Palestinian Labor Minister to Quit Amid Anti-govt Protests

Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on June 27, 2021, protest the death of human rights activist Nizar Banat while in the custody of Palestinian Authority security forces - AFP
Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on June 27, 2021, protest the death of human rights activist Nizar Banat while in the custody of Palestinian Authority security forces - AFP
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Palestinian Labor Minister to Quit Amid Anti-govt Protests

Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on June 27, 2021, protest the death of human rights activist Nizar Banat while in the custody of Palestinian Authority security forces - AFP
Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on June 27, 2021, protest the death of human rights activist Nizar Banat while in the custody of Palestinian Authority security forces - AFP

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 Mahmoud 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 Organisation (PLO), recognized internationally as representing the Palestinians.

But Fatah faces a growing challenge from its longtime rivals, the militant Islamist organization 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.



Syria Minister Says Open to Talks with Kurds, But Ready to Use 'Force'

 Syria's new Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra attends an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
Syria's new Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra attends an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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Syria Minister Says Open to Talks with Kurds, But Ready to Use 'Force'

 Syria's new Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra attends an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
Syria's new Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra attends an interview with Reuters in Damascus, Syria January 19, 2025. (Reuters)

Syria's defense minister said Wednesday that Damascus was open to talks with Kurdish-led forces on their integration into the national army but stood ready to use force should negotiations fail.

"The door to negotiation with the (Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces) is currently open," Murhaf Abu Qasra told reporters.

"If we have to use force, we will be ready."

Last month, an official told AFP that an SDF delegation had met Syria's interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who heads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group that spearheaded the opposition offensive that ousted Bashar al-Assad.

Sharaa had told Al Arabiya television that Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the new national army so that weapons are "in the hands of the state alone".

The US-backed SDF spearheaded the military campaign that ousted the ISIS group from its last territory in Syria in 2019.

The group controls much of the oil-producing northeast, where it has enjoyed de facto autonomy for more than a decade.

"They offered us oil, but we don't want oil, we want the institutions and the borders," Abu Qasra said.

Ankara, which has long had ties with HTS, accuses the main component of the SDF, the People's Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with Türkiye's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

In an offensive that coincided with the HTS-led advance on Damascus, Turkish-backed armed groups in northern Syria seized several areas from the SDF late last year.

Earlier this month, then US secretary of state Antony Blinken said he was working to address Turkish concerns and dissuade it from stepping up its offensive against the SDF.

UN envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen told reporters in Damascus on Wednesday that he hoped the warring parties would allow time for a diplomatic solution "so that this does not end in a full military confrontation".

Pedersen said Washington and Ankara "have a key role to play in supporting this" effort.

"We are looking for the beginning of a new Syria and hopefully that will also include the northeast in a peaceful manner," he said.