Abbas stops salary payments for dozens of Palestinian prisoners, likely as punishment – prisoners "demand that Abbas recant" this decision
Headline: “With videos: [The prisoners’] committee of the [Palestinian National and Islamic] Forces demands that Abbas recant his stopping the prisoners’ salary payments”
“On Monday [Nov. 8, 2021], the prisoners’ committee of the [Palestinian] National and Islamic Forces and organizations dealing with the prisoners’ issue in the Gaza Strip called on PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to recant his stopping the salary payments of dozens of prisoners in the Israeli occupation’s prison. Popular Front [for the Liberation of Palestine] (PFLP) senior official Awad Awad said during a press conference… that promises to resolve this problem were received from senior officials in the Fatah Movement, but the PA is still adhering to its policy…
Taleb Abd Al-Rahman Murtaja, the son of prisoner Muhammad Murtaja (PMW was unable to determine the nature of his crimes -Ed.) whose salary payments were stopped, demanded that the Palestinian people support the prisoners’ family members and pressure the PA so they will receive their stolen rights. Murtaja added: ‘Three years ago our prisoners’ salary payments were unjustly stopped, and we have undergone difficult years during which we lost dear ones, we were forbidden from visiting, and the salary payments were stopped.’ Murtaja wondered: ‘Is this the reward of those who sacrificed years of their lives behind bars so that we would live in freedom and dignity?’
He emphasized that the prisoners’ salaries are a sacred right that is anchored in the basic law and the laws of the Palestinian revolution since it launched…
Released female prisoner Nasrin Abu Kmeil (arrested on Oct. 18, 2015 and sentenced to 6 years; PMW was unable to determine the nature of her crimes -Ed.), whose salary payments were stopped, sent a message to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: ‘The salaries are the prisoners’ legal right, and you have no right to stop the prisoners’ salary payments.’Abu Kmeil addressed President Abbas and said: ‘Your talk in the media about the prisoners’ salaries is just slogans.’ She noted that they were given a number of promises that the salary payments would be renewed, but it became clear that these were empty promises.”
Palestinian National and Islamic Forces - an unaffiliated coordinating body comprised of representatives from factions in the PLO and outside the PLO. The Palestinian National and Islamic Forces were established in 2000 shortly after the start of the PA terror campaign (the second Intifada, 2000-2005), under the authorization of Yasser Arafat and the leadership of terrorist Marwan Barghouti. During the PA terror campaign it played an active role in coordinating political efforts and terror attacks against Israel, but since the end of the campaign it has been less significant and its activity is primarily centered in Gaza.