by AP and Israel Hayom Staff
Following two-year investigation, Human Rights Watch report concludes Palestinian torture could constitute a war crime
Palestinian political activist Taghreed Abu Teer recalls being held by
Hamas authorities for 11 days and interrogated under “humiliating conditions”
Photo: AP
Security forces of
the rival Palestinian governments in both the Gaza Strip and the
Palestinian Authority routinely use torture and arbitrary arrests, among
other tactics, to quash dissent by peaceful activists and political
rivals, a Human Rights Watch investigation has found.
The charges come in a report issued Tuesday
by the New York-based watchdog following a two-year investigation that
included interviews with nearly 150 people, many of them former
detainees.
In the report, the group accused both the
Western-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and militant
Islamist Hamas in Gaza of using "machineries of repression" to stifle
criticism.
Human Rights Watch also said the systematic
use of torture could amount to a crime against humanity under the
United Nations' Convention against Torture, and called on countries that
provide funding to Palestinian law enforcement to suspend their
assistance.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas' government joined the convention after Palestine was accepted as a nonmember state at the U.N.
"Palestinian authorities have gained only
limited power in the West Bank and Gaza, but yet, where they have
autonomy, they have developed parallel police states," said Tom
Porteous, deputy program director at Human Rights Watch.
"Calls by Palestinian officials to safeguard Palestinian rights ring hollow as they crush dissent," he said.
According to the report, the leaders in
both the West Bank and Gaza engage in similar tactics, in most cases
without holding anyone to account.
Among their alleged abuses are: whipping
people's feet, forcing detainees into painful positions such as hoisting
their arms up behind their backs with rope, and coercing suspects into
granting access to their mobile phones and social media accounts.
Both Hamas and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority denied all the allegations.
The two Palestinian factions split in 2007
after Hamas violently seized the Gaza Strip from forces loyal to Abbas.
For more than a decade, Hamas has maintained an iron grip on power and
suppressed any signs of public dissent, including street protests and
social media posts.
Despite having Western backing, Abbas has
also silenced dissent in the areas of the West Bank he administers under
past agreements with