[News] PA security forces violently attack demonstration to end sanctions on Gaza

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://samidoun.net/2018/06/pa-security-forces-violently-attack-demonstration-to-end-sanctions-on-gaza/ 



  PA security forces violently attack demonstration to end sanctions on Gaza

June 14, 2018
------------------------------------------------------------------------

PA security forces attacked Palestinian protesters marching in Ramallah 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/palestinian-authority-violently-suppresses-west-bank-protests> 
on Wednesday night, 13 June, as they demanded anend to the PA’s 
sanctions imposed on Gaza 
<http://samidoun.net/2018/06/growing-movement-in-occupied-west-bank-demands-end-to-pa-sanctions-on-gaza-complicity-in-siege/>. 
The Ramallah Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas has imposed a 
series of sanctions on Palestinians in Gaza, including cuts to PA public 
employees’ salaries, delays of medical transfers, restrictions on 
remittances and refusal to pay electricity bills. These sanctions have 
worked in tandem with the siege on Gaza imposed by Israel with the 
cooperation and complicity of Arab regimes, including Egypt, as well as 
the United States and the European Union.

Palestinians launched their campaign to end the sanctions and stand 
together with their fellow Palestinians in Gaza with a march of over 
1500 in Ramallah on 10 June, particularly after over 130 Palestinians in 
Gaza were killed by Israeli occupation forces as they participated in 
the Great Return March 
<http://samidoun.net/2018/04/new-yorkers-protest-gaza-massacre-support-great-return-march/>.

The Great Return March 
<http://samidoun.net/2018/05/massacre-in-gaza-take-action-join-the-protests-and-march-for-return/> 
is an ongoing popular demonstration demanding Palestinian refugees’ 
right to return, denied them for over 70 years, and an end to the siege 
on Gaza. These popular protests have been met with extreme violence and 
brutality by Israeli forces, who have killed children, paramedics and 
journalists as they covered the peaceful demonstrations. Amid these 
struggles in Gaza and the devastating Israeli siege, PA sanctions have 
operated to intensify poverty, unemployment and lack of basic services 
such as electricity.

In response to Palestinians’ expressions of support and unity with their 
sisters and brothers in Gaza, PA security forces unleashed tear gas and 
sound grenades on demonstrators in Ramallah’s city center on Wednesday 
evening. The Wednesday protest followed one on Sunday night in Manara 
Square and several during the day Tuesday in Abu Dis and Ramallah. 
Protesters also gathered in Dheisheh refugee camp 
<http://samidoun.net/2018/06/growing-movement-in-occupied-west-bank-demands-end-to-pa-sanctions-on-gaza-complicity-in-siege/> 
near Bethlehem and Nablus’ Martyrs Square.

Earlier, PA president Abbas’ adviser for local affairs had ordered the 
prohibition of protests before or during the Eid holiday, under the 
pretext that demonstrations would interfere with Eid shopping. On the 
contrary, however, while the demonstrations mobilized crowds in the 
street, only the actions of the PA security in filling the air with tear 
gas and flash bangs made the area unsafe for people.

Prior to the demonstration, which drew hundreds to protest under the 
slogan “Lift the Sanctions!” organizers and journalists reported PA 
security forces deploying throughout the Ramallah city center as well as 
setting up checkpoints to block people traveling from elsewhere to join 
the demonstration. As the march grew, participants reported and widely 
shared on social media through livestreams and tweets that undercover PA 
security forces were attacking people inside the demonstration and that 
PA security were using electric batons against demonstrators and 
confiscating their mobile phones.

Journalists were also attacked, prevented from filming and their cameras 
confiscated by PA forces. Among those detained reportedly were American 
and Turkish journalists. Following the attack, the Palestinian 
Journalists’ Syndicate <http://www.maannews.net/Content.aspx?id=952256> 
denounced the attack and said it would boycott news reports from the 
security services and government until those responsible were held 
accountable.

