Aziz Dweik ( ; ar, عزيز دويك ) (born January 12, 1948) is the
Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council
The Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council is the chairman of the Palestinian Legislative Council of the Palestinian Authority. As Chairman, the Speaker acts as interim President of the Palestinian National Authority if the latter is unabl ...
(PLC) since his election to that post on 18 January 2006. Dweik, as speaker of the PLC, is recognized by many
Palestinians
Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
including those living in
Gaza, as being the Interim
President of the Palestinian National Authority
The president of the Palestinian National Authority ( ar, رئيس السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية) is the highest-ranking political position (equivalent to head of state) in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The presiden ...
since 19 October 2016 when the
national unity government was dissolved. He was also recognized as the interim president from 15 January 2009, when the elected term of
Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas ( ar, مَحْمُود عَبَّاس, Maḥmūd ʿAbbās; born 15 November 1935), also known by the kunya Abu Mazen ( ar, أَبُو مَازِن, links=no, ), is the president of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian Natio ...
officially expired, until 2 June 2014, when the
national unity government
A national unity government, government of national unity (GNU), or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties (or all major parties) in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other nati ...
was formed.
Education and family life
Prior to becoming involved in political office, Dweik was a professor of
urban geography
Urban geography is the subdiscipline of geography that derives from a study of cities and urban processes. Urban geographers and urbanists examine various aspects of urban life and the built environment. Scholars, activists, and the public have ...
at
An-Najah National University
An-Najah National University ( ar, جامعة النجاح الوطنية) is a Palestinian non-governmental public university governed by a board of trustees. It is located in Nablus, in the northern West Bank. The university has 22,000 studen ...
in
Nablus
Nablus ( ; ar, نابلس, Nābulus ; he, שכם, Šəḵem, ISO 259-3: ; Samaritan Hebrew: , romanized: ; el, Νεάπολις, Νeápolis) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located approximately north of Jerusalem, with a populati ...
on the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
. He holds a
PhD in Regional and Architecture Planning from the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
.
[
Dweik is married, with seven children. One of his daughters is a school principal, and three of his other children are students of medicine or pharmacy. Dweik's wife runs a daycare centre out of the family's house named Marj al-Zohour, after the place in ]Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
where her husband spent a year in exile in 1992.[
]
Political views
Dweik has told journalists that he views the Hamas charter's call for the creation of a Palestinian state in all of Palestine
__NOTOC__
Palestine may refer to:
* State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia
* Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia
* Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
, including Israel, to be "nothing but a dream, and unrealistic," and he believes that Hamas is aiming for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.[ He has never been accused of involvement in ]terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
.[ His primary focus since his release from prison has been reconciling the ]Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
and Fatah
Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...
factions who have been engaged in a civil conflict
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
, the result of which has been a split in the ruling PNA government, with Hamas ruling in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank.[
]
Political career
Duweik has been associated with The Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...
and Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...
since as early as 1992. At that time, Hamas was an organization that had been banned by Israel and he never admitted to being a member, though he spoke to Western journalists about Hamas as someone who held knowledge of the organization and its aims. Duweik was careful to dissociate himself from the military actions carried out by Hamas, even though Hamas's early military raids, described as "effective, and deadly," were directed at Israeli occupation forces, not at civilians.[Suicide bombings were only adopted as a tactic by the armed wing beginning in 1994 and were officially foresworn by 200]
In 1992, a separate military wing was established called the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades ( ar, كتائب الشهيد عز الدين القسام, , Battalions of martyr Izz ad-Din al-Qassam; also spelt Izzedine or Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades; often shortened to Al-Qassam Brigades, IQB so that the political wing of Hamas could be distinguished from the military one.[
]
Exile to Lebanon
In 1992, Dweik was among 415 Palestinians associated with Hamas or the Islamic Jihad who were arrested and exiled to southern Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
by the Israeli administration of Yitzhak Rabin
Yitzhak Rabin (; he, יִצְחָק רַבִּין, ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until h ...
