Ref:
128/2011

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns
the forcible transer of Ahmed Attoun, Member of the Palestinian Legislative
Council (PLC), by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) from Jerusalem to Ramallah.
 PCHR considers that IOF’s decision to
deport Attoun amounts to forcible displacement. The forcible transfer of
protected persons is prohibited under Article 49 of the 1949 Fourth Geneva
Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. PCHR
notes that this measure is part of the continued forcible transfer of PLC
members who were elected by the Palestinian people in the elections of 2006.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, the Israeli Court of
Magistrates in Jerusalem decided on Tuesday, 06 December 2011, to deport Ahmed
Attoun, 43, PLC Member from the Change and Reform Bloc affiliated to Hamas.  A few hours later, Attoun was transferred to
an Israeli checkpoint near Ramallah and IOF ordered him to walk towards Ramallah.

Attoun and Mohammed Totah, another PLC Member from the Change and
Reform Bloc, and former Palestinian Jerusalem 
Minister, Khaled Abu Arafa, have made a sit-in in the headquarters of
the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Jerusalem since June
2010, in protest against IOF’s decision to confiscate ID cards from PLC Members
in Jerusalem and instead give them temporary monthly permits to access Jerusalem,
on grounds that they are affiliates of a prohibited organization or participate
in the Palestinian elections in the name of Hamas.  While Attoun, Totah and Abu Arafa were in
their sit-in, IOF arrested PLC member Mohammed Abu Teir and deported him to
Ramallah on 08 December 2010. On 06 September 2011, IOF arrested Abu Teir from
his home in Kafr Aqab village near Ramallah.  On 26 September, an IOF undercover unit kidnapped
Attoun from the sit-in tent in the ICRC headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah in
Jerusalem.  Attoun had been in detention untill
he was transferred to Ramallah.

This forcible transfer is part of a continued Israeli campaign that
has been implemented since June 2006, aimed at arresting members of the Change
and Reform Bloc of the PLC, including Palestinian Ministers and members of
local councils in the West Bank.  This
campaign began following the victory of Hamas in the PLC elections of January
2006.  There are currently 23 PLC
members, mostly from the Change and Reform Bloc of Hamas, detained in Israeli
jails.

 PCHR strongly condemns the forcible transfer of Attoun from
Jerusalem to Ramallah and: 

1. Stresses that forcible displacement is a form of illegal reprisals
and is strictly prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention;

2. Calls for allowing PLC Members, Attoun and Abu Teir, to return
to Jerusalem and for releasing all PLC Members detained in Israeli jails.