There were over 40 people detained by PA security, including the 
president of the Bir Zeit student council. In addition, Palestinian 
lawyer Mohammed Karajeh said that the police confiscated the identity 
cards of 10 people taken for hospital treatment, requring them to come 
to the police to receive their identity cards back. Palestinian activist 
Rana Nazzal reported on Twitter that PA security continue to set up 
checkpoints and pursue demonstrators.

It should be noted that PA security forces are trained and supported by 
the United States as well as Canada and the European Union 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/palestinian-authority-violently-suppresses-west-bank-protests>. 
In addition, PA security forces are trained by all of these countries 
because they are institutionally engaged in “security coordination” with 
the Israeli occupation. PA President Abbas has even boasted of the 
utility 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/why-mahmoud-abbas-boasting-jailing-palestines-youth> 
of PA security coordination with Israel in attacking the Palestinian 
resistance.

Various Palestinian organizations denounced the attacks 
<http://www.wattan.tv/ar/news/255862.html>, including the Independent 
Commission on Human Rights, which called for full accountability for 
those responsible for suppressing the demonstration and infiltrating in 
civilian clothes. In addition, the ICHR emphasized the original goal of 
the demonstration – ending the sanctions on Gaza and paying the public 
workers denied their salaries. The Palestinian Bar Association 
<https://twitter.com/qudsn/status/1007169777746497536> also condemned 
the attack on the protesters and called for the lifting of sanctions on 
Gaza.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said 
<http://www.wattan.tv/ar/news/255848.html> that “all those involved in 
the decision to carry out and incite attacks on the demonstrators must 
be held accountable,” emphasizing the need to continue the popular 
movement to reject the sanctions on Gaza.

**

*Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network expresses its support 
and solidarity with the rising movement against the sanctions on Gaza 
and reiterates its call to end Palestinian Authority security 
coordination with the Israeli occupation. The attack on the 
demonstration in Ramallah only shows once more the violence of security 
coordination by the Palestinian Authority against the Palestinian 
people, as those tear gas canisters and batons are never turned on the 
Israeli settlers who come to confiscate land and burn trees nor on the 
Israeli soldiers who nightly invade to seize, imprison or kill 
Palestinian children, youth and adults.*

*The PA sanctions on Gaza cannot be detached from security coordination, 
as they operate hand in hand with the Israeli siege that has been 
systematically targeting Palestinian existence in Gaza for over 11 
years. In addition, the PA sanctions come hand in hand with the role of 
the United States, Canada, the European Union and Arab reactionary 
regimes in the area in bolstering the siege on Gaza rather than 
supporting people struggling for basic rights and freedom. *

*We urge all supporters of Palestine and the Palestinian prisoners to 
join in this movement in their own international context as part of the 
campaign to support the Great Return March and break the siege on Gaza.*

*Organize and join protests at PA missions and embassies in your area. 
One protest is scheduled for London 
<http://samidoun.net/2018/06/17-june-london-end-palestinian-authority-sanctions-on-the-gaza-strip/> on 
17 June, and more are being organized in global cities to demand an end 
to the sanctions on Gaza.  Send your protests and actions to 
samidoun at samidoun.net or contact us on Facebook 
<https://www.facebook.com/SamidounPrisonerSolidarity/>.*

**

One of the most notorious cases of PA security 
<http://samidoun.net/2017/03/eleventh-anniversary-of-israeli-attack-on-jericho-prison-from-ahmad-saadat-to-basil-al-araj/> 
coordination is that of Basil al-Araj 
<http://samidoun.net/2017/03/mass-funeral-for-basil-al-araj-today-in-palestine-protests-in-solidarity-in-new-york-city-elsewhere/>, 
the Palestinian youth organizer assassinated by the Israeli occupation 
forces on 6 March 2017 in el-Bireh. Al-Araj and his comrades were 
previously arrested by the PA and held for a lengthy period without 
charge, going on hunger strike to demand their release. During this 
time, PA officials bragged about capturing them 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/why-mahmoud-abbas-boasting-jailing-palestines-youth> 
as a reflection of their value to the security of the Israeli 
occupation, highlighting them and providing information to the Israeli 
occupation about their alleged actions and plans.

