RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ attendance at the funeral of Israeli President Shimon Peres Sept. 30, heading a Palestinian delegation, raised popular anger. This anger escalated after Palestinian security members in civilian clothes, who were participating in a Fatah march in support of Abbas, attacked a youth march (according to the participants) — which was called for on Facebook — in Ramallah's city center on Oct. 4 to express opposition to Abbas' attendance, injuring a number of participants, most notably Muhanad Karaja, a lawyer with human rights organization Al-Dameer.

Karaja told Al-Monitor that a group of youths who wanted to organize a march in Ramallah invited him in his capacity as lawyer of Al-Dameer to document any attacks by security forces.

He said that before he was beaten, he had documented two cases where security forces in civilian clothes who participated in Fatah’s march and whom he personally knows attacked participants in the march. “When security forces noticed my presence, they said, 'This is their lawyer.' More than 10 members then started beating me up with their hands and tearing my clothes off before I was taken to the hospital,” he said.

Also, the military intelligence department arrested Osama Mansour, the director of public relations at the military liaison office, and suspended him from work on Oct. 1 over a Facebook post a day earlier, where he called on Abbas not to attend Peres' funeral. His detention was extended for 15 days on charges of failing to obey military orders requiring that men in uniform do not express a political opinion. Moreover, people took to the streets in the Gaza Strip on Sept. 30 to condemn Abbas taking part in the funeral.