Palestinians in Ramallah, occupied West Bank, protested against the Palestinian Authority (PA), demanding an end to the sanctions against the besieged Gaza Strip and to the Israeli blockade.
According to reports, the protests, which started on Sunday, were organized by activists with no party affiliation.
After 100s filled squares of Ramallah twice this week to protest PA punitive measures on Gaza, PA apparently denies permit for planned protest today. Just the latest from thin-skinned authorities who seem to excel at just one thing: stamping out dissent https://t.co/85b66Pt9Nj pic.twitter.com/V2aIY7aM0p
— Omar Shakir (@OmarSShakir) June 13, 2018
Over 1,500 people demonstrated in Ramallah’s main square after artists, journalists and activists issued calls to protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where thousands have been injured by Israeli snipers since the Great March of Return began on March 30.
Just so you know what the PA is, when Palestinians in Ramallah protest the PA support of Israel's siege policies on Gaza, PA forces violently repressed them and arrested many. Same forces facilitate Israeli raids against Palestinians. https://t.co/3eP7YcZZF8
— (((YousefMunayyer))) (@YousefMunayyer) June 13, 2018
The movement behind the demonstrations is called “Lifting the Sanctions,” and has raised the slogan “one people, one concern, one enemy.” They have vowed to expand protests throughout the West Bank until the PA lifts the sanctions against the Strip.
Some Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem also joined the protests.
Calls for a #demonstration to take place tommorow June 13th at 9:30 pm at Al-Manara Square in #Ramallah. To demand lifting the PA sanctions on the #Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/3gEUnamjD6
— RedCrow (@RedCrow2014) June 12, 2018
Demonstrators carried portraits of slain Gaza medic Razan al-Najjar and accused the PA of being a “contractor of the occupation” calling for an end to security cooperation with Israel. They also carried signs reading “Shame on you, you sold out Gaza for dollars” and chanted “Get out! Get out, Abbas!”
There will be a protest against the PA sanctions on Gaza strip opposite to the Palestinian Authority Mission in UK, 17th June.
The PA plays an integral role in Gaza siege.#Lift_the_sanctions#ارفعوا_العقوبات pic.twitter.com/TBFgXQcR3h— Marwa Hamdan (@MarwaRHamdan) June 14, 2018
Despite the establishment of a unity government between Fatah, the PA’s ruling party, and Hamas, which has ruled the besieged strip since 2007, the PA has imposed harsh sanctions on Gaza.
Gaza residents to pay Israel for electricity @AJEnglish —
Gaza's two million residents have suffered from ongoing power cuts for the past decade, owing to Israel's crippling land, air and sea blockade on the Strip, and because of the PA's sanctions. https://t.co/z0PBViwX2y— cmillott (@cmillott) January 5, 2018
Sanctions include refusing to pay bills for the electric supply coming from Israel, tax on diesel that goes to Gaza’s power plants, reducing salaries of PA staff in Gaza, and refusing to guarantee medical treatment for patients who need to leave the Strip to receive medical care.
Protest denouncing PA sanctions against #Gaza forcibly dispersed by Palestinian security forces yesterday in Ramallah pic.twitter.com/TAxufLHaUm
— Michael A. Horowitz (@michaelh992) June 14, 2018
The protesters were forcibly dispersed by Palestinian security forces.
(TeleSur, PC, Social Media)
The late Israel Shahak in an interview with Voice of Palestine, Canada, on Nov. 16, 1993, two months after the Oslo accord was signed, stated: “the deal … doesn’t give the Palestinians anything, it merely puts the PLO in the position of the ‘Village League'” . http://www.voiceofpalestine.ca/AudioFiles/VOP_Sept04_2007_16kbps.mp3 (46:50 into the show) This is how the PLO leadership, the US and Israel turned the “Palestine Liberation Organization” into “Palestine Liquidation Organization”.