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Saturday 30th June started as a protest against the
invitation of Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud
Abbas extended to former Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)
Chief-of-Staff and former Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz.
Following massive opposition to the visit, from the independent
Palestinian youth movements, as well as from political parties
across the board , the PA postponed the visit. Mofaz was
Chief-of-Staff of the IOF from 1998 until 2003, and then Israeli
Defence Minister from 2003 until 2006, making him directly
responsible for Israeli war crimes during the Second Intifada
and the during the 2006 war against Lebanon. Under his
command, the IOF carried out numerous atrocities, such
as the massacre in Jenin refugee camp in 2002 and the
murder of thousands of Palestinian civilians, including
hundreds of children.
Despite the alleged postponement of the meeting, the
demonstrators decided to continue with the planned protest
in order to underline their fury that such an invitation was
issued in the first place, and to stress that no such meeting
should occur with representatives of the Israeli occupation.
Some 200 people gathered at Al-Manara Square in the centre
of Ramallah, and began to move towards the Muqata'a, the
fortress-like base of the PA. On their way people in the streets
joined the protest and the crowd swelled to almost 1000 people.
Before the protestors could reach close to the Muqata'a, lines
of PA police formed human chains to block the road. Protesters
managed to break through these and continued as far as the
taxi stations on Al-Irsal street, where they were met by a second
line of police. Demanding to reach the Muqata'a to deliver a
message that they refuse to return to negotiations under the
current conditions, and that the invitation of Mofaz to any
area at least formally under PA control is an insult to all
who have been murdered by the IOF, and to the thousands
of prisoners still in Israeli jails.
Women led the Saturday demonstration from the front,
and faced the initial onslaught of the PA police and
mukhabarat. The repression started with plain-clothed
thugs attacking members of the crowd with telescopic
batons and metal chains, dragging people along the
ground to the police station next to Al-Manara Square.
There the protesters were beaten and then released to
be treated at hospital for their injuries. From witness
reports, the majority of Saturday's violence was
perpetrated by the mukhabarat, the plain-clothed
secret police who often outnumber uniformed police
at political events in Ramallah and other Palestinian
cities.
While the pale-blue shirts of the PA civilian police
delegated much of the brutality to the plain-clothed
mukhabarat on Saturday, yesterday (Sunday 1st July)'s
violence surpassed that of the day before, with the
PA police enthusiastically demonstrating their complete
opposition to popular manifestations of discontent
within Area A. While Saturday's march was organised
specifically to protest Mahmoud Abbas's invitation to
Mofaz, yesterday's demonstration was in response to
the regime's violence, which resulted in some 20 people
being treated in hospital for their injuries and three
seriously injured.
Starting from Al-Manara Square, demonstrators,
Starting from Al-Manara Square, demonstrators,
numbering around 500, marched in formation towards
the scene of Saturday's worst violence. Linking arms
and stamping their feet in defiance of the line of
baton-wielding police who awaited them, the demonstrators
stopped some ten metres from the police lines. The chief
of the PA police in Ramallah remonstrated with the crowd
for about ten or fifteen minutes, but the crowd moved
forward. Many mainly female protesters managed to
move past the police lines, causing the police line to
temporarily break and reform twenty metres behind its
original position. At this point the police, who had their
batons drawn from the very start, started to beat protesters.
People tried as best as they could to defend themselves,
but the police surged forward, striking people as they
held their hands in the air. The police operation was
chaotic and didn't appear to have any purpose other
than to inflict as much pain and violence as possible
on the crowd. Female protesters, many barely in their
twenties, were not spared the violence, with many falling
to the ground and being trampled by the police. As
protesters went to the defence of others, they themselves
became the target of this police rage. The situation was
chaotic, with mukhabarat punching protesters in the face,
and several police officers seeming to temporarily lose
control of their own actions, screaming and lashing out at
anyone within striking distance.
There were horrifying scenes as people had to negotiate the
many cars in the street as they tried to escape the surges of
police beatings, with people being beaten as they tried to
scramble over cars and jump over fences. Many people were
crying, and the pavement along Al-Irsal Street saw several
people lying on the ground being treated for their wounds,
with some police officers continuing to chase protesters
along the street.
As with Saturday, around over 20 people were treated in hospital
for their injuries with another three seriously injured. At least
one protester had to be treated for a head injury sustained
after being struck on the head with a baton. One protester was kidnapped by police and mukhabarat, beaten, and then released, receiving X-rays and treatment for his injuries. Around fifty demonstrators marched from Al-Manara Square to the hospital, and stayed in the courtyard to offer solidarity with the injured, and to defend the injured from further police violence and kidnapping.
As with Saturday, journalists, Palestinian and foreign, were
also attacked by the police and mukhabarat, with several
being struck with batons and at least three cameras being
stolen by police.
We condemn unreservedly the brutal violence of the PA
police and mukhabarat against unarmed protesters, the
kidnappings and beatings, and the attacks on journalists
and theft of their property.
We offer our complete solidarity with all those who were at
Saturday and Sunday's demonstrations, all those who were
beaten, kidnapped, injured and brutalised by the PA police
and mukhabarat. To see Palestinian police, with the
Palestinian flag on their uniforms, beating unarmed
Palestinians in the streets of Ramallah, is a particularly
shocking sight that forces a deep examination of the role
of PA security forces in occupied Palestine.
Stop the Wall fully supports the right to protest and assembly
and the right to freedom of expression. We believe in the
importance of the movement against normalisation of the
occupation, and its committees throughout Occupied Palestine
will participate in the broad movement in the organising of
further protests against police and mukhabarat violence
and repression.
For Videos from Saturday and Sunday's demonstrations:
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