Palestinian labor minister quits amid anti-government protests

The labor minister in the Palestinian Authority will resign, a member of his party said Sunday, as protesters marched for a fourth day demanding president Mahmud Abbas step down.

The left-wing Palestinian People’s Party has decided to withdraw from the Fatah-led PA government due to “its lack of respect for laws and public freedoms,” central committee member Issam Abu Bakr said.

Nasri Abu Jaish, the labor minister and the People’s Party representative in the government, will therefore resign on Monday, Abu Bakr told AFP.

Demonstrations against the PA erupted Thursday following the violent arrest and death in custody of activist Nizar Banat and continued Sunday evening.

Banat, a 43-year-old known for social media videos denouncing alleged corruption within the PA, died on Thursday shortly after security forces stormed his house, beat him and dragged him away, his family said.

The PA has announced the opening of an investigation into Banat’s death, but it has done little to appease anger on the streets.

On Sunday evening, protesters defied a heavy deployment of security forces, holding up photographs of the activist as they marched in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in Banat’s home town of Hebron.

In Ramallah, the seat of the PA, protesters demanded those responsible for Banat’s death be held accountable, while several supporters of the Fatah party of Abbas gathered to shout slogans backing the president.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate called for the dismissal of the PA police chief “due to the police’s failure to protect journalists who were attacked, prevented from reporting and threatened” within view of police officers at the protests.

According to the autopsy, injuries indicated Banat had been beaten on the head, chest, neck, legs and hands, with less than hour elapsing between his arrest and his death, doctor Samir Abu Zarzour said.

On Saturday, protesters in Ramallah hurled rocks at Palestinian security forces, who opened fire with a barrage of tear gas canisters, with reports of several injured.

Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq on Sunday accused security forces of “attacking the participants with batons and rocks” while dragging others to the ground and beating them, adding that some suffered head injuries.

Protesters called for 86-year-old Abbas to quit.

Banat had registered as a candidate in Palestinian parliamentary elections, which had been set for May until Abbas postponed them indefinitely.

The president’s original mandate expired in 2009 and he has since governed by decree.

In April, Abbas declared that legislative and presidential polls set for May and July respectively should not be held until Israel guaranteed voting could take place in annexed east Jerusalem.

Al-Haq warned there had been a “serious regression on public rights and freedoms” since the decision to scrap the elections.

In addition to holding the presidency, Abbas is also head of Fatah and president of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), recognized internationally as representing the Palestinians.

But Fatah faces a growing challenge from its longtime rivals, Hamas, which rules the Palestinian coastal enclave of Gaza.

The PA exercises limited powers over some 40 percent of the West Bank, occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967.

Israel, which controls all access to the territory and coordinates with the PA, directly administers the remaining 60 percent.