Ref: 76/2010
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the
attack launched on Wednesday, 25 August 2010, by members of the General Intelligence
Service (GIS) on staff members of ‘al-Haq’ organization in Ramallah, while
documenting GIS’s attempts to stop an assembly organized by Palestinian
political factions and civil society organizations in protest a decision by the
Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to participate in direct negotiations with
Israel. PCHR calls upon the government
in Ramallah to respect public freedoms and to ensure respect for the work of
human rights organizations and to provide protection for their personnel.
According to statements made by ‘al-Haq’ and according to Wissam
Ahmed, 33, Program Officer at al-Haq, on Wednesday afternoon, 25 August 2010, a number of al-Haq’s
staff members got out of their offices as they heard noise coming from the main
street. They had information that GIS members
were attempting to stop the assembly of political and civil society
organizations which was scheduled to be organized in the hall of the Protestant
Church opposite to al-Haq offices. The assembly was supposed to discuss the
positions towards direct negotiations between PNA and the government of Israel.
In the meanwhile, Wissam Ahmed, 33,
Program Officer at al-Haq, took a video camera and went to the street to film
the event, but he was beaten by a person in civilian clothes. Later, it was found out that this person was
a GIS member. The camera was taken from
Ahmed and thrown onto the ground. After
Ahmed had managed to get his camera back, he asked why he was prevented from filming
the event. In response, more than 10 GIS
members surrounded him and beat him on the head and the neck. They took his camera and pushed him away.
Mrs. Nina Ata Allah, Head of the Observation and
Documentation Department at ‘al-Haq’, who intervened to stop the GIS attack on
her colleague, was also attacked. A GIS
member stepped on her feet. She was
injured in the feet as a result and was transferred to the hospital of the
Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Ramallah for treatment. Sources from ‘al-Haq’ reported that Mr.
Shaawan Jabarin, asked some police members who were in the scene about the
camera. One of them told him that it was
with GIS members.
It should be noted that this attack on staff members of
al-Haq is part of attacks launched by the Palestinian security services in
Ramallah on a peaceful march which was organized with the participation of members
of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization,
Secretaries General of a number of political parties, leaders of the civil
society organizations as well as independent figures. Security forces prevented the participants in
the march from organizing a press conference which was scheduled to be held in
the hall of the Protestant Church. A
member of the Executive Committee of the PLO was arrested as well.
In view of the above, PCHR:
