA is now seen by most Palestinians as an obstacle in the face of full (Palestinian) unity.”
“That position is fully fathomable,” he wrote, “while Israel was ramping up its deadly operations in Jenin and Nablus, the PA police was arresting Palestinian activists, angering resistance groups in the West Bank and Gaza.”
“If this continues, a civil war in the West Bank is a real possibility.”
(The Palestine Chronicle, MEMO)
