PA official arrested for suggesting Abbas is senile

“This is an attempt to silence the voices of our people,” PA official Jamal Tirawi said.

By Aaron Sull, World Israel News.

On Friday, Palestinian Authority official Hussam Khader’s daughter tweeted that her father was “brutally and barbarically” arrested by PA security forces.

“[PA] Protective Security Services broke into our house, accompanied by the Joint Forces in the Balata Refugee Camp [in Nablus] and took my father forcefully,” wrote Amira Khader.

“They took my father brutally and barbarically. I saw this brutality and barbarism in 2003 and 2011 when the Israeli occupation forces broke into our house and arrested my father. They attacked me as two armed officers prevented me from moving, pushed me and beat me,” she added.

Khader’s arrest comes shortly after suggesting that PA President Mahmoud Abbas is senile after Abbas condemned a physicians’ strike.

“I’m surprised by what Abbas said. I wonder about the mental health of this old man! I call on the Physicians’ Union to form a medical committee to examine him and his health condition,”  Khader wrote on his Facebook page on March 2.

PA official Jamal Tirawi condemned the arrest.

“This is a dangerous development in the Palestinian arena. This is an attempt to silence the voices of our people,” he said. “Khader is a political leader and there was no reason to treat him in such a violent and humiliating manner.”

This is not the first time that the 84-year-old’s mental capacities have been questioned.

In 2018, Israel’s Channel 10 News cited unnamed Palestinians who said Abbas did not remember who they were when they visited him during a scheduled meeting. Officials in the president’s office immediately rejected the claims of mental disorientation, saying that Abbas is on a full work schedule.

Abbas’ physical health has been deteriorating. He suffers from heart problems, prostate cancer, and has been hospitalized several times.

Abbas has been in power since Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat passed away in 2004.