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A Legislature Where Palestinian Lawmakers Go to Hide
(New York Times) Diaa Hadid - Palestinian lawmaker Najat Abu Baker from Fatah hid in the parliament building for 17 days to avoid arrest by her own government. The legislature has not convened for nearly a decade in the all-but-abandoned legislative building in Ramallah. Ms. Abu Baker was accused of insulting President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. "Where else in the world would a parliamentarian, doing her job, calling out corruption, become a prisoner, while the corrupt walk free?" she asked in an interview. She left the building last week after making a deal with prosecutors to avoid arrest and was the fourth Palestinian legislator in trouble to hide out in what is viewed as a protected space. She set up shop on Feb. 23, after her speech to striking Palestinian teachers, in which she said Mr. Abbas should resign and suggested that there would be money to pay educators if ministers were not so corrupt. An employee at the building said 400 people still collected salaries for jobs connected to the legislature across the West Bank and Gaza, 120 of them deployed in Ramallah.