Occupation forces detains Barghouthi

The Israeli occupation forces yesterday detained in East Jerusalem Mustafa al-Barghouthi, the independent candidate for the Palestinian Authority presidency which will be held next Sunday.

Al-Barghouthi, the main rival for the chairman if the PLO Mahmoud Abbas, said while the Israeli security men were taking him that he has a license authorizing him to enter East Jerusalem.

This is, however, the third time in which the occupation forces detains Mustafa al-Barghouthi. He was detained by the end of December 2004 in occupied Jerusalem when he was meeting with a group of Palestinian and was interrogated before he was taken by the Israeli police to the West Bank and released at one of the checkpoints. By the beginning of December 2004, al-Barghouthi was beaten by the Israeli soldiers at one Israeli military check point near Jenin.

In the course of the Israeli harassment of the Palestinian elections, the Israeli supreme court of cassation rejected an appeal by the Palestinian authority for permitting more than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli jails from taking part in the presidential elections.

On the other hand, Israel said it has started to withdraw its forces from the cities of the West Bank and from Gaza in order to facilitate the process of Palestinian presidential elections, noting that this will last for 72 hours.