Palestinian Factions Denounce West Bank Activists Arrest Campaign
The factions denounced the campaign targeting activists and human rights defenders, call for those involved in the assassination of Nizar Banat to be held accountable.
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Palestinian authority arrests several Palestinian activists protesting against Nizar Banat's assassination.
Hamas denounced the campaigns of “arrests, intimidation, and assaults that the Palestinian authority is carrying out by the security forces against human rights defenders, journalists and demonstrators protesting the assassination of political activist Nizar Banat.”
The movement stressed that "the campaigns of terrorization and intimidation carried out by the authorities, whether in their official or civilian clothing, will not succeed in silencing the voice calling for the need to hold those behind the assassination of activist Banat accountable."
Hamas underscored that the arrest of lawyer Muhannad Karaja and journalist Alaa Al-Rimawi, "Underlies a serious threat" and requires "a collective stance from jurists and journalists and all our people's forces to prevent attacks on journalists and activists in light of their press work," demanding integrity and transparency.
The Gaza-based faction called on the Authority and the apparatuses' leadership "to resort to the language of reason and start practical measures to hold accountable those behind the political crime and to stop pursuing journalists and demonstrators."
The Popular Resistance Committees considered that the Palestinian Authority security forces arresting journalist Al-Rimawi in Ramallah, is a "crime and a great sin that our people will not remain silent about."
The committees called for his immediate release, stressing that the arrests of activists and dissidents "would not work for our people and only serve the Zionist occupation."
Journalist Alaa Al-Rimawi announced his open hunger strike after the Ramallah Public Prosecution’s decision to arrest him and transfer him to the Public Prosecution office in Al-Khalil. Al-Rimawi’s arrest comes because of his media and press activities in the occupied West Bank.