.[ Rabin acknowledged that those exiled were not armed militants, but people who represented the Hamas "infrastructure".][ Driven to the northern border with Lebanon, he and the others were dropped off in the de-militarized zone between the two countries and warned not to come back. Lebanon refused to allow them entry, so Duweik and his compatriots remained in no-man's land. They lived in tents and built their own showers and also set up an organized hierarchical system whereby Duweik was in charge of the deportees from the West Bank, while Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi was in charge of those from the ]Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...
. After a year, Rabin agreed to let them come back.[
]
2006 elections
Duweik ran for a position in the Palestinian Legislative Council
The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) is the unicameral legislature of the Palestinian Authority, elected by the Palestinian residents of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It currently comprises 132 members, e ...
(PLC) in the January 2006 elections on the Change and Reform list, made up primarily of Hamas members. The victory of Hamas in the elections prompted Israel and the United States to cut off ties to the new government, maintaining contact only with Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud Abbas ( ar, مَحْمُود عَبَّاس, Maḥmūd ʿAbbās; born 15 November 1935), also known by the kunya Abu Mazen ( ar, أَبُو مَازِن, links=no, ), is the president of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian Natio ...
, the President of the Palestinian National Authority
The president of the Palestinian National Authority ( ar, رئيس السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية) is the highest-ranking political position (equivalent to head of state) in the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The presiden ...
, and not Ismail Haniyeh
Ismail Abdel Salam Ahmed Haniyeh; sometimes transliterated as Haniya, Haniyah, or Hanieh (born 29 January 1962) is a senior political leader of Hamas and formerly one of two disputed Prime Ministers of the Palestinian National Authority. Haniy ...
, its new prime minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
, or any other elected parliamentarians from Hamas, including Duweik.[ The US immediately suspended aid to the new government, and some other Western governments were considering the same, when Duweik was sworn in as Speaker of the House on 29 March 2006. During the proceedings, which were held by video conference due to a ban on travel instituted by Israel and affecting Hamas members, among the things Duweik said were: "A hungry man is an angry man ..We hope the world will not allow the Palestinian people to suffer, because this will only make people more radical." He also said: "My message to Israel is to put an end to the ]occupation
Occupation commonly refers to:
*Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment
*Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces
*Military occupation, th ...
, and then there will be no fighting."
In an April 2006 interview with Ynet
Ynet (stylized as ynet) is one of the major Israeli news and general-content websites, and is the online outlet for the '' Yedioth Ahronot'' newspaper. However, most of Ynet's content is original work, published exclusively on the website and wri ...
, the Israeli media outlet, Duweik responded to a question regarding Israel's announcement of a plan to collapse the new government using economic and other means as follows: "I say that the occupier has, according to treaties, obligations to the occupied. I also say that the money the Israelis say they don't want to transfer ">55 million in tax revenuesis not Israeli money, it is Palestinian money that Israel collects from the Palestinians, and which it is obligated to give to the Authority. If Israel preserves this stance, then the law will have to decide between us over this issue. This plan is another Israeli attempt to harm the democratic process and its outcomes, a process that was free, transparent, and which took place before the whole world's eyes. This is an attempt to harm us, but we are lions, not ants. It's not easy to harm us."
2006 arrest
Dweik was arrested by Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
on 29 June 2006 as part of Israel's Operation Summer Rains
Operation or Operations may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Operation (game), ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity
* Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory
* Operations (magazine ...
. He was later released and then rearrested 6 August 2006. Dweik says he was severely beaten while in custody, and his lawyers say that he was held in unsanitary conditions. In August 2006, Dweik was charged in Israel for being a member of Hamas and for being in contact with Khaled Mashal
Khaled Mashal ( ar, خالد مشعل, Khālid Mashʿal, Levantine Arabic: , born 28 May 1956) is a former leader of the Palestinian organization Hamas.
After the founding of Hamas in 1987, Mashal became the leader of the Kuwaiti branch of th ...
