Palestinian Authority Police Brutalize Peaceful Protesters

Palestinian Authority Police Brutalize Peaceful Protesters

by Stephen Lendman

President Mahoud Abbas is a longstanding Israeli collaborator. He and unelected Prime Minister Salam Fayyad serve illegitimately.

Abbas' term expired on January 9, 2009. He's no longer president of Palestine. He won't step down. Israel supports him. In return, he takes orders, salutes, and obeys.

So does Fayyad. He's also Israel's man in Palestine. He's a former World Bank and IMF official. In 2006 legislative elections, his Third Way party got 2.4% of the votes. It was clear renunciation.

After Israel and Washington sponsored Fatah's coup d'etat, it co-opted the PLO, PA and West Bank. Abbas illegally appointed him prime minister.

Both men serve as Israel's enforcers. They're contemptuous of Palestinian rights. They support occupation harshness. They mock freedom and justice.

On July 2, the activist Stop the Wall group headlined "Palestinian Authority police brutality against anti-Mofaz protests," saying:

"For two consecutive days, EU and US-trained Palestinian Authority (PA) police and un-uniformed thugs attack(ed) Palestinians protesting against the invitation of Israeli war criminal Shaul Mofaz to Ramallah."

Mofaz heads Kadima. He and Netanyahu partnered in unity governance. Doing so more deeply corrupts Israeli politics. Israelis protested what they deplore. So do Palestinians.

On June 30, they demonstrated peacefully. PA leaders postponed the visit. Mofaz served previously as IDF Chief of General Staff. He also held various ministerial posts.

As former IDF head and defense minister, he's indictable for crimes of war and against humanity. He murdered thousands of Palestinians. He participated in two wars against Lebanon.

Hundreds of Palestinians protested his West Bank invitation. They gathered at Al-Manara Square in central Ramallah. They headed toward PA Muqata'a headquarters.

PA police blocked them. Nonetheless, they broke through. On Al-Irsal Street, other police confronted them.

They demanded the right to deliver an anti-Mofaz message. They called inviting him to Palestine insulting. It defiles blood on his hands and thousands of political prisoners.

On Saturday, women led the demonstration. They faced the initial police onslaught. Plain-clothed thugs confronted them. They attacked them with telescopic batons and metal chains.

They threw people to the ground, dragged them to police custody, and beat them. Many injuries were reported. Plain-clothed secret police mukhabarat thugs were responsible. They outnumber uniformed cops at political events.

Sunday's violence surpassed Saturday's. PA police demonstrated their loyalty to Israeli authority. Doing so betrayed their own people. They're well trained to act thuggishly.

On Saturday, Palestinians protested Mofaz's invitation. On Sunday, they rallied against Saturday's brutality. At least 20 more hospitalizations resulted.

Hundreds marched peacefully towards the location of Saturday's 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."

Protesters temporarily broke through police lines. Beatings followed. Women and youths were assaulted like men. Some Palestinians defended others. They were attacked for doing so.

"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."

Injured Palestinians lay helpless on the ground. Relentless beatings continued. Many others were hospitalized.

Palestinian and international journalists were assaulted. At least three cameras were confiscated. At issue is preventing filming and photographing police brutality. Nonetheless, horrifying images got out.

Stop the Wall activists condemned police confrontations, violence, kidnappings, vicious thuggishness, and theft of private property. They stand in solidarity with Palestinian resisters.

They expressed shock that Palestinian cops and plain-clothed mukhabarat enforce occupation harshness by attacking their own people.

International law justifies resisting occupation harshness and unjust governance. Defending fundamental human rights this way is enshrined in the US and French revolutions.

America's Declaration of Independence said "all men are created equal." They're "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

When governments are "destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government."

French revolutionaries declared "liberte, egalite, (and) fraternite." It became France's national motto. At the end of the 19th century, its Third Republic institutionalized it.

Despite rhetoric and slogans belying reality in both countries and elsewhere, resisting unjust governance is considered a collective right under English constitutional and political theory.

John Locke considered it in his Two Treatises of Government. Under natural law, he said, people have the right to life, liberty, and estate.

Under the social contract, they may instigate revolutionary activism against government ill-serving their interests. They can replace it with one acting responsibly. Revolution safeguards against tyranny. At times, it's essential.

It's not just a right, it's an obligation. Martin Luther King declared people must resist injustice. Other distinguished figures agree. Henry David Thoreau advocated civil disobedience. Various US state constitutions support the inalienable right to alter, reform, or abolish unjust government.

Resistance is fundamentally right. Palestinians do it courageously. Ending 45 years of occupation harshness depends on it. Leaders refusing support lose authority to rule. Replacing them with responsible ones is essential.

Liberation requires ending an oppressive occupation. Living free one day depends on it.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War"

http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

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