aint Petersburg, 15-10-2017 - The Delegation of the Palestinian National Council headed by Azzam Al Ahmad, participated in the 137th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union which was held in the Russian city of St. Petersburg during the period 14-18\10\2017.
The Palestinian delegation included: Intisar Al Wazir, Qais Abu Laila, Zuhair Sundouqa, Bilal Qasim, and Omar Hamayel, with the participation of the Secretary-General of the legislative council Ibrahim Khrisha, and Bashar al-Dik.
More than 800 parliamentarians, including 90 Speakers of the parliaments( representing 156 parliaments)participated in the work of the IPU sessions .
During the participation of the Palestinian delegation in the meeting of the Committee on Middle East affairs, the Chairperson of the Committee and the secretary general of the Inter-Parliamentary Union congratulated the Palestinian delegation on the success of the reconciliation efforts, calling for the head of the delegation, Azzam Al Ahmad to deliver a brief review of the reconciliation progress in which he said:
“ The changing regional and international conditions played an important role in supporting the Egyptian efforts, we hope that the reconciliation process will push the peace process forward, and we call on everyone not to put obstacles or barriers in the way of reconciliation. Termination of the Division has become an urgent necessity to fight against terrorism, the Division opened up new opportunities for the growing terrorist movements in Sinai in light of the retreat of the ISIS role and their counterparts in Syria and Iraq and their transitions to Sinai. Al Ahmad added: “the popular record reflected a clear message that people in Gaza want an immediate end to the Division and the return of Gaza under the Palestinian Government Control.
In a related context, al-Ahmad called on all regional and international parties to push forward the Israeli Palestinian peace process and to put pressure on Israel to abide by the resolutions of the international legitimacy and the two-state solution. He also called on putting an end to the unjust blockade imposed on Gaza. Al-Ahmad confirmed the Palestinian people's commitment to the resolutions of international legitimacy, the Arab peace initiative and the United Nations Resolution No. 194 regarding the right of return and compensations for Palestinian refugees and all relevant resolutions.
Al-Ahmad presented a full report on the conditions of the Palestinian Detainees in Israeli jails at the request of the Committee on the human rights . He talked about the Israeli policy toward the detention of PLC members specially the administrative Detention, he said: This practice was criticized by human rights organizations and it is internationally unacceptable, we call on parliamentarians and international community to put pressure on Israel to release the detained members. We also condemn the recent administrative detention that was issued against the MP Khaleda Jarrar .