Car destroyed in Gaza Strip bombing.
The ongoing
raids and mass arrests, as well as the shutting down of charities, NGOs and
civil society associations actuated by the Hamas security forces in Gaza Strip
after last Friday's bombing near the Al-Hilal Café, in which six people were killed,
including a four-year-old girl, and 27 others injured- represent arbitrary
actions which hit the present and the future of Palestine, together with
its right and will to live in a democratic and multicultural state
in which diversity would be a richness for the nation.
Until now,
perpetrators of the explosion are unknown and, as demanded by several
Palestinian human rights organizations, it is necessary to have a comprehensive and
independent investigation in order to arrest them, while respecting legal
procedures and due process.
Whoever
committed this attack are criminals bearing the responsibility of killing
innocent people, including a guiltless child, and creating chaos and division
among Palestinians, in particular in a specific moment in which the unity of
the Palestinian people and territory is indispensable in order to face the
ongoing and expanding Israeli colonization of the occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel’s
illegal closure of orphanage, schools and shops supposedly run by Hamas in
the West Bank and the arrests perpetrated by Israel are not only unlawful
but, aiming to further divide the Palestinian population, they represent a
grave attack on the Palestinian Authority, so that
rightly Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad recently went to Nablus in order to
challenge the Israeli occupation forces.
However, the
Hamas de facto government's response to last week’s bombing is
illegitimate and undemocratic: hundreds of people have been arrested since Friday, more
than 40 sports clubs, benevolent societies, cultural centres, social
development agencies, institutions and Fatah offices throughout the Gaza Strip,
have been raided and most of them forced to close; their belongings, files,
computers and furniture confiscated and many activists and employees from local
non-governmental and private organizations arrested.
Civil
society has the right to form associations and to exert its right to freedom
and security, according to the law: all obstructions and impediments represent
a flagrant violation of democratic fundamental principles.
The Hamas de
facto government should immediately stop these actions and allow all
organisations to reopen and continue their essential job of providing services
and freedom. All the forces are needed to put an end to the siege in Gaza, to free the prisoners and to end Israel’s
military occupation.
I really
hope that the Palestinian Authority will be wise enough not to follow this
path in the West Bank, as it will lead to a very vicious circle: all
sides politically concerned should urgently resume the
indispensable national dialogue and unity, abstaining themselves from pulling
civil society into the ongoing struggle.
Abuses and
bad treatment, if not torture, towards Palestinians detainees, arrested either
by the PA or by Hamas, are another blow to Palestine, as further denounced by
Palestinian human Rights organizations, and they must immediately end.
The price of
division and repression will be once again paid by the Palestinian population
and their national cause.
Luisa
Morgantini is the Vice-president of the European Parliament. For further
information call 0039 348 39 21 465 or
Office in Rome
00 39 06 69 95 02 17 or by email at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
;
www.luisamorgantini.net;
|
News 
