Reports indicating that 43 cases of arbitrary arrests were recorded for political reasons by the Palestinian Authority (Anatolia)

Ramallah -

“It is a sad thing. Yesterday, the occupation entered the Jenin camp for the 30th time, and today we woke up to gunfire between the National Authority and the resistant youth.” With these words, the leader of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement “Fatah,” Jamal Hwail, began a video clip, in which he presented an initiative to contain the escalating tension. Between the Authority and Palestinian resistance.

According to a source in Jenin who spoke to Al Jazeera Net, the tension began with the Palestinian Authority arresting two resistance members from Jenin, followed by gunmen seizing the weapons of Palestinian police officers in Nablus, and the security services responded with more arrests and prosecution of the participants in the incident.

Later, the city witnessed tension between the security services affiliated with the authority and the residents and militants of the camp against the backdrop of arrests, which included shooting at the security services complex (the district). The Jenin Brigade, affiliated with the Islamic Jihad Movement, announced that the security services arrested a number of its fighters in recent days.

While the Mag! and Mo of Tubas and the Al-Far'a camp were guarding their area at dawn on Wednesday, and making their periodic rounds to monitor any suspicious movements indicating an imminent raid that might be carried out by the occupation army, the security forces of the Authority pursued them and opened fire on them, so the Mag! and the Mo of responded by firing on the authority's headquarters in Tubas and closing the Entries... pic.twitter.com/VaApNDppZ7

- Metras (@MetrasWebsite) February 14, 2024

"Outlaws"

These developments come while the occupation is waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, and while the Palestinian street in the West Bank is boiling as a result of the occupation and settlers’ attacks, which have left hundreds of martyrs and thousands wounded.

Meanwhile, the General Political Commissioner and official spokesman for the security establishment, Major General Talal Dweikat, announced that the Palestinian security services in Jenin Governorate “arrested two people involved in an attack on two police officers in Nablus, and confiscated two weapons they were in possession of.”

According to a press statement by the spokesman, “a group of outlaws attacked two Palestinian policemen while they were on official duty in the Nablus Governorate last Saturday evening.” He pledged that "the security services will continue their efforts to pursue the remaining members of the group to arrest them and bring them to Palestinian justice."

Last Monday, Dweikat told the official news agency that “the security services and the police were able to arrest some people in Bethlehem and other governorates, accused of inciting sectarian strife,” saying that they “made clear and frank preliminary confessions indicating that they carried out these actions to attack our unity and our societal fabric.”

Hawail Initiative

In light of the state of tension, Leader Hawiel took the initiative to announce his initiative. He said, "In light of this situation, it is shameful for us to get into internal problems in the West Bank. We are required to be united in defending Gaza to stop the aggression."

He added, "There are disputes taking place inside the street in Jenin, specifically accusing the authority of treason, and accusing the resistant youth of breaking the law and destabilizing security. If we continue with the same accusations, we will not achieve anything." He continued, "We must sit on the basis of respect and tolerance. The occupation does not want Fatah, nor the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), nor Jihad. It does not want anyone from the Palestinian people, so we must sit with love and brotherhood."

Hawiel set general principles in his initiative, which are: shooting at security headquarters is forbidden, and shooting at citizens and resistance is forbidden.

The Fatah leader confirmed, "We are all losers in the attack or any injury, whether in security or resistance." He said that he received calls from different levels to discuss his initiative, but it had not yet matured into a dialogue or solution that would end the tension, reiterating his emphasis that everyone is required to stand up to their responsibilities.

He called on the wise men of both parties to sit down, dialogue, and reach a conclusion. He said, “Jenin camp was invaded 30 times, not to suppress thugs and outlaws, as some say, but because these are resistance fighters. The camp offered 100 martyrs and was completely destroyed for their sake, and the authority (members) are not "Spies."

Palestinian Authority forces forcefully and with smoke bombs disperse a march in support of Gaza in Jenin #Gaza_War #Video pic.twitter.com/40zeY72bpd

- Al Jazeera Palestine (@AJA_Palestine) February 12, 2024

Legal data

Among those recently detained was the young man, Ubadah Al-Zaben, from the village of Asira, north of Nablus, who was arrested 5 days ago, and his detention was extended for 15 days, according to his mother, May Al-Zaben.

Ubadah's mother denies that her son was "out of the law" or engaged in "sectarian strife," adding that he was a former detainee of the occupation before he turned 16 years old. Where he spent about 3 and a half years, and was repeatedly arrested by the authorities.

She added that Abada was brought before a Palestinian court on Wednesday and his detention was extended without revealing the charges against him, adding, "There is no freedom of expression. Anyone who greets a prisoner or posts on social networks will be prosecuted." She said, "The situation is no longer tolerable, and what is required of the Palestinian Authority and the security services is to be with the people and not against them."

Since the start of the aggression on Gaza last October, Palestinian human rights bodies have documented dozens of cases of arbitrary detention for political reasons, including those wanted by the occupation.

The monthly reports of the Independent Commission for Human Rights indicate that 43 cases of arbitrary detention for political reasons were recorded, the highest of which was last January, when 13 cases were recorded, in addition to violations related to what is known as detention under the custody of the governor, and failure to implement court decisions.

As for the Committee of Families of Political Prisoners in the West Bank, it said that two detainees have been on a hunger strike for several months in the authority’s prisons in Nablus, refusing to be arrested.

She adds, on her Facebook page, that she has monitored 900 cases of political arrests during 2023, in addition to hundreds of cases of suppression of freedoms, raids, and summonses.

Observers believe that the Palestinian Authority’s arrest of resistors harms it as an institution in the stage of liberation (Anatolia)

Fears of authority

In his review of the cases of arrest on political grounds, the director of the Yabous Center for Studies, Suleiman Bisharat, says that the authority and its security services “are trying to exercise their role with the logic that they impose the law, and this has both a positive and a negative side.” He added that the positive side is not to allow the existence of a vacuum that the occupation seeks to create in various ways because it "seeks to weaken the concept of self-management of Palestinian internal affairs in order to justify its later intervention in this matter."

Hence, Bisharat adds, the Palestinian Authority and the security services are seeking to impose their control and presence, even by force, “because they fear the explosion of anger in the street, which feels internal pressure from the occupation’s practices, at a time when the authority does not provide it with security.”

He points out the emergence of comparisons in the street between resistance work and official security work, and says: “There are those who view official work as being consistent with Israeli policies, reaching the point of being accused of treason and submission to the occupation’s agendas, but from a political perspective, the security institution has a role, limits, and starting points within which it operates.” .

Bsharat rules out that the recent arrests in Jenin are related to what the Hebrew media reported about a Palestinian-Israeli meeting to calm the West Bank front, and believes that this news comes “as part of a programmed process of distorting the behavior of the authority and trying to pressure it, blackmail it, and weaken the street’s confidence in it.”

However, he says that the absence of a convincing Palestinian narrative shakes confidence between the street and the security services, and makes him trust more the Israeli media’s narrative.

In general, Bisharat believes that the behavior of the authority, especially the arrest of resistance fighters, “harms it as an institution that existed on the path to liberation from occupation, and this may be the result of mistakes within programmed or spontaneous policies in light of the lack of clarity in the hierarchy of the security services, the absence of its references, and the absence of the Legislative Council (Parliament).”

Source: Al Jazeera