Palestinian plainclothes security agents further popular dissent
The method in which the protests against the killing of the critic of the Palestinian leadership Nizar Bayat were violently put down, with the use of security officials dressed in civilian clothes, has exposed a deep rift in Palestinian society.
The June 28 Facebook post by Palestinian teen Ahed Tamimi who slapped an Israeli soldier was powerful. “The Tamimi family doesn’t accept injustice. My mother Nariman Tamimi informed my brother who participated in the attempts to break up a demonstration by citizens in the streets not to come home. He can either resign [from his security service position] or apologize. Otherwise, my mother will announce she will wash the family hands from having any relations with him.”
Social media shows many of these confrontations between patriotic Palestinian parents confronting their sons who are working for the Palestinian security service and who were filmed violently putting down fellow Palestinian demonstrators.
What made the protest scenes more troubling was that the attackers were dressed in civilian clothes and were trying to support the regular uniformed police, who had shields and at times were using riot gear to control the demonstrators.
The attackers were not only violent but also appear to have focused on female demonstrators, journalists and anyone with a camera or a cellphone. In many cases, cellphones were taken away by the plainclothes security forces. It appeared later that some of the personal content of the phones of female protesters was leaked to the press, according to Hanan Ashrawi.
