Haneyya describes kidnapping of Duwaik as plain piracy

Ramallah - The kidnapping of the PLC speaker Dr. Aziz Duwaik at the hands of the IOF troops in Ramallah city Saturday night left its impact on the PA officials as PA premier Ismail Haneyya described the abduction as "plain Zionist piracy".

In press statements, the PA premier urged all Arab and foreign legislatures and lawmakers to condemn the kidnapping of Duwaik, and to mobilize all their capabilities and energies to secure his unconditional release along with the freedom of the other kidnapped Palestinian lawmakers and PA ministers.

Duwaik has just finished his Isha'a (night) prayer with his wife when IOF troops surrounded his home and asked him to surrender. The unshaken PLC speaker resolutely accompanied his kidnappers apparently to block any possible harm on his family. He was reportedly taken to the Israeli Ofer detention center near Ramallah city.

Legislators of the Hamas-affiliated change and reform parliamentary bloc, which Duwaik belongs to, have deprecated the kidnapping, charging that the Israeli occupation government was deliberately undermining all international statutes and agreements."The abduction of Duwaik at the hands of the IOF troops reflects Olmert's government's political bankruptcy and panicking before the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance", the bloc's lawmakers said in statement they issued Sunday.They explained that Israel is mistaken if it thinks that such acts would subjugate the Palestinian people or blackmail them to free its captured soldier who has been in the hands of the Palestinian resistance fighters for more than a month."If they (Israelis) think they can extort the Palestinian people and resistance with those kidnappings to retrieve their captured soldier, then they are indeed mistaken", the bloc elaborated.

Kidnapped Palestinian lawmakers and elected officials as well as PA ministers have repeatedly asserted that they disagree to be part of any swap deal with Israel, and that they should be unconditionally freed being illegally detained.For his part, Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the PLC first-deputy speaker, affirmed that Israel meant to paralyze the PLC with the kidnapping of Duwaik, but, for sure, he stressed, its goal will fail.He further held the Israeli occupation government fully responsible for the safety of Duwaik and the rest of the kidnapped PA officials and deputies, adding that he will spare no time in relaying the Israeli "barbarism" to the rest of the world's parliaments.