PA security forces break up Palestinian lawmakers’ protest
The Palestinian Authority security forces broke up a sit-in on Sunday of three Palestinian parliamentarians protesting PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s decision last week to lift their parliamentary immunity, as well as that of two others.
Najat Abu Bakr, Shami al-Shami, and Jamal Tirawi, who are all critical of Abbas’s leadership and suspected of having ties to Abbas foe Muhammad Dahlan, had originally planned to hold a sit-in the Palestinian Authority parliament, but after security forces barred their entry, they relocated to the Red Cross building in el-Bireh.
“We were peacefully undertaking a sit-in in the Red Cross to protest the illegal and unjust decision to lift our immunity, but the security forces raided the building and forcibly removed us,” Abu Bakr told The Jerusalem Post in a phone call Monday morning, adding that the incident proves that basic freedoms of protest do not exist for citizens of the Palestinian Authority.
Abbas lifted the immunity of five parliamentarians last week: the three carrying out the sit-in, Dahlan, and Nasser Juma. This move paved the way for the PA public prosecutor to complete an investigation into allegations against them.
The PA Constitutional Court, which Abbas controversially formed in April, granted the 81-year-old Palestinian leader the power to lift parliamentarians’ immunity in early November.
Adnan al-Damiri, the PA security forces spokesman, said Monday that the security forces broke up the sit-in to protect the Red Cross building.
“Any threat to this institution [the Red Cross], its employees or its property requires the intervention of responsible Palestinian parties... We were informed that [three] citizens were inside the Red Cross’s headquarters in el-Bireh without permission. Thus, the Palestinian police went to look into the matter and removed the [three citizens],” Damiri said, adding that the police entered the building unarmed.
However, Abu Bakr questioned the veracity of Damiri’s account, saying that “the people in Red Cross had no problem with our presence and welcomed [us] and offered us coffee and tea.”