A special security committee, set up in 2015 by then-Interior Minister Rami Hamdallah, and a prison in Jericho that allegedly operates outside the judiciary's supervision have come under scrutiny in recent weeks.
Jawad Obeidat, chairman of the Palestinian Bar Association (PBA), referenced the committee and the prison during a Nov. 9 demonstration by lawyers, judges and staff of the attorney general’s office in Ramallah. The demonstration was called to protest the arrest of Mohammad Hussein, a lawyer from the village of Deir al-Hatab, in a Nablus court the preceding day. Addressing his fellow jurists, Obeidat called on President Mahmoud Abbas to dismiss Hamdallah from his current post of prime minister for acting outside the law.