Following their release, al-Araj was assassinated while his comrades 
were imprisoned without charge or trial under Israeli administrative 
detention. The PA attempted to continue pursuing judicial cases against 
them 
<http://samidoun.net/2017/10/imprisoned-comrades-of-basil-al-araj-to-be-on-trial-in-pa-court-again-on-thursday/> 
for some months thereafter until public protest forced the cases to end. 
Demonstrators who called for an end to security coordination with the 
Israeli occupation after al-Araj’s assassination were also violently 
suppressed by PA forces 
<http://samidoun.net/2017/03/protesters-attacked-in-ramallah-by-pa-forces-as-arab-and-international-cities-demonstrate-for-basil-al-araj/>. 
Al-Araj’s father and other family members have participated in the 
ongoing demonstrations to lift the sanctions.

Another infamous instance of PA security coordination with the Israeli 
occupation – as well as the role of the United States and the United 
Kingdom – was the imprisonment of Ahmad Sa’adat 
<http://samidoun.net/2016/03/tenth-anniversary-of-the-attack-on-jericho-prison-and-the-kidnapping-of-ahmad-saadat-by-israeli-occupation/> 
and his comrades. Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front 
for the Liberation of Palestine, and four of his comrades – Ahed Abu 
Ghoulmeh, Majdi Rimawi, Hamdi Qur’an and Basil al-Asmar – were seized by 
PA security forces in 2001 and 2002. These arrests came after the PFLP’s 
military wing assassinated notoriously right-wing, racist Israeli 
Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, known for his advocacy of the “transfer” 
– ie, the complete ethnic cleansing – of all Palestinians from occupied 
Palestine. (Since his death, he has also become notorious for his 
history of sexual assault and corruption 
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-tv-program-rips-image-of-idf-general-zeevi-to-shreds-1.5433503>.) 
This action came in response to the Israeli assassination of Abu Ali 
Mustafa <http://abualimustafa.net/> – then the PFLP’s general secretary 
– with a US-made helicopter-fired missile in his Ramallah office in 
August 2001.

The arrests of Sa’adat and his comrades were carried out at the behest 
of Israel and its international allies and, in the so-called Jericho 
deal, they were transferred to the PA’s Jericho prison and held there 
under U.S. and British guard. During the 2006 Palestinian Legislative 
Council elections, these PA political prisoners became a point of shame 
in the elections. In March 2006, only days before the swearing-in of the 
newly elected PA officials, Israeli occupation forces attacked the 
Jericho prison 
<http://samidoun.net/2018/03/on-the-12th-anniversary-of-the-attack-on-jericho-prison-resistance-continues-until-liberation/> 
and seized Sa’adat and his comrades after U.S. and British guards 
cleared their path. Today, all five – and Fuad Shobaki – are serving 
lengthy sentences in Israeli jails, taken directly from a PA prison.

*Today, the sanctions on Gaza operate as part of one system with the 
Israeli siege and the international imperialist powers and reactionary 
Arab regimes that enable, support and strengthen it. They are a form of 
political pressure on the PA’s rival parties, but more than that, they 
function as a cohesive part of one system with the Israeli occupation – 
another instance of security coordination at the expense of the 
Palestinian people. *

*Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza rely on the salaries of these 
public workers whose income has been cut, especially when over 50 
percent of the population already lives in poverty and unemployment has 
skyrocketed. The demand to end the PA sanctions on Gaza is part and 
parcel of the campaign to end the siege on Gaza and hold all those 
responsible for the deadly siege 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/gaza-hospitals-shut-down-deadly-siege-tightens> 
accountable. Lift the sanctions now! *

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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