17 arrested after clashes with Palestine forces
8/1/2008 1:27:33 PM
 |
| Protesters from Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist group, protesting to establish a pan-national Muslim state |
Islamic protesters clash with police forces in the West Bank as their loyalists demonstrate in Gaza.
Protesters from Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist group whose goal is to establish a pan-national Muslim state that includes the Palestinian territories and Israel, clash with Palestinian security forces in the West Bank while loyalists of the group hold a simultaneous protest in Gaza.
Palestinian police scuffled with Islamic protesters in the West Bank city of Jenin on Thursday (July 31) during a religious demonstration calling for Islamic rule in the occupied West Bank. Forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, armed with batons and shields, arrested 17 supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an Islamist group whose goal is to establish a pan-national Muslim state that includes the Palestinian territories and Israel.
A Palestinian security officer said the arrests were made during an "illegal demonstration" by the group, adding that the men would be questioned and possibly charged. "As security forces and Executive Forces, we carried out instructions given to us not to permit the Hizb (Hizb ut-Tahrir) to carry out this activity (demonstration). These instructions clearly indicated no force should be used," Soliman Imran Abu Hadeed, Palestinian Police Chief In the district of Jenin, told Reuters Television.
"This operation resulted in the detention of 17 protesters. The 17 people we detained will be questioned according to the rule of law and they will be transferred to the Attorney General's office, which will make the final decision, whether they will be transferred to court or maybe they will be satisfied with their statements and release them,'' Abu Hadeed added.
Meanwhile, in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, scores of supporters of the emerging group, Hizb Ut-Tahrir, took to the streets chanting religious slogans as a show of solidarity to the West Bank protests. Hizb Ut-Tahrir, or The Islamic Liberation Party, calls for a return to the rule of the caliphate - Islamic rule instilled after Prophet Mohammed's death. They conduct political activities, which they designate as a religious duty to work towards this goal.
The Islamic movement says they have thousands of members in the West Bank and Gaza and smaller chapters in different countries, including Europe. The group is critical of Islamic movements which have adopted forms of democracy through recognition or participation, such as the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt, or the Hamas movement in Gaza and the West Bank.
Thursday's demonstrators were denied a permit to hold a protest in many West Bank towns, with officials citing the political environment as an excuse to deny them a permit. Hizb Ut-Tahrir has called for more protests in the West Bank with one planned in Bethlehem later on Thursday (July 31) and another planned in Hebron, the largest district in the West Bank, on Saturday (August 2).