Critics of Palestinian security forces increase pressure on Abbas

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By Rami Ayyub and Ali Sawafta

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Pressure is mounting on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas over his security forces’ handling of protesters demanding his resignation since one of his biggest critics died in custody.

The United States Embassy in Jerusalem said Tuesday it was “deeply disturbed” by reports that protesters had been intimidated and beaten by plainclothes agents, and the United Nations condemned what it called “totally unacceptable” attacks.

Security forces have denied deploying plainclothes officers against the protesters.

But criticism of the Palestinian Authority (PA) by such large international donors extends the already long list of problems facing Abbas, 85, after 16 years in power.

The family of Nizar Banat, a prominent Palestinian Authority critic who died in detention on June 24, said security forces broke into his home in Hebron in the occupied West Bank and repeatedly beat him with a gun. metal rod before stopping it.

A Palestinian rights group said after performing an autopsy that Banat received blows to the head.

The Palestinian Authority declined to comment directly on the circumstances of Banat’s death but, offering condolences, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said on Tuesday that the judiciary “will enforce the law against all those found guilty.” .

The death resulted in days of protests in the West Bank and clashes between protesters and security forces.

“We are deeply disturbed by reports that non-uniformed members of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) harassed and used force against protesters and journalists over the weekend,” said one. spokesperson for the American embassy.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said one of its rights monitors covering protests in the West Bank city of Ramallah was among dozens who had been attacked in a “totally unacceptable way”.

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“The attack, by people in plain clothes, included punching, the use of pepper spray and attempted theft of a phone used to document the events,” he said on Facebook.

Talal Dweikat, spokesman for the Palestinian security forces, said the information was “not true”.

“It is a dishonorable speech. There were no plainclothes security personnel. Why would they wear civilian clothes?” He told Ramallah Mix television station.

His office declined Reuters requests for comment.

The PA says it has investigated Banat’s death and Shtayyeh urged Palestinians not to politicize the case.

PROBLEMS ACCUMULATE FOR ABBAS

Abbas’s popularity has plummeted since his election in 2005, according to opinion polls. He has ruled by decree for more than a decade and the Palestinian Authority faces numerous allegations of corruption, which it denies.

Peace talks have stalled since 2014, and Abbas has come under fire for continuing to coordinate with Israel on security issues. Opponents say this allows Israel to occupy the West Bank territory it captured in 1967.

Anger escalated this year when Abbas called off scheduled elections.

Criticism of the methods of the security forces has increased since Banat’s death, and Abbas’s Fatah party has accused Gaza’s Islamist rulers, Hamas and other rival political factions, of being behind them.

Aseel AlBajeh, of the rights group Al-Haq, said she was confronted by men in civilian clothes who pushed her and took her phone when she was filming Sunday’s protest in Ramallah.

“You feel completely in danger because you don’t know whether the person next to you, dressed in completely normal clothes, is going to beat you or not,” said AlBajeh, 26.

” It’s painful. As Palestinians, we have two struggles: one against an occupying power in Israel, and the other against an authoritarian regime.

The Palestinian Journalists Union said journalists were “prevented from covering the events and threatened by forces in plain clothes”. He called on the Palestinian Authority to “prosecute those who attacked journalists and bring them to justice”.

(Edited by Stephen Farrell and Timothy Heritage)

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