Palestinian Authority arresting West Bank activists aftermath of Israel’s offensive on Gaza Strip
Dozens of Palestinian activists have been detained by the PA in the aftermath of Israel’s offensive on Gaza Strip.
Human rights, political organizations called the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank to stop “prosecuting and arresting activists for their political affiliations and expressing their opinions.”
“Lawyers for Justice” group said In a statement, “the Palestinian security services have arrested about 20 activists during the past two weeks,” that happened months after the arrests eased following a presidential decree promoting freedoms.
It explained, “The arrests of more than 20 activists, at least, apart from the summons, came against the background of writings and posts made by activists on social media pages or participating in popular activities in support of occupied Jerusalem and Gaza.”
Added that it had documented “many detainees were beaten and insulted after being deported from their residential areas to the Joint Security Committee prison in Jericho”.
The human rights organization called on the Palestinian government to release the detainees and to “prevent the continued incursion by the security services on the rights and freedoms of the people.”
The International Organization for Supporting the Rights of the Palestinian People “Hashd” confirmed In a statement that it is following with great concern the implementation of the Palestinian security services in the West Bank during the past two days of a political, arbitrary and illegal arrest campaign against political opponents, in particular activists who participated in national activities against the crimes of the Israelp occupation in the Palestinian territories, especially in Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
The commission expressed its anger, specifically that those activists are from political parties or some candidates in electoral lists registered to compete in the legislative elections that canceled by a presidential decree.
In turn, the Palestinian People’s Party called, in a statement, to “stop any prosecutions, summonses or arbitrary arrests of citizens on the grounds of opinion and political affiliation.”
The party demanded the Palestinian government and its authorities “to quickly release those who were arrested in recent weeks by the security services, and to investigate any cases of torture, abuse that any of them were subjected to.”
Dr. Ashraf Dahlan, Commissioner of the “Future List” for the Legislative Council elections, condemned in a press statement published in Wednesday evening, that President Mahmoud Abbas’s security services carried out an arrest campaign against volunteers in the (Future List) campaign.
Dahlan stressed that the list rejects this policy, which expresses legal and moral bankruptcy, and completely contradicts the national unity experienced by our people after the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, and the heroic response to the plans of the occupation in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the occupied territories in 1948.
Dahlan explained that the security services in the West Bank took advantage of the media’s preoccupation with campaigns of solidarity with the Gaza Strip, the political and diplomatic movement for the reconstruction of Gaza, and carried out illegal arrests of citizens.
Dahlan called on all human rights institutions, civil society institutions, factions and forces of our people, and electoral lists to condemn and criminalize what the security services are doing, work to release detainees, and put pressure on the Palestinian Authority to allow the exercise of freedom of opinion and expression.
Ammar Dweik, “The director of the Independent Commission for Human Rights (a governmental institution)”, revealed, on Wednesday, that a meeting included leaders from “Hamas” and “Fatah” movements that took place in the office of the Secretary of the Central Committee of “Fatah” movement, Jibril Rajoub.
He added that during the meeting, “He focused on stopping political detention between the two parties, respecting freedoms, and criminalizing insulting national symbols.”
The Palestinian Authority did not issue any comment on the statements demanding it to release the detainees!!
On February 22, the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, issued a decree stipulating “the strengthening the public freedoms in all the territories of the State of Palestine, including the freedom of political and national action, in accordance with the provisions of the Basic Law and relevant laws.”
