Whoever prevents freedom of opinion will not liberate a country

The killing of Nizar Banat is a political assassination! But the most serious crime is the attempt to protect the killers, and to cover up the criminal who bears the responsibility for committing it, and it is the one that will continue to haunt us with the shame of facilitating the shedding of Palestinian blood until justice is achieved for Nizar Banat and all the victims of opinion in Palestine.

In an attempt to undermine the noble goals of the campaigns that rejected the assassination, and protested against its perpetration in the streets and squares of Palestine, some skeptical voices came out to justify the crime and say: "...why are you silent about what accompanied the black coup in Gaza in terms of killings and witchcraft that reached the point of throwing anyone Citizens from the height of a building in Gaza City. Here it is correct to say that this is a word of truth, but unfortunately it does not mean anything but falsehood. The crimes that accompanied the coup, and the perpetrators of which must be prosecuted no matter how long it takes, cannot justify such a heinous crime regardless of the circumstances of each one of them. The most dangerous thing facing the situation of human rights and freedom of opinion and expression guaranteed in the Palestinian Basic Law is the politicization of this matter, and the attempt to bury people's rights in the clutches of division, whose mere continuation is considered a major crime against the Palestinian people and their just cause.

The attempt to bury Nizar's case in the corridors of delay and procrastination will not drop this case, no matter how long it takes. It may derail it from the course of applying justice, but such an approach will only lead to chaos and exacerbate the lack of confidence in the entire justice system, not just the executive authority. In any case, it seems that the defect has affected this system as much as it did.

Lawyer Gandhi Amin, who was assigned by Nizar's family to follow up the assassination case, told local media: "The martyr Nizar, two years ago, did not obtain justice, and there is no prospect of achieving it in Palestine." He attributed "the reasons for not achieving justice in the case of girls to the slow process of litigation, although the crime and evidence are clear, and because of the arrest of witnesses and harassment during court sessions, and the release of detainees - accused of murder - without the knowledge of the court and the prosecution." He added that these reasons indicate the unwillingness and seriousness of the authority to achieve justice and hold the killers accountable, noting that the family of the murdered girls filed a lawsuit in the Ramallah Court of First Instance, according to the Civil Violations Law, against the Minister of Interior, the directors of the security services and those accused of the crime, adding: “.. The lawsuit has been filed for eight months before the courts. And he indicated that Ghassan Banat, the brother of the murdered Nizar, went to the International Criminal Court to investigate the crime and hold the perpetrators accountable, adding: "We are waiting for the Public Prosecutor's Office in the Criminal Court to request a referral."

The question that should be bothering us all about this matter is; It is not why Nizar's brother went to the International Criminal Court in an attempt to obtain justice for his murdered brother, but rather why justice is stalled in Palestine, a case whose essence, since the Nakba, is based on the aggressiveness of the occupation and attempts to obliterate the justice of the national cause. And how will we, as Palestinians, be able to proceed with confidence in our quest to bring the occupation to justice in the International Criminal Court, while we are negligent, and what prompts the family of the deceased to take the same national authority to the International Criminal Court? It is a sad paradox, and the victim cannot be blamed here, as much as it reveals the extent of the disgrace that has come to envelop us, and threatens our national cause and justice in Palestine.

Yes, we are not well. The task of the intellectual elites is not only to diagnose "self-defeat", and to raise the voice and the values ​​of freedom and justice to the importance of that. Rather, suggesting visions capable of turning into action strategies that challenge their causes and enable people to confront them. Our responsibility is to protect the homeland and the different opinion. Let everyone know that we are a free people and we deserve a homeland for the free.

It was and still is expected that the president will bear the responsibility of stopping the collapse, whose title has become the authority and its security institution in the face of the people who resist the occupation, and to announce immediately the formation of a national unity government that enjoys national consensus, whose priority is to strengthen the steadfastness of the people and not to confront those with opinion among them, and to heal the wounds of Gaza and not To be silent on moving forward with its division towards secession in order to share with the separatists mere cantons that represent the essence of the strategy of the occupation governments to liquidate the rights of our people. Resilience in Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, including the popular ability to resist the terrorism of the settlers and the occupation army, and certainly the serious preparation for comprehensive general elections.

And before and after all of that, by restoring the independence of the judiciary, citizens their dignity, and security is a national belief to protect the citizen and not bully him, and a public trial is held for the murderers of girls. Perhaps, and this is not certain, such a step will save the country's fate from the flames of chaos and perhaps worse. It is our duty for all of us not to let our country collapse, and this is the responsibility of every free citizen!

And if this does not happen, the collapse will continue until a broad national democratic movement rises, led by a young woman who believes in political and intellectual pluralism, to lead the process of comprehensive change, as the wreckage cannot be repaired.