Dahlan slams PA for arresting political figures in West Bank 

Former Palestinian security minister, Mohammad Dahlan, yesterday denounced the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s arrest of political figures in the West Bank.

Dahlan warned that arresting political and human rights figures, electoral list candidates, freed prisoners, political activists and journalists, goes against the “political freedoms which President Mahmoud Abbas’ aides have been calling for.” He added that a female diplomat was recently detained after her father criticised the PA’s actions on social media.

“The PA’s repressive policy threatens our civil and societal peace, increases division and widens the gap between this leadership and Palestinian society,” Dahlan said on Facebook.

The PA denies carrying out political arrests despite the reports of human rights organisations to the contrary.

In recent weeks scores of Palestinians have been detained during protests calling for an end to the PA’s repression, following the brutal murder by security forces of Nizar Banat an outspoken critic of the PA.

Fifty-nine-year-old Dahlan was expelled from Fatah’s ruling body in 2011 on allegations of plotting to overthrow Abbas and has been living in exile in the UAE since 2012.

He was the former head of the Fatah-dominated Preventive Security Force in the Gaza Strip.

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