Tunisian Party Calls For Designating Muslim Brotherhood as Terrorist Organization

A riot police officer fires teargas during clashes with supporters of Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia at Hai al Tadamon in Tunis May 19, 2013. REUTERS/Anis Mili
A riot police officer fires teargas during clashes with supporters of Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia at Hai al Tadamon in Tunis May 19, 2013. REUTERS/Anis Mili
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Tunisian Party Calls For Designating Muslim Brotherhood as Terrorist Organization

A riot police officer fires teargas during clashes with supporters of Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia at Hai al Tadamon in Tunis May 19, 2013. REUTERS/Anis Mili
A riot police officer fires teargas during clashes with supporters of Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia at Hai al Tadamon in Tunis May 19, 2013. REUTERS/Anis Mili

Tunisia's Free Constitutional Party bloc announced Monday its decision to submit a new draft resolution to classify the Muslim Brotherhood as a “terrorist organization” and a movement deemed “hostile to the civil state".

The Muslim Brotherhood should be designated as a terrorist organization in Tunisia, a petition submitted to the Tunisian Parliament by head of the Tunisian opposition figure and President of the Free Destourian Party (PDL) Abir Moussi said on Monday.

In a press conference, Moussi explained that the new draft resolution calls on the government to formally “classify the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization that is hostile to the civil state” and push the state to “consider any Tunisian person or entity that has connections to this organization as being guilty of a terrorist crime according to the law on terrorism.”

“Today we want a clear political position. Political parties and politicians who want to openly dissociate themselves from the Muslim Brotherhood organization must prove so and vote in favor of this draft motion,” Moussi said.

“Some political entities and civil society groups in Tunisia have leaders and members who belong to the Muslim Brotherhood and receive funding from the organization,” the PDL leader said, adding that such a situation is “inconceivable” as it is a “threat to national sovereignty.”

Ennahda and its leaders have in the past denied affiliation to the Muslim Brotherhood organization and reiterated their denunciation of terrorism.

But Ennahda’s critics and rivals, including the PDL, have highlighted the ideological and historical links of Ennahda with the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist affiliations and criticized its links to Brotherhood-aligned governments in Ankara, Doha and Tripoli as being detrimental to the national interest.

On June 3., Tunisia's Free Constitutional Party submitted a bill to the parliament to express rejection to any foreign military intervention in Libya, especially the Turkish intervention. Yet, it didn’t garner sufficient votes to be passed.



Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
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Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Israel’s new defense minister said Friday that he would stop issuing warrants to arrest West Bank settlers or hold them without charge or trial — a largely symbolic move that rights groups said risks emboldening settler violence in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Israel Katz called the arrest warrants “severe” and said issuing them was “inappropriate” as Palestinian militant attacks on settlers in the territory grow more frequent. He said settlers could be “brought to justice” in other ways.

The move protects Israeli settlers from being held in “administrative detention,” a shadowy form of incarceration where people are held without charge or trial.

Settlers are rarely arrested in the West Bank, where settler violence against Palestinians has spiraled since the outbreak of the war Oct. 7.

Katz’s decision was celebrated by far-right coalition allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. National Security Minister and settler firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir applauded Katz and called the move a “correction of many years of mistreatment” and “justice for those who love the land.”

Since Oct. 7, 2023, violence toward Palestinians by Israeli settlers has soared to new heights, displacing at least 19 entire Palestinian communities, according to Israeli rights group Peace Now. In that time, attacks by Palestinian militants on settlers and within Israel have also grown more common.

An increasing number of Palestinians have been placed in administrative detention. Israel holds 3,443 administrative detainees in prison, according to data from the Israeli Prison Service, reported by rights group Hamoked. That figure stood around 1,200 just before the start of the war. The vast majority of them are Palestinian, with only a handful at any given time Israeli Jews, said Jessica Montell, the director of Hamoked.

“All of these detentions without charge or trial are illegitimate, but to declare that this measure will only be used against Palestinians...is to explicitly entrench another form of ethnic discrimination,” said Montell.