Dr. Aziz Dweik: Reconciliation main demand for Palestinians

Dr. Aziz Dweik, elected head of the Palestinian Legislative Council, stated that national ‎reconciliation is a main demand that the Palestinians want to achieve, and added that Acting PA ‎chief Abbas is insisting on finalizing the elections file before other files an issue that ‎would “obstruct reconciliation between Fateh and Hamas”.‎
Dweik of the Change and Reform Bloc of the Hamas movement that garnered an overwhelming ‎victory in the 2006 elections, stated that the Palestinian people are aspiring full and ‎comprehensive unity and reconciliation, and will never abandon their internationally-guaranteed ‎rights of liberation and independence. ‎
He added that reconciliation is a top priority right now so that the Palestinians can benefit “from ‎the victory the resistance achieved in Gaza” and the fact the Palestine achieved a nonmember ‎observer state status at the United Nations General Assembly. ‎
His statements came as Abbas and Hamas’ Political Bureau chief, Khaled Mashal, met in Cairo ‎while senior Fateh and Hamas officials are planning to hold a series of meetings, mediated by ‎Egypt, in an effort to implement the unity agreement on the ground.‎
Dr. Dweik was kidnapped and imprisoned by Israel at least six times, including when he was ‎kidnapped on June 29 2006, and spent three years in Administrative Detention until he was ‎released on June 23 2009.‎
He was also kidnaped January 19 2012, as he was trying to cross the Jaba’ roadblock, north of ‎occupied al-Quds. He was heading back home in al-Khalil when he was stopped at the Jaba’ ‎roadblock while leaving the central West Bank city of Ramallah. He was released on Thursday ‎July 19, 2012, after spending six months under administrative detention without charges.‎
There are currently 22 elected legislators from the occupied West Bank and occupied al-Quds who ‎are still imprisoned by Israel. 15 of them are of the Change and Reform Bloc of Hamas, including ‎Dr. Dweik.‎