Gaza protests against oppression in the West Bank

Hundreds of Palestinians joined a demonstration organised by the Islamic Resistance Movement in Gaza City on Wednesday evening to protest against the suppression of freedoms in the West Bank. They called on the Palestinian unity government to respect the terms of the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas.

The protesters carried Palestinian flags and chanted slogans demanding that the Palestinian Authority security service should release all political prisoners, stop attacking demonstrators and end suppression in the occupied territories.

“The Palestinian security service targets prisoners’ wives and their families, journalists and media personnel and assaults the leaders of the Palestinian people,” said Abdul-Rahman Shadid of Hamas, himself an ex-prisoner of the Israelis. “This provides a free service to the Israeli occupation and hinders the reconciliation.”

Shadid demanded the Palestinian parties and the consensus government to move forward with the reconciliation and to respect all agreements signed in Cairo, Doha and Gaza. He called on them to provide an appropriate atmosphere for reconciliation and not to hinder constructive efforts by using oppressive security practices in the West Bank. Among the demands of the protesters was that the right to demonstrate peacefully should be upheld by the PA and all political prisoners held by the authority should be released.

Hamas MP Hassan Yousef accused the Palestinian security service of “daily violations” against the movement’s supporters in the West Bank, even after the reconciliation. Speaking at a news conference in his office in Ramallah on Tuesday, he noted that the arrests and violations against Hamas supporters increased by nearly 50-fold after the reconciliation agreement. “We organised a protest on Monday in Ramallah, in solidarity with the prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails, but the security services attacked the demonstrators and confiscated the movement’s banners.” Yousef claimed that he was assaulted by security officers who also arrested a dozen or so Hamas supporters; although five were released after a few hours, the others remain in detention.

A spokesman for the security services denied the allegations. Adnan Dmeiri accused the Hamas leadership of seeking to escalate the internal situation in the West Bank. He claimed that Hamas legislator Yousef attacked security officers and sprayed gas in their faces. “Yousef’s accusations are lies and slander against Palestinian security,” insisted Dmeiri.