expresses satisfaction with the recommendations and conclusions of the independent inquiry commission set up by the Palestinian president into police violence against demonstrators and journalists during protests in Ramallah on 30 June and 1 July. On 17 July, two weeks after the inquiry commission, chaired by Munib Al-Masri, was created to look into the violence carried out during a visit by the Israeli deputy prime minister to Ramallah, Reporters Without Borders wrote to Saeed Abu Ali, the Palestinian Authority's interior minister, requesting him to convey the commission's preliminary conclusions (see below). The report condemned the “unjustified" use of force and blamed the leadership of the security services, accusing them of a lack of professionalism. On the two days in question, police officers used disproportionate violence, despite facing no resistance. Furthermore, the security forces failed to observe the rights of those who were taken into custody. Journalists and photographers were deliberately targeted, assaulted and at times arrested by police while they were doing their job. It recommended that the Palestinian Authority summon senior officers before a competent judicial authority and take appropriate action if mistakes were made and abuses committed. If it emerges that the police officers who carried out the violence received no orders to do so, they should also be answerable for their behaviour before the courts. The commission urged the Palestinian president to ban the involvement of police officers in plain clothes in peaceful demonstrations. Officers should be in uniform in order not to provoke over-reaction by the demonstrators. Reporters Without Borders takes note of the report's recommendations and will check that those responsible for assaults on journalists are brought before the appropriate judicial authorities. The press freedom organization points out that such abuses contravene freedom of information and the Palestinian people's most basic rights of self-expression.
