Palestinian groups — mainly left-wing “factions” — are holding a demonstration now in the center of Ramallah, at Manara Square, to protest the Palestinian leadership’s decision to accept a U.S. invitation to resume direct talks with Israel today and tomorrow in Washington.
UPDATE: About 300 people were at the demonstration and — as expected, after the uproar over the degeneration of the previous demonstration — the Palestinian security forces behaved impeccably. It was “democracy” in action.
Direct talks under the U.S.-brokered Annapolis process ended when Israel launched its massive three-week military operation, Cast Lead, in Gaza at the end of December 2008 — about the time that the Annapolis process was supposed to have ended anyway, but with the successful installation of a Palestinian State…
Today’s rally gives the Palestinian Authority a second chance to show it knows how to practice “democracy”, after a demonstration a week ago ended in chaos and violence with accusations of deliberate prior security force incitement.
Sponsored by the same Palestinian groups, today’s event has attracted the attention of all the Western media based in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, ensuring it will surely go off perfectly, without the slightest anti-democratic misstep.
Amira Hass has an excellent report, published in Haaretz on 30 August, about last week’s fiasco in Ramallah, entitled “Who’s suppressing opposition rallies in Ramallah?”.
In it, she wrote that “The organizers could sense something was wrong about half an hour before the conference began last Wednesday morning. About 60 people had been invited to what was termed a ‘national conference’ (as opposed to a ‘popular’ one, open to all ). But the hall in the Protestant Club in downtown Ramallah began to fill with hundreds of young men of similar appearance – well-developed muscles, civilian clothes and stern facial expressions. Some held what appeared to be rolled-up posters … Just to make sure, one conference organizer called another who had not yet arrived and asked, ‘What time did we call the conference for? The hall is packed’. Another PLO veteran said to a friend, ‘They have come to cause trouble’ … After some deliberations, the organizers decided to hold a press conference in the offices of the local television station, Watan, and used the walk there as an impromptu protest march against the conference’s disruption. But once they were outside, thugs grabbed cameras, beat the Watan photographer and prevented people from being interviewed (for example, by pushing photos of Abbas between the interviewee’s and the camera ). The police intervened, voices got louder and a fistfight nearly began. Eventually, everyone dispersed, but the event has been the talk of Ramallah ever since. An important figure among the conference organizers ran to Abbas’ office. ‘Have you gone mad?’ he asked. Later, spokesmen for the security services and the president’s office insisted that they had no idea who the 400 were or who sent them, that they had no connection to the disruptive demonstrators and that they respect freedom of speech. They also charged that an illegal demonstration had taken place outside the hall, that internal divisions had erupted among the conference participants and that this is what caused the uproar … But conference participants are convinced that those who took over the hall belonged to the Palestinian General Intelligence Service (the Mukhabarat ), along with a few people from the Preventive Security Service. Some recognized faces and recalled names, others had studied with some of the intruders, and some even recognized the commanders. One person identified the group as the newest class of Mukhabarat recruits, who had just finished training. ‘I was against the action, but these were the orders I received’, one of them whispered to an acquaintance. It was clear they had been instructed not to beat the conference participants. The conference organizers have no doubts that the order to disrupt the event came from Abbas’ office. But Abbas insisted that he has no idea who gave the order. ‘I don’t know which is worse’, said one participant, ‘that he gave the order or that it was given behind his back, by one of his purported well-wishers’.” This Amira Hass report can be read in full here.
Our earlier report on this is posted here.
An investigative committee has been formed, no results have been announced, but Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has expressed regret over what happened at last week’s rally.