Vocal PA critic Nizar Banat was arrested and allegedly beaten and killed, by PA Security Forces. The PA and Fatah are now using Banat’s death as a means to invent a conspiracy theory about a "Hamas coup".

As part of the efforts of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party to quash internal dissent, on June 24, 2021, PA Security Forces arrested and allegedly beat and killed the vocal PA critic Nizar Banat.

Banat’s death sparked widespread demonstrations and counter-demonstrations, and a plethora of accusations. While feigning regret and empathy, the PA and Fatah are now using Banat’s death as a means to invent a conspiracy theory about a "Hamas coup".

Days after the death of Banat, his brother, Ghassan Banat, said that Abbas’ Advisor on District Affairs Ismail Jabr and other figures in the PA had made the family a generous proposal:  

“The proposal includes having [the family] come to [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas's office in order to recognize Nizar as a Martyr, asking for the amount that we want, and the payment of a Martyr’s salary to his family.’”
[Shehab, independent Palestinian news agency, June 28, 2021]

According to the report, the family not only rejected the proposal but also expressed its “opposition to the investigative committee that the PA established, because the parties who are members of it are part of the PA.”

While expressing “condolences to Banat’s family”, Fatah in Judea and Samaria responded to the demonstrations by announcing, as if they wield legitimate authority, that they “will oppose all the attempts to harm” the PA security establishment and “will strike with an iron fist anyone who is tempted to disparage the members of our security establishment.”

While Fatah is merely meant to be a political faction, Fatah Revolutionary Council member, Abdallah Atteereh warned “against the attempts to exploit the case of Nizar Banat in order to drag the Palestinian scene into anarchy and to harm the national project.” 

He also espoused the idea that the Fatah party holds some kind of legitimate authority to wield force and defend the PA security forces to prevent a Hamas coup.

Similarly questioning the bonafide nature of the demonstrations, Abdallah Kmeil, also a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, argued that the demonstrations were an engineered attempt by Hamas to carry out a coup against the PLO and incite against the PA.