EI blogger who witnessed Palestinian Authority police beating protestor forced to destroy photosSubmitted by Ali Abunimah on Sun, 07/01/2012 - 23:16
Palestinian Police block protesters from reaching the Palestinian presidential headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, during a protest in the town, on 1 July 2012 (Issam Rimawi / APA images)Electronic Intifada blogger Jalal Abukhater was forced to delete photos he took of Palestinian Authority (PA) police violently attacking a protestor in Ramallah on Sunday.
Abukhater wrote this account of what he witnessed:
After the police started pushing and beating protestors with sticks and batons, I managed to slip behind their line to be met with another line of police only a few meters behind. There, I was alone with my camera, I saw a guy lying on the ground being beaten by the police behind their line, I tried to take a picture but my camera was then confiscated.
I was forced to delete all the pictures on my camera by the police, then my camera’s SD card was destroyed to pieces. The guy who was being beaten by the police managed to stand up – he was visibly bleeding – he was then slapped and dragged to the nearby police vehicle. However, he was released from detention and moved to a hospital for his injuries to be treated.
However, Abukhater identified a photo of the man whose beating he witnessed, covered with welts and bruises on his back, posted on Facebook.

After witnessing the beating of this protestor, Jalal Abukhater was forced to delete images from his camera by Palestinian Authority police (Facebook)Other images posted by a Facebook page called Palestinians for Dignity showed police confronting demonstrators, and other individuals with apparent injuries.