The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor strongly condemned the repressive practices by the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) security services against peaceful protests saying such policies are deeply concerning.
Euro-Med said the PA’s reaction to protests is no less than a serious failure to abide by the international laws and treaties ratified by the PA.
Incidents of abuse and excessive use of force against protesters by the security services have been documented by Euro-Med’s team. The security services have cracked down on several demonstrations taking place on Friday afternoon in different cities of the West Bank added the non-profit watchdog.
One of the incidents cited by Euro-Med was that of Jamil Karama who was beaten during a demonstration in al-Khalil by the security services on the head and face and other parts of the body while his wife was trying to stand in between.
A number of journalists filming the incident were also assaulted. Malik Jbari a photographer said he was beaten and arrested by the Palestinian security for hours after confiscating his phone for filming the attack on Jamil Karama and his wife.
Journalist Abdul Karim Msaytef was also arrested after he documented the security services’ attack on a demonstration in Ramallah while youths threw stones at security guards preventing them from reaching the PA headquarters.
According to another testimony by journalist Assem Shenar the security services in Nablus opened fire at Hisham Beshkar at the city’s roundabout and armed men disguised in civilian clothing chased him and then fired at journalist Shenar as well while he was documenting the incident.
Several demonstrations were staged in different cities of the West Bank following calls to express their opposition to the Israeli occupation. Hamas the PA’s rival also called on its supporters to take part in demonstrations commemorating its founding yesterday.
Despite the conflicting narratives of the organizers of the demonstrations and the Palestinian Authority officials regarding the events eyewitnesses said the security forces had been pre-equipped to rally near the locations of the demonstrations with sticks and weapons especially in al-Khalil. The security forces also dressed in civilian clothes in the demonstration taking place in Nablus.
“The testimonies we have gathered and the videos we collected show no sign of protesters starting to assault the security services. But even if that did happen the inhumane and brutal beating by the security men cannot be justified” said Sarah Pritchett Euro-Med’s spokeswoman.
Testimonies and videotapes also show the security services’ excessive use of force against protesters violating their right to peaceful assembly. This use of force was indiscriminate disproportionate and deliberate.
Khawla Alian was injured while participating in a June 13 demonstration in Ramallah that demanded the PA’s lifting of sanctions on Gaza. In the demonstration masked members of the security services threw a sound bomb under her feet resulting in a deep injury.
Mu’tasim Hamid and Mohammed Majid Hassan were also beaten after participating in the same demonstration. Members of the General Intelligence Service detained Hasan until dawn the next day and interrogated him about the reasons for his participation in the demonstration.
Suha Badran Dar Jbara has been held since November 3 in Jericho’s Central Prison until today. She was on an open hunger strike on November 22 in protest of her bad conditions.
Jbara’s father said he was able to visit his daughter who was clearly tortured. She was beaten with sticks on her hands and feet deprived of sleep for three days in a row. Jbara said his daughter told him during the visit that the interrogators were making her watch some of the young detainees being tortured and that she could not sleep because of that.
An urgent investigation should start into these horrible incidents said Sarah Pritchett calling on the Palestinian Authority to stop arbitrary arrests torture and to immediately release the detainees on political grounds and to ensure the protection of Palestinians’ public freedoms including their right to peaceful assembly.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor called on the Palestinian Authority to stop all forms of torture in its prisons and to abide by the guarantees of fair trials.
