Family of Murdered Critic of Mahmoud Abbas Demands Justice From the International Criminal Court

The full weight of the Palestinian Authority was used to fashion an investigative committee’s report that absolved PA President-for-Life Mahmoud Abbas of all guilt for the murder of his opponent Nizar Banat, pointing instead to (choose one) a pre-existing heart condition that caused Banat to die even from the mildest of blows; a rogue operation undertaken by a handful of Palestinian police who had supposedly been told not to use great force, but ignored those orders.

Banat was accused of “slander.” The ”slander” in his case is that he dared to comment on the lavish lives of Abbas and his two sons, as well as other corrupt cronies in the government. Banat had acquired quite a following for his barbed comments and videos, and he was undermining faith in Mahmoud Abbas. He had been repeatedly detained by the PA police, but when released he went right back to his withering criticism of Abbas and his cronies. It was clear that he had to be silenced, and permanently.

Banat was also a member of an independent parliamentary slate that had planned to take part in the Palestinian elections that Abbas had announced in January 2021, and then cancelled a few months later.

The increase in arrests between May 2020 and May 2021 of nearly four dozen political activists opposed to the PA bespoke a growing defiance of Mahmoud Abbas; the killing of Nizar Banat demonstrated the level of fear in the regime, that caused it to engage in extreme, murderous violence in order to hold onto power.

Nizar Banat in death became, as Mohammad Dahlan said, a “martyr” who gave his life for Palestine, by daring to attack the corrupt PA regime that had long ago lost any interest in improving the lives of the ordinary Palestinians living in the West Bank.

To satisfy an outraged Palestinian public, Abbas had fourteen of those low-ranking goons tried not for murder, but for lesser offenses, such as “arresting with undue violence.”

Now Banat’s family, in December 2022, having been unable to get any response to its demands for justice from the Palestinian Authority, and been unable to rouse public opinion in the outside world, is pleading with the International Criminal Court to take the case and determine, in a court of law, who killed Nizar Banat. The story of their desperate attempt is told here:

The family of an activist who died in the custody of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces has called on the International Criminal Court on Thursday to investigate, in what they say is the first communication to the court from Palestinians against their leadership.

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Nizar Banat, an outspoken critic of President Mahmoud Abbas’s PA, died in June 2021 after security forces arrested him at a house in the West Bank city of Hebron.

An autopsy conducted by a Palestinian rights group said Banat was struck in the head and body, leading to his “unnatural death” within an hour of his arrest.

“After losing trust in the Palestinian judiciary’s independence, Nizar Banat’s family is now requesting that International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan investigate the brutal killing of their son and hold those involved accountable,” a statement signed by his brother, Ghassan Banat, said.

The PA, which has limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on the case. It has charged 14 low-ranking officers with various offenses in connection with Banat’s death. All have pleaded not guilty.

Amnesty International has called the trial “flawed” and said those who gave the orders to arrest Banat must also be held accountable.

Stoke White Lawyers, the firm that filed the ICC referral, said in a tweet that the “grotesque” release of the 14 suspects for a nine-day holiday in June was among the factors motivating the family.

That releasing of the 14 suspects for a nine-day holiday is evidence of their kid-glove treatment by the court, and prefigures what is sure to happen to them at sentencing: they will each receive at most a few years – no more – of prison, and likely even those sentences will not be served in full; they will be quietly released whenever Abbas and his cronies think the Palestinian public has lost interest.

Banat’s death heightened criticism of the PA under Abbas, whose popularity has plummeted since he assumed office in 2005, opinion polls show. The incident sparked days of protests in the West Bank that were violently suppressed by Palestinian forces.

Only 23% of Palestinians still support Mahmoud Abbas. Yet he holds on, filling his government with his cronies, using his police to harass, round up, and even, as in the case of Nizar Banat, permanently silence those who dare to criticize him effectively.

The family is right to bring the murder of Nizar Banat to the International Criminal Court. There has not been, and there will not be, any justice for Nizar Banat in the courts of the Palestinian Authority as long as Mahmoud Abbas remains as the despotic ruler of the P.A. The I.C.C. is the family’s only hope. We must not forget the murder of Nizar Banat – he’s just as worthy of our collective sympathy and fury as was the much better-known victim of state violence, Jamal Khashoggi.