Arab Organization for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) called on the European Union and all supporters of the Palestinian Authority and its security services to exert maximum pressure to stop the repressive practices it takes against activists.
AOHR UK stressed that the continued support that the PA and its security services receive from the EU and other parties is unacceptable as it uses this to train security services to oppress the Palestinian people, in violation of the values and rights the EU supports.
After the killing of the activist Nizar Banat at the hands of the security services, and despite the identification of the perpetrators and those who gave orders, they are still not held accountable, nationally or internationally.
The ongoing impunity enjoyed by the PA and its security services leads to more brutal practices against the Palestinian people.
Over the past days, all lines were crossed by the PA security forces which dismissed vigils in the center of Ramallah demanding accountability for Nizar’s killers and arrested intellectuals, writers and activists of both sexes who planned to participate in the vigils.
According to AOHR UK, such action is a clear message that the PA security forces violate the law and ignore all local and international calls to stop the violations.
AOHR UK pointed out that the practices of the security services have doubles the suffering of the Palestinian people under occupation, as life has become very hard under the siege on the Gaza Strip, daily arrests in the West Bank, and the use of lethal force to disperse demonstrations, demolishing homes, building settlements, and making the movement of people between cities and villages very difficult.
These ongoing illegal and brutal practices of the security services exhausts the Palestinian people and weakens their resistance against the occupation, for which all forces should take a serious stance to stop these violations and hold perpetrators accountable.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister bear full responsibility for these crimes, and they must stop the security services from oppressing citizens and refer the file of Nizar Banat’s killing to the appropriate court, and not to intervene in the investigation and trial procedures.
