Israel Matzav: Video: Protesters eject 'Palestinian' Minister of National Economy from BDS meeting UPDATED WITH IMAGE OF VICTIM

Sunday, June 09, 2013

Video: Protesters eject 'Palestinian' Minister of National Economy from BDS meeting UPDATED WITH IMAGE OF VICTIM

In an earlier post, I reported that the 'Palestinian' economics minister had been ejected from a BDS conference in Bethlehem after mocking a questioner at the conference. Subsequently, the minister's security guards and other 'Palestinian Authority' thugs severely beat the protester.

You will recall that post reported that the 'Palestinian' security had attempted to ensure that no video of the incident would be taken on the cell phones of those attending. I now have a partial video of the minister being ejected.

Let's go to the videotape. But first, I'd like to give you the account of the person who posted the video:

Palestinian Authority (PA) Minister Jawad Naji participated in a panel session entitled "Facing the Public" at the 4th National BDS Conference (8 June 2013). He was grilled intensely by members of the public and civil society organizations for the PA's normalization activities with Israel that violate the national consensus. There was clearly a lot of anger from the public at what most of the Palestinian public perceive as capitulation to Israeli dictates. Given the undemocratic nature of the PA, this was a rare opportunity for the public to voice their grievances directly to an official who claims to represent them. Not being used to such accountability and after avoiding to answer directly to the many questions posed, the Minister responded to one of the audience members (Nizar Banat from Hebron, a known activist and critic of the PA) with extreme arrogance telling him to stop "barking". The Minister was at the time struggling to defend the self-appointed PA President Mahmoud Abbas on his coordination with the Israelis at all levels (including the infamous security coordination) and so resorted to ad hominem attacks. The public present became outraged at the insult and demanded that the Minister apologize immediately to Nizar or else leave the hall. The Minister opted to leave the room instead of apologizing while the public shouted "barra barra el wazir" (out with the Minister). As the PA security forces escorted the Minister, they were aggressive with the people and are seen here attacking the person filming this video. An hour later, henchmen who identified themselves as "Fatah members from Bethlehem branch" caught Nizar Banat at the venue and gave him a beating until he was bloodied. They then confiscated peoples mobile phones erasing any evidence of the beating. The PA "security forces (increasingly seen as a milita defending the interests of the PA against the people) are trained and funded by the EU and the US.

And apparently, while they're a bunch of vicious thugs, they're not anti-Israel enough for the 'Palestinian people.'

Let's go to the videotape.

But just give them that 'state'....

Here's a picture of the victim, Nizar Banat, after he was beaten.