The Palestinians’ Worst Enemy Is Their Own Leaders Human Rights Watch takes a break from Israel-bashing to examine abuses by Fatah and Hamas.By Elliot Kaufman
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-palestinians-worst-enemy-is-their-own-leaders-1540936966
There’s a rule of thumb for journalists reporting on the Palestinians: If it can’t be blamed on Israel, it isn’t news. But some rules demand to be broken.
After a two-year investigation and nearly 100 interviews with detainees, Human Rights Watch released a report last week documenting the Palestinian leadership’s gross violation of its people’s human rights. Both Hamas, which rules Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority, which governs in the West Bank, are implicated. The two groups conduct arbitrary arrests for offenses as ludicrous as critical Facebook posts and regularly torture detainees.
Titled “Two Authorities, One Way, Zero Dissent,” the report details cases of horrific violence and repression. Hamas kept Fouad Jarada, a journalist accused of “harming revolutionary unity,” in a notorious room called “the bus” for a month, forcing him to stand blindfolded on a small child’s chair days at a time and whipping him with a cable. In the West Bank, detainees tell of being punched, kicked, beaten with batons, slammed against walls, and electrically shocked until they confess.
Both Palestinian organizations said they reject torture and consider the incidents Human Rights Watch compiled to be “isolated cases that are investigated when brought to the attention of authorities, who hold perpetrators to account.” But Human Rights Watch couldn’t find a single official in either jurisdiction convicted of mistreating detainees or making arbitrary arrests.
“The habitual, deliberate, widely known use of torture, using similar tactics over years with no action taken by senior officials in either authority to stop these abuses, make these practices systematic,” the report concludes. “They also indicate that torture is governmental policy for both the PA and Hamas.” Since this likely constitutes a crime against humanity, Human Rights Watch recommends the International Criminal Court open an investigation.
Fatah, the party that controls the Palestinian Authority, may be more “moderate” than Hamas in its approach to Israel, but it is brutal to Palestinians in the West Bank. The report explains that even when the authority releases detainees, it often refuses to drop charges, leaving behind a pretext for repeated punitive arrests to harass critics into silence. Vaguely worded laws also empower officials to detain Palestinians for calling for free expression on Facebook or reporting on unemployment. The offenders are then held in custody for weeks for provoking “sectarian strife” and insulting “higher authorities.” Similarly in Gaza, the wrong post on social media can result in persecution for “misuse of technology.”
In January the Trump administration suspended tens of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority, but in March Congress exempted $70 million in security assistance. The report calls on the U.S., Europe and the United Nations to suspend all funding for the Palestinian Authority’s Preventative Security Forces, General Intelligence Services, and Joint Security Committee until the agencies cease arresting critics and torturing detainees. It also asks Iran, Qatar and Turkey to stop funding Hamas. Good luck with that.
No one can accuse Human Rights Watch of anti-Palestinian or pro-Israel bias. For years the group has disproportionately focused its criticism on Israel, accusing it of war crimes and other violations of international law. The lead author of the Human Rights Watch report, Israel and Palestine Director Omar Shakir, has on several occasions accused Israel of practicing “apartheid.” The group has even raised money off the opposition it attracts from pro-Israel groups.
Instead of further demonizing Israel, this report is pro-Palestinian in the best sense: It defends the Palestinian people from their predatory authoritarian leaders. Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, was democratically elected in 2005 for a four-year term. He never allowed his people to vote again, and still rules almost 14 years later.
Abuse and corruption aside, all the Palestinian leadership offers is angry rhetoric or violence against Israel. “Calls by Palestinian officials to safeguard Palestinian rights ring hollow as they crush dissent,” said Human Rights Watch’s deputy program director Tom Porteous. It has been 25 years since the Oslo Accords instituted some Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and 13 years since Israel vacated the Gaza Strip. Where Palestinians have autonomy, Mr. Porteous says, “they have developed parallel police states.” Naturally, Human Rights Watch and other critics castigate Israel for failing to give the Palestinians more autonomy.
Amid the pressure to create a Palestinian state, the easiest thing to do is ignore the warning signs that statehood today would result in even more tyranny and bloodshed.
Mr. Kaufman is the Journal’s Joseph Rago Memorial Fellow.
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