2021-07-06

West Bank

Human Rights Defenders / West Bank / Core Program / position paper

The Policy of Incitement and Intimidation Is Inevitably a Failure and The Will of The People Will Inevitably Win

MUSAWA - The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession expresses its condemnation and denunciation of the police and members of the security services assaulting its executive director with pepper gas while she was in front of the police station in Al-Balou' in the city of Al-Bireh yesterday evening, Monday 5/7/2021, during a sit-in for the families, including children,  of detainees held by the security services to demand an end to political detention. This was accompanied by severe beatings, dragging, hair pulling, biting, insults, accusations, insults and incitement against the protesters, as well as the threat through pointing weapons to the protesters from the detainees’ families, human rights defenders, activists and community activists, in addition to the arrest of at least fifteen people, three of whom were transported in Military ambulances for treatment as a result of the assault on them during their arrest The Center expresses its strong anger at the continued use of the security approach and police repression against citizens.

While the Center deplores the announcement of the arrest of a citizen who was severely beaten until he passed out, which led to his transfer to the hospital, today, in a deliberate forgetting of the assault and his detention since yesterday.

The Center confirms, as documented by the human rights organizations team, that the uncontrollable barbaric assault was carried out against the citizens who were present to demand the cessation of political detention by a regime claiming to be a freedom regime, and that the campaign of beatings and arrests was carried out by large numbers of policemen and a special squad from the security services that were called to disperse the sit-in by force, including the participation of the policewomen, who participated in beating, dragging, inciting and arresting women under direct orders from the dispatched security squad. Also, the Center Points out that the security and police forces transformed Al-Manara Square earlier yesterday into a military barracks more than half an hour before the set and announced date for the stand rejecting the torture and killing of the candidate for the Legislative Council elections, the community activist Nizar Banat, and the security services checking the IDs of the passersby or heading to Al-Manara Roundabout and arresting citizens, most of whom are community figures known for their national and development presence, which led to the families of these detainees heading to the police station where they were detained, accompanied by their children, who were later joined by media professionals, lawyers, representatives of legal institutions and community activists. The Center condemns preventing the media from filming and documenting the attacks on the protesters, and journalists were beaten and prevented from filming with their phones, either by arrest or direct threat.

MUSAWA - The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession,  stresses that the pain of dignity is more severe and more aching than the pain of the body, and that what the police did in a blatant violation of the Basic Law and the axioms of the rules of conduct and duty, and bypassing the role in a way that expresses a moral, ethical and legal collapse that nullifies the rule of law and turns against it to perpetuate a repressive police regime based on the interest of the ruling elite away from the rule of law and respect for human rights and dignity. We see that what is happening is the conflict between the interests of this elite and the interests of its people, in a way that it sees its people as an enemy that must be undermined, and it has begun to see that people’s goals and aspirations for freedom are as a threat to its interests and a contrast with its dominance, despotism, exclusivity, possession, and delusion that it will remain, and that its domination will perpetuate its survival.

Human experiences had proven that human society is resilient to submission and submissiveness, that dignity is the title of citizenship, that repression in all its forms, arrests and even murders will not stop people’s demands and will not push them to acquiesce and abdicate, and that any regime, any government, and all forms of tyranny and labeling people of betrayal do not protect or secure the existence of any political leadership which has no alternative but to respond to the demands of its people. We wrote a lot and issued dozens of memoranda, statements and position papers, and made it clear that compromising the rights of the citizen, their physical integrity, and their human dignity is a crime that does not fall under any statute of limitations and contradicts the National Charter, the Declaration of Independence, the introduction to the Basic Law and its chapters and international covenants, and contradicts the facts of history. Despite of all the torture and persecution our people, he is still a living and vibrant people clinging to hope, confident of its freedom and independence on the land and the people, and that the policy of coercion and forcing, tampering with its rights and trying to silence its voice are all doomed to inevitable failure, even if sacrifices are excessive.

While we reaffirm the need to stop the approach of self-destruction and our refusal to be drawn into internal fighting, chaos and disorder, we demand the arrest of all members of the security and police squad that attacked citizens and the dismissal of their officials and the arrest, accountability and isolation of everyone involved in the killing of activist Nizar Banat and to stop violating freedom of opinion and expression. We also call for holding periodic general elections in compliance with the right of the people to choose their leaders and representatives in government whereas the policy of incitement and intimidation has inevitably failed and the will of the people is inevitably victorious.

Issued on: 06-07-2001

MUSAWA