Ref: 67/2023

Date: 19 June 2023

Time: 11:00 GMT

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) follows up with concern the arbitrary arrest of a candidate running for the presidency of Birzeit University’s Student Council, beating him in front of his house, and pepper-spraying him and his brother only few days before the formation of the student council. According to PCHR’s investigations, at approximately 22:00 on Sunday, 18 June 2023, a Palestinian security force raided the house of the university student ‘Abdul Majeed Hassan (22) in ‘Eid Musbah neighborhood in Ramallah and deployed around it. As soon as Hassan left the house, the security force pounced on him, tried to neutralize him and beat him, forcing him into their car that drove him away. When his brother tried to intervene, the security officers pepper-sprayed him.

His sister Shatha said to PCHR that “the security officers pepper-sprayed his face and beat him with batons all over his body when he refused to get in the car, while one of the officers hit him on his head with a pistol and kept kicking him to force him to get into the car”. Shatha added that when her brother Saleh (19) tried to intervene, “one of the security officers pepper-sprayed his face as well, causing damage to his eyes.  As a result, he was admitted to a nearby emergency center.

A footage that went viral on social media has shown security officers arresting student Hassan and forcing him to get into their car while his sister is shouting and cursing them.

On 14 June 2023, the security services arrested another student in the same university and was identified as ‘Abdul Ghani ‘Awni Fares, from his house in Ramallah, and extended his detention for five days pending investigation.It is noteworthy that the Palestinian security services have recently conducted an arrest and summons campaign across the West Bank, including university students, on grounds of freedom of opinion and expression, as some were subjected to interrogation.PCHR condemns the ongoing arrests on political grounds and:

• Calls upon the Public Prosecution to act instantly to end the arrests and summonses conducted without warrants and lacking a reasonable basis for believing that a crime may have been committed that requires an arrest;

• emphasizes that freedom of opinion, expression, peaceful assembly, and political participation are rights guaranteed by the Palestinian Basic Law and in accordance with Articles (19) and (26), and shall never be usurped under any pretext;

• condemns the arrests on political grounds, and recalls the decision of the Palestinian Supreme Court issued on 20 February 1999, providing the illegality of political arrests, and urging all executive bodies to respect the Court’s decision and end illegal political arrests; and

• Calls for the immediate release of all political detainees, and end of political arrests.