President Abbas Allies Abandon Him, Calls For his Resignation
New calls to protest against the crimes of the Palestinian Authority and the corruption of its institutions, demanding Mahmoud Abbas to leave during demonstrations in several cities in the occupied West Bank raising slogans says “The people want to overthrow the regime.” the Palestinian Authority to resign immediately.
Al-Salihi stressed, “The People’s Party cannot continue in a government can’t protect freedoms, democratic and social rights, and is unable to arrest those responsible for the murder of dissident Nizar Banat, including the vaccine deal.”
Al-Salihi added: “The Palestinian People’s Party demands the government to resign immediately.” He called for an immediate dialogue for all forces in order to prevent a deterioration in the internal Palestinian situation, and to form a national consensus government, a constituent assembly for the State of Palestine, and to emphasize the priority of national liberation to end Israeli occupation.
A member of the Fatah Central Committee, Abbas Zaki, commented on the assassination of Palestinian activist Nizar Banat at the hands of the security services in the occupied West Bank.
Zaki said in statements; “We condemned Nizar Banat death, everyone was shocked” he said.
Nizar Banat, 44, died after what his family said was a violent arrest by PA security forces early Thursday, including being beaten with batons.
Dr. Samir Abu Zaarour, a forensic pathologist for the Independent Commission for Human Rights who attended an autopsy on Banat, said the death was “unnatural” and ruled out a heart attack or stroke.
He told reporters that injuries on Banat’s body indicated he had been beaten on the head, chest, neck, legs and hands.
Banat’s family, accused over twenty PA officers of violently beating him.
Mohammed Banat, a cousin who witnessed the arrest, said a group of men, some wearing masks, burst into the house where Nizar was staying and sprayed everyone with pepper spray.
“They beat Nizar with batons on his head and body,” he told The Associated Press. “They did not identify themselves and we did not recognize them. They arrested Nizar and disappeared.”
He told Palestinian reporters outside the Banat home in Dura, that the “vicious beating” lasted eight minutes.
Other members of Banat’s family accused security forces of “hitting him on the head with wooden sticks and bits of iron” and “deliberately murdering” him.
The death ignited fury on the Palestinian street. In Ramallah, thousands of protesters tried to march to the PA’s headquarters, chanting “The people want the downfall of the regime,” and “Abbas, you are not one of us, take your dogs and leave.”
Palestinian security forces fired tear gas at the marchers and beat people with wooden batons.
The leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Sami Abu Zuhri said that the movement condemns what he described as the crime of assassinating Nizar Banat. Abu Zuhri also called for the trial of those he described as murderers. He added that Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh bears the primary responsibility for what happened.
For its part, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine held the Palestinian Authority responsible for what it described as the assassination of the national opposition activist Nizar Banat, by arresting him and his death a few hours after this arrest.
The Front indicated in a press statement that this incident opens again the discussion about the nature of the role and function of the authority and its security services, and what the statement called the violation of the democratic rights of citizens through the policy of silencing, prosecution, arrest and killing. The Front emphasized that this event should not be kept silent and that it should not go unnoticed.
