PA minister will resign after protests over activist’s murder

The Minister of Labour in the Palestinian Authority, Nasri Abu Jaish, is going to resign, a member of his party announced yesterday, as protesters marched for a fourth day demanding that President Mahmoud Abbas should step down. The left-wing Palestinian People’s Party has withdrawn from the Fatah-led PA due to “its lack of respect for laws and public freedoms,” explained Issam Abu Bakr.

Demonstrations against the PA erupted on Thursday following the arrest and killing in custody of activist Nizar Banat. Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq has accused the PA security forces of “attacking protesters with batons and rocks”, while dragging others to the ground and beating them. A number have sustained head injuries.

Nizar Banat, 43, was a social and political activist who accused Abbas’s PA of corruption. He was scathing about the short-lived Covid-19 vaccine exchange with Israel earlier this month and Abbas’s postponement of a long-delayed election in May. Banat had registered as a parliamentary candidate for that contest.

According to an initial autopsy, the visible injuries on his body indicated that he had been beaten on the head, chest, neck, legs and hands. There was less than an hour between his arrest and his death, said pathologist Samir Abu Zarzour. According to Banat’s family, the security forces used pepper spray on him, beat him with iron bars and batons, and dragged him away in a vehicle.

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Meanwhile, protestors waving Palestinian flags and pictures of Banat are calling for an end to Abbas’s 16-year rule. “We want total political reform that will truly reflect the interests of the people,” said one.

Human rights groups point out that Abbas regularly arrests critics. A Human Rights Watch official said that Banat’s arrest was “no anomaly”.

Abbas and the PA, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, rejected accusations that it is corrupt; a recent report suggests otherwise. They also deny that Palestinians are arrested due to their political views.