Despite promises, the Palestinian Authority continues to violently arrest protesters, journalists, as opposition grows

The Palestinian Authority has been arresting and attacking political opponents and protesters for years, but this is the first time that the Palestinian masses have been openly and publicly fighting back to a great extent.

Yesterday, there were more protests against the apparent murder of Nizar Banat in Ramallah. The PA police responded by arresting, beating and dragging many of the protesters.

When the PA arrested Abi Al-Aboudi and others, his wife, journalist Hind Sherida, went to the police station with her family and joined others in a protest chant to release the detainees. The police came out and beat, pepper sprayed and arrested the protesters, and pulled Sherida by the hair in front of her children. Her 77-year old father was pepper-sprayed and beaten. They then beat Hind inside the police station.

Many other well known figures were arrested and beaten: political activist  Omar Assaf, researcher Khaled Odallah, Omar Al-Jallad, Tayseer Al-Zabri, Adham Karajah, Hussam Barjas, Khaled Awad, Omar Al-Auri, Osama Al-Bdeir, Sri Othman Hammad , Adly Hanaysha, Bashir Al-Khairy, and Ahmed Al-Kharouf.

Also journalists Aqil Awadeh, who was severely beaten and taken to hospital for treatment, Muhammad Hamayel, Mays Abu Ghosh, Muammar Orabi, and Amid Shehadeh. The police also confiscated the equipment and phone of journalist Badr Abu Najm.

Palestinian organizations are publicly calling for all political prisoners to be released and they are condemning these arrests. They include the National Democratic Forum, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, the Palestinian People's Party, the Popular Resistance Movement and the Palestinian National Initiative. 

The Palestinian Medical Syndicate issued a statement that the arrest of doctors on the grounds of freedom of opinion is unacceptable and in violation of the Palestinian Basic Law and freedom of opinion.

The Union of Palestinian Women's Committees condemned the Interior Ministry for allowing the beating of women at these protests.

The official Wafa news agency has been largely ignoring the protests, with occasional statements from government officials against insulting the police or the government. The people are reading about the protests in other media.

This level of protest is unprecedented, and it resembles the Arab Spring protests. 

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