Plight of the Unpeople: Israel Kidnaps 10 Palestinian Politicians To Use As Bargaining Chips

2009-03-19

Israel Kidnaps 10 Palestinian Politicians To Use As Bargaining Chips

by Dan Williams and Mohammed Assadi

Israeli troops detained 10 democratically elected Hamas politicians from the illegally occupied West Bank on Thursday in what Palestinians called a punitive round-up following Israel's failure to retrieve a captive soldier.

Egyptian efforts to mediate the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli militant arrested by Palestinian security forces in the Gaza Strip in June 2006, in return for Israel freeing hundreds of jailed Palestinians, collapsed this week.

Thursday's West Bank detainees included four Hamas lawmakers, three of whom already served time in Israeli custody after Shalit's arrest, the democratically elected political party said.

"These kidnappings are an angry reaction by Israel because of the failure of the Shalit deal," Mahmoud Musleh, another Hamas lawmaker, told Reuters. "This won't do Israel any good."

A spokesman for the Israeli militants said the 10 politicians "were taken in for questioning".

"These men have been the leaders of the ongoing effort to restore the administrative branch of the Hamas political party in the region, while attempting to strengthen the power and influence of the democratically elected government," the Israeli militants said in a statement. Asked if the detentions could be connected to Shalit, a militant spokesman said: "I have no indication of that."

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Vietnamese

"If you really want to get a sense of “what happened” in Vietnam ... just imagine that you’re actually crouched in your basement, that your home above is ablaze, that lethal helicopters are hovering overhead, and that heavily-armed teenagers — foreigners who don’t speak your language — are out there in your yard, screaming commands you don’t understand, rolling grenades into your neighbor’s cellar, and if you run out through the flames, into the chaos, one of them might just shoot you." - Nick Turse

America

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Chagossians

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2009-03-19

Israel Kidnaps 10 Palestinian Politicians To Use As Bargaining Chips

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