[ad_1]
A vocal critic of the Palestinian Authority (PA) who intended to run for parliamentary elections before they were called off earlier this year died when he was arrested in Hebron by PA forces on Thursday.
Nizar Banat, 43, harshly criticized the Palestinian Authority, which rules parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and called on Western countries to cut aid to it because of its growing authoritarianism and human rights abuses .
In a brief statement, the Hebron governorate said Banats’ health deteriorated when Palestinian forces went to arrest him early Thursday and he was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
According to his family, Banat was in bed when some two dozen PA officers broke into his home and started beating him. He was dragged along screaming, local media reported, and hit on the head with sticks and pieces of metal.
After performing an autopsy, a Palestinian rights group said Banat received blows to the head, adding that the injuries indicated unnatural death.
A spokesperson for the PA could not immediately be reached to comment on the findings of the autopsy of the PA’s Independent Human Rights Commission (ICHR).
The autopsy showed wounds represented by bruises and abrasions in many areas of the body, including the head, neck, shoulders, chest, back, and upper and lower limbs, with binding marks on them. wrists and rib fractures, the ICHR said.
Preliminary autopsy results also indicate unnatural death, but determining the primary cause of death, clinically, requires waiting for lab results from tissue samples, he said. he added in a statement.
Al Jazeeras Stefanie Dekker said the Banats family said he had no known pre-existing health issues.
He has been very critical of the Palestinian Authority, calling it a subcontractor to Israel, accusing it of corruption, said Dekker, speaking from the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
The city, which is the seat of the Palestinian Authority, has seen hundreds of angry Palestinians attempt to march towards Mahmoud Abbass’ presidential compound, demanding his resignation.
The people want the fall of the regime, chanted the demonstrators in the main square of al-Manara in Ramallah. As they were pushed back by tear gas fired at them by dozens of PA forces in riot gear, the protesters shouted traitors, traitors to the forces.
In early May, gunmen fired bullets, stun grenades and tear gas at Banats’ house, where his wife and their children were staying.
He blamed the attack on President Mahmoud Abbass’ Fatah party, which dominates the security forces, saying only they would have access to tear gas and stun grenades.
Europeans should know that they are indirectly funding this organization, Banat told The Associated Press in May during an interview in a house where he was hiding.
They shoot in the air during Fatah celebrations, they shoot in the air when Fatah leaders are fighting, and they shoot at people who oppose Fatah.
Wave of criticism
Banat also accused prominent Fatah supporters of waging an incitement campaign against him on social media, in which they accused him of collaborating with Israel, a serious allegation which in the Palestinian territories amounts to a betrayal. He denied the accusation.
Earlier this week, Palestinian security forces also arrested a prominent activist and detained him overnight after he sparked criticism of the Palestinian Authority on Facebook. Issa Amro is a vocal critic of Israel and the Palestinian Authority and has been detained by both in the past.
A recent poll showed plummeting support for Abbas, who is facing both his loss of popularity and growing opposition within his party.
In April, he called off the elections, the first scheduled for 15 years, apparently because Israel would not let Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem vote for the new Palestinian leadership. Many, however, argued that the real motive was his fear that the fractured Fatah party would suffer another humiliating defeat to Hamas, the group that rules Gaza.
Hamas ousted forces loyal to Abbas from the Gaza Strip in 2007, after defeating Fatah attempts to remove them from power after their democratic election in 2006, and the president of the Palestinian Authority was mostly put sidelined during the 11-day Israeli assault on Gaza.
Western countries continue to view Abbas as a key partner in the long-dying peace process, and the European Union has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in direct aid to the Palestinian Authority over the years.
Earlier this week, the EU signed an agreement to provide $ 425 million in loans to the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian banks to help them cope with an economic crisis exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Merciless excessive force
At the same time, an Amnesty International report released on Thursday indicated that Israeli police had committed a catalog of violations against Palestinians in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem.
He accused the police of waging a discriminatory crackdown, including mass arrests, of using unlawful force against peaceful protesters and of subjecting detainees to torture and other ill-treatment.
The report was based on testimony from numerous witnesses and 45 videos and other forms of digital media to document more than 20 cases of Israel Police violations between May 9 and June 12.
The organization said its findings showed that the Israeli police also failed to protect Palestinian citizens of Israel from premeditated attacks by armed Jewish nationalist groups.
Until June 10, Israeli police had arrested more than 2,150 people, 90 percent of whom were Palestinian citizens of Israel or residents of occupied East Jerusalem, according to Palestinian human rights group Mossawa.
Some of the cases documented by the report include that of Mohammad Mahmoud Kiwan, 17, who was shot in the head near Umm el-Fahem, in northern Israel, on May 12 and died a week later. .
He also documented the case of Jana Kiswani, 15, who was shot in the back as she entered her home in Sheikh Jarrah on May 18.
Her father, Muhammad, told Amnesty her vertebrae were broken and doctors do not know if she will walk again.
The evidence collected by Amnesty International paints a damning picture of the discrimination and excessive and ruthless force of the Israeli police against Palestinians in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, said Saleh Hijazi, deputy director of Amnesty Middle East.
This discriminatory crackdown was orchestrated as an act of retaliation and intimidation to crush pro-Palestinian protests and silence those who denounce institutionalized discrimination by Israel and systemic oppression of Palestinians.
Amnesty has called on the UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry to investigate violations committed by the Israeli police against Palestinians.
[ad_2]
picture credit