, the exiled secretary-general of Hamas. He expressed his view that this was a "political trial" and stated that he did not recognize it. He accused Israel of using "political blackmail", and said that his arrest was in violation of international law. Dweik (along with a number of other Palestinian ministers and parliament members) was imprisoned in spite of his parliamentary immunity
Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which politicians such as president, vice president, governor, lieutenant governor, member of parliament, member of legislative assembly, member of legislative council, s ...
.["The Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly president, Rene van der Linden, slammed yesterday Israel's arrest of the speaker of the Palestinian legislative council, Aziz Dweik, and called for his immediate release. 'All legitimately elected parliamentarians enjoy parliamentary immunity unless and until they are divested of it by their own parliaments,' van den Linden said.]
Support up for Hamas vow to destroy Israel
/ref>
2009 release
Israel released Dweik two months before the end of his three-year sentence. Released from Hadarim prison near Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
, he was then transferred to an Israeli military checkpoint outside the city of Tulkarm
Tulkarm, Tulkarem or Tull Keram ( ar, طولكرم, ''Ṭūlkarm'') is a Palestinian city in the West Bank, located in the Tulkarm Governorate of the State of Palestine. The Israeli city of Netanya is to the west, and the Palestinian cities of N ...
. He stated, "Any person deprived of his freedom feels an enormous hardship." Dweik's release came after a military tribunal near Ramallah
Ramallah ( , ; ar, رام الله, , God's Height) is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank that serves as the ''de facto'' administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusale ...
which rejected an application by prosecutors to keep him detained, presumably because of his bad health.
2012 arrest and release
On 19 January 2012, while traveling to Hebron
Hebron ( ar, الخليل or ; he, חֶבְרוֹן ) is a Palestinian. city in the southern West Bank, south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies above sea level. The second-largest city in the West Bank (after East J ...
, Dweik was arrested by the Israeli Army at a checkpoint outside the Palestinian village of Jaba' located between Ramallah and Jerusalem. According to witnesses, he was blindfolded, handcuffed and taken to an unknown location. Israel stated his detainment was due to "involvement in terrorist attacks." The BBC's Jerusalem correspondent Wyre Davies said Dweik's arrest will be seen by "many" as "further proof that Israel is pursuing a policy of restricting the movements of senior Palestinian figures." Hamas claimed that Israel made the arrest in order to hinder unity negotiations between their organization and rival Fatah. Duweik was placed under six months' Administrative detention
Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...
without trial or charge.
On 20 July, Dweik was released by the Israeli authorities and received by fellow lawmakers at the Beit Sira
Beit Sira ( ar, بيت سيرا) is a Palestinian people, Palestinian village in the central West Bank, located 22 kilometers west of Ramallah and is a part of the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate. The village is situated along the Green Line (Isr ...
checkpoint. The following day he received a phone call from the then President of Egypt
The president of Egypt is the executive head of state of Egypt and the de facto appointer of the official head of government under the Egyptian Constitution of 2014. Under the various iterations of the Constitution of Egypt following the Egyp ...
Mohammed Morsi
Mohamed Mohamed Morsi Eissa al-AyyatThe spellings of his first and last names vary. survey of 14 news organizations plus Wikipedia in July 2012
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...
era.
2014 arrest
Dweik was arrested by the Israelis again in 16 June 2014, following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens. He was released 9 June 2015.
See also
* Ahmad Bahar
Haj Sheikh Ahmad Bahar (1889 Mashad, Iran – 1957 Tehran, Iran) was an Iranian politician, a patriotic poet, prominent journalist, writer, publisher and farmer.
Literary career
He was one of the best students of late Sheikh Abdoljavad Adib Neish ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dweik, Abdel Aziz
1948 births
Hamas members
Living people
Palestinian people imprisoned by Israel
People from Hebron
Presidents of the Palestinian National Authority
Speakers of the Palestinian Legislative Council
An-Najah National University faculty
University of Pennsylvania School of Design alumni
An-Najah National University alumni