Afgelopen donderdag bracht Middle East Eye het bericht dat de Palestijnse Autoriteit (PA)
op de West Bank solidaritetisdemonstraties van Palestijnen met hun lotgenoten in de in de Gazastrook heeft neergeslagen….. De Gazastrook ofwel de openluchtgevangenis waar de Israëlische terreurstaat sinds maart al meer dan
125 ongewapende Palestijnen heeft vermoord en duizenden mensen heeft verwond (van wie een aantal ernstig)……
De
demonstranten wijzen voorts op de Palestijnse Autoriteit die de
Palestijnse bevolking in de Gazastrook sancties heeft opgelegd. Zo
betaalde deze PA de elektriciteitslevering voor de Gazastrook niet
meer*, waar uiteraard de gewone Palestijn het meest onder lijdt…..
Niet
vreemd dus dat de protesten erop gericht zijn de sancties (want dat
zijn het) tegen de Gazastrook ofwel de blokkade van deze openluchtgevangenis** moet stoppen, zeker gezien het effect van die
sancties op de bevolking, zoals het ontbreken van elektriciteit voor het grootste
deel van de dag (nu zou er 4 uur per dag elektriciteit worden geleverd, eerder was dit 2 uur, zoals je ook in het hieronder
opgenomen artikel kan lezen)……
De
politie en veiligheidstroepen van de Palestijnse Aurtoriteit gingen
overigens met fiks geweld tekeer tegen de demonstranten……..
Jammer
dat de schrijver van het artikel niet wijst op de illegaliteit van
het presidentschap zoals
bekleed door de Palestijnse ‘president’ Abbas, wiens termijn al in 2009 afliep……. Uit angst
dat Hamas ook de macht op de West bank zou overnemen (middels verkiezingen), zijn er sinds die tijd geen
verkiezingen meer georganiseerd…..
Weg met Abbas, zo snel mogelijk, met een dergelijke president heeft het zo geterroriseerde Palestijnse volk geen vijand nodig…….
Palestinian
Authority Police Violently Suppress Protest in Solidarity With Gaza
June
14, 2018 at 9:53 pm
Written by Middle
East Eye
Demonstrators
had denounced ‘shameful’ Palestinian Authority (PA) sanctions in
Gaza; activists vow that protests will continue.
(MEE) — Palestinians
reacted with anger and condemnation on Thursday to Palestinian
Authority (PA) national security forces violently repressing a
protest the night before in the West Bank city of Ramallah, during
which demonstrators had demanded to lift
punitive PA measures on the Gaza Strip.
PA
security forces used sound grenades and tear gas and shot
bullets into the air to disperse protesters, also confiscating
cameras and smartphones, damaging several while ordering journalists
not to interview demonstrators.
The
forces also arrested 46 protesters, according to the human
rights centre Addameer,
none of whom had been released at the time of publication.
Around
10 protesters were hospitalised, only to have their IDs confiscated
by the police.
On
Tuesday, just a day before the planned demonstration, the PA had
banned all forms of protests until the end of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim
holiday at the end of the month of Ramadan, on Friday.
Protesters accused
the PA of threatening and attempting to intimidate activists
participating in the ‘Campaign to Lift PA Sanctions on Gaza’.
The
PA has not officially commented on Wednesday’s events.
Meanwhile,
the PA had also called for a counter-protest in the northern West
Bank city of Nablus to “pledge allegiance to President Abbas”,
and to “push back infiltrators and the US paid outside actors.”
Rula
Abu Dahu, the spokeswoman of the Campaign to Lift PA Sanctions on
Gaza, told Middle East Eye that the PA was collectively punishing
Gazans.
“Of
course, the Israeli occupation, which controls land, sea and air, is
responsible for the situation in Gaza. But we will not accept PA’s
sanctions on top of the Israeli siege.”
Abu
Dahu said that Wednesday’s demonstration was the first major
Palestinian protest against the Palestinian Authority’s actions in
Gaza.
“Palestinians
protest against the Israeli occupation. But people are killed in Gaza
by Israeli snipers, and you have the PA imposed sanctions on our
brothers and sisters in Gaza. It is unacceptable and shameful,” Abu
Dahu added.
‘Dayton’s
Forces’
Palestinians
on social media called the security forces who crushed Wednesday’s
protests “Dayton’s forces”, and accused them of being an
arm of both the Israeli military occupation and an extension of PA
President Mahmoud Abbas’ efforts to crush political dissent in the
West Bank.
The
term was an allusion to Keith Dayton, the former US security
coordinator for Israel and the PA. Dayton retired in 2010 from his
mission after spending five years rebuilding the National Security
Forces, which in essence serves as the Palestinian Authority’s
army.
Under
Dayton command, 3,100 of the more than 40,000 members of the PA
security forces were trained in military camps in Jordan. MEE
has not found solid evidence that the officers operating in Ramallah
on Wednesday night were in fact trained by Dayton.
One
social media user called the PA a “bunch of corrupt fascists
protected by security forces with the gang mentality of
Blackwater. These people are completely detached from the reality of
the rest of the Palestinian people.”
The
Gaza Strip, which is currently governed by the Hamas movement, has
been under an Israeli-Egyptian siege since 2007, after political
tension between Fatah and Hamas developed into military clashes which
led Hamas to expel Fatah figures from the enclave.
Palestinians
in Gaza, where some 80
percent of the population is dependent on foreign aid to survive,
have felt the consequences of this internal Palestinian political
conflict.
This
week’s protests come more than a month after the Palestinian
Authority cut in half the salaries of its estimated 50,000 employees
in the Gaza Strip without
warning.
Last
summer, the PA stopped
paying for Gaza’s electricity,
leaving the enclave’s residents with only two hours of electricity
a day – compared to a paltry eight hours previously.
Abu
Dahu said that the PA has always tried to depict the sanctions on
Gaza as punitive measures against Hamas.
“I
refuse to engage with this argument of a Fatah and Hamas conflict,
because if look closely, you will see that the PA cuts salaries of
employees that belong to Fatah in Gaza, not Hamas.” Abu Dahu said.
“Those who they are actually punishing are normal people.”
“أبو عمار وقالها … فتح وإحنا رجالها”
الفيديو لمشهد قمع واعتقال أحد المشاركين في التظاهرة قبل تسليمه للأجهزة الأمنية. #ارفعوا_العقوبات
(in dit twitterbericht zit een video die ik niet weet over te nemen, klik hier voor het origineel)
Translation:
The members of the Fatah movement who participated in the repression
yesterday entered the protest with white caps on which there were a
kuffiyeh and the slogan of the Storm (Fatah
special forces): “Abu
Ammar (former
PA President Yasser Arafat) said
it… we are Fatah’s men”. The video shows them repressing and
arresting of one of the demonstration participants before turning him
over to security forces. #Liftthesanctions
Palestinian
factions including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP) and Hamas, as well as Palestinian journalist and lawyer
syndicates, have issued statements condemning the violence used
against protesters.
Jama
Jumaa, a Palestinian activist who participated in the protest,
told MEE that demonstrators were demanding what the Palestinian
National Council, which last held a session in April, had already
agreed upon.
“The
national council headed by Abbas agreed to lift the PA sanctions on
people in Gaza, which is what the protesters demand,” he said.
“But
this shows you that the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s
national council is just a facade for the PA, which has the final say
on the sanctions.”
Jumaa
added that the protests would continue after the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
“The
PA’s forces acted in a brutal, thuggish and dictatorial way last
night. Everyone is shocked. The way the security forces behaved goes
against the history of the Palestinian struggle,” Jumaa said.
He
added that Palestinian activists were studying a campaign to ask
people to stop dealing with PA forces – include police,
intelligence, presidential guards, and the national forces.
He
said that the campaign would specifically ask European countries to
stop funding these forces.
“The
US and Europe are the main funders of these forces, but 30 percent of
their budget comes from taxes paid by Palestinians in the West Bank.”
The
Campaign to Lift PA Sanctions on Gaza also condemned the PA’s use
of force and the continued implementation of sanctions.
“These
sanctions are daggers placed in the heart of our cause and our unity.
This is a dagger which accentuates division and political and social
rifts. Such acts on behalf of the PA towards Gaza are further
widening the internal political split between the two ruling parties
of the West Bank and Gaza,” it said in a statement.
The
protests come at a difficult time for 83-year-old Abbas, who was
recently hospitalised for a week with a lung infection.
Polls
show the majority of Palestinians want him to resign.
He
is also facing potential isolation after cutting off all contact with
US President Donald Trump’s administration because of its
pro-Israel bias which has seen it recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s
capital, and seek to push a so-called “deal of the century” peace
settlement on the PA leadership through pressure exerted via Saudi
Arabia.
By MEE
staff / Republished
with permission / Middle
East Eye / Report
a typo
====================================================
* De fascistische apartheidsstaat Israël heeft de energievoorziening in de Gazastrook weggebombardeerd (een oorlogsmisdaad van formaat!), waardoor de Palestijnen nu afhankelijk zijn van elektriciteitslevering uit Israël (hoe cynisch kan een zaak zijn……)….. De Palestijnse Autoriteit betaalt deze levering van stroom, althans dat is de bedoeling…….
** Een blokkade die Israël gebruikt om de Palestijnen zo min mogelijk goederen (ook humanitaire goederen) te laten toekomen, iets dat zonder meer als oorlogsmisdaad en misdaad tegen de menselijkheid kan worden aangemerkt……..
