PA must be held accountable for attacking Ramallah protest against Mofaz

PFLP – The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine condemned the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah for its brutal attacks and suppression of a mass march of Palestinian youth in Ramallah on June 30, marching to condemn the planned meeting between PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli war criminal Shaul Mofaz. The march was attacked by members of the Palestinian Authority police and security services; said the Front, these images remind us of what we see in police states and are one of the most important causes of revolution in the Arab countries.

The Front confirmed that it is part of the popular movement that rejects all forms of security coordination, negotiations, and normalization with the occupation, and emphasized that such a movement is both a Palestinian right and national duty in order to protect the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people in this stage. Such an attack on this popular movement is a heinous crime for which those who are responsible must be held accountable without regard to their position or rank, or their responsibility in the seccurity system.

The PFLP expresses its indignation and utmost rejection of these events and emphasizes that the brutal attacks and the resulting physical and moral injuries are crimes for which all must be held accountable from the security in the street to the commanders and ministers responsible for the crimes, beatings and arrests against dozens of the daughters and sons of our people.

We call on all Palestinian organizations working on human rights, the dignity of the citizen, and youth affairs, and in particular the Palestinian NGO network of human rights and humanitarian organizations to take an active role in prosecuting those responsible for this attack on the popular movement to defend Palestinian rights, and bring them to trial for these acts.

The planned meeting with Mofaz had been announced to be “postponed;” however, youth activists noted that it was important to continue with the march so this meeting is not re-scheduled and no such visits scheduled in the future. Palestinian youth, organized by the Youth of Return, Palestinians for Dignity, the Independent Youth Movement and other groups, gathered at the Martyr Yasser Arafat roundabout, marching to the Muqata’, the presidential building. They were prevented from marching by PA security forces who attacked the demonstration, beating and arresting people, a number of whom were taken to hospital, including Hassan Faraj, Mohammad Jaradat, and Hafez Omar, the Palestinian artist well-known for his solidarity image with the prisoners’ hunger strike. Jaradat, a journalist reported that he was assaulted as he was filming the march and assault, and was then arrested when he told the police that he was a working journalist.

Shaul Mofaz, with whom the meeting was planned in Ramallah, is currently the Zionist Deputy Prime Minister, and a long-time prominent military leader. He was the Zionist defense minister who oversaw the siege of the Jenin refugee camp in 2002 and directed the military assaults against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza at the beginning of the second Intifada. Youth activists pointed out that PA President Abbas was willing to meet him and welcome him to Ramallah, the home of the victims of his crimes, while he refrained from travelling to London out of fear of a warrant for his arrest for war crimes due to an international legal campaign to hold such war criminals accountable. The youth instead demanded that Mofaz be arrested in Ramallah, not welcomed.

The PFLP earlier condemned the planned meeting with Mofaz as an attack on Palestinian national interests.