Middle eastReports

Violation against peaceful activist in Palestinian Authority

More than 27 years passed after the Oslo Accords, which gave Palestinians a degree of autonomy as a first step towards the establishment of Palestine’s state. After 27 years the agreement had become “dead,” and all what’s left is to serve the interests of Israel. Fath adopted a peaceful solution to the conflict with Israel, based on the principle of a two-state solution, unlike Hamas, which insisted on the need to adopt armed struggle as a single path to the liberation of Palestine. 
15 years after Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, the discrepancies worsened between Hamas and Fath: The so – called Brotherhood controversy raged, as Hamas in the occupied West Bank was subjected to a systematic war of eradication led by America, Israel and Fatah’s Palestinian Authority to root out the movement, its voice and its tools of action in the Palestinian Bank.
The Palestinian Authority adopts arbitrary arrest and detention to punish critics, peaceful opponents, particularly through social media, independent journalists, and prevent them from any activities contrary to their policies. Detained people are subject to violent interrogations, confiscation of equipment, physical assaults and bans on reporting. The security forces routinely insult the detainees, threaten them, beat them and torture them for hours.
Activists are criminalized almost under electronic crimes law signed by president of Palestinian authority on 2017.This law described as illegal by the international humanitarian organizations, as it was passed discreetly without consultations with Palestinian civil society organizations or the public. It contains many gaps that allow for the suppression of freedoms, therefore it violates international law and the State of Palestine’s obligations to protect the right to freedom of expression and the right to privacy.
These human rights violations committed by Palestinian Authority, which are as serious and cruel as Israel’s arrests and torture against Palestinians, are rarely highlighted and it has become necessary to emphasize on these repressive practices and call on their immediate cessation.
According to international reports, more than a thousand cases have been documented and arrested for peaceful expressions, without being formally charged. The Authority denies any wrongdoing, claiming that may be there are some cases that can happen and be investigated. While no meaningful measures has been taken to address the violations.
The most recent chapters of these violations were the brutal crime carried out during the arrest of Nizar Banat (43 years), a peaceful activist who was one of the main opponents of the Palestinian Authority and its president. According to eyewitnesses, “a security force broke the house and hit Nizar with batons on the head as soon as he woke up, and dragged him into the arrest car, while he was bleeding”. News of death announced hours after arrest, resulting, earlier, in hundreds of angry Palestinians marched towards Abbas’s presidential compound in Ramallah demanding his dismissal over Banat’s death.
Arab, European and international human rights bodies, denounced the violations against politicians and human rights defenders, exerted by the Palestinian Authority, and called for immediate investigation through an independent body and in a fully transparent manner. International community stressed on the accountability for those responsible for the death.
Strict measures must be taken to prevent the Palestinian Authority from repeating such acts. Those supporting the Authority (European States and the United States) must exert more pressure on their friends to stop such violations.

Related Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button