nsnbc : The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) demanded that the Palestinian Authority (PA) immediately release Palestinian youth activist Nassar Jaradat and ends the so-called security cooperation with the Israeli occupation.

Security services of the Palestinian Authority seized youth activist Nasar Jaradat in Ramallah four days ago. The PFLP stresses that his arrest comes in the context of the suppression of freedom of expression in the Palestinian discourse that directly supports the Israeli occupation.

The PFLP, the second-largest constituent organization of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), stresses that it holds the Palestinian Authority responsible for the continued detention of Jaradat.

The PFLP underpins that this includes the risk of being arrested by the occupation through what the Front describes as the “revolving door policy”, which, over time, has led to the arrest and death of a number of young activists and resistance strugglers.

The PFLP stresses that the arrest of Jaradat by Palestinian Authority security services, for his writing in social media, shows “disregard for the sentiments of the Palestinian people”.

PFLP_Freenassar_Nassar Jaradat_Ramallah_Palestine_Jun 2017The Front stresses that the Palestinian Authority should be holding accountable and arresting those who disregard and undermine the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, not those who criticize the policy of security coordination and the Palestinian Authority’s political direction and leadership.

The PFLP also urged human rights organizations to act quickly for the release of Jaradat as well as all other political detainees held by the Palestinian Authority. The Front stressed that the PA’s continued repression is unacceptable.

The Al-Fatah (Fateh) dominated Palestinian Authority ha, since the mid-1990s, consistently been accused of cooperating with the Israeli occupation and of using the so-called “security cooperation” with Israel to crack down on opposition parties, including the PFLP and other PLO member organizations.

The Palestinian Authority and Al-Fatah, for their part, have, since the mid-1990s, repeatedly announced that they would end the security cooperation. Even a cursory review of the discourse allows for the identification of two situations in which the PA and Fateh usually “pay lip-service” to ending the security cooperation.

That is, during negotiations with Israel, and especially when it lacks popular support for its negotiation strategy, and in situations where oppression of dissent, security cooperation and years of fruitless negotiations with Israel send Fateh’s and the PA’s approval ratings plummeting to such lows that it’s dominant role in the PLO and PA could be challenged.

F/AK & CH/L  – nsnbc 11.06.2017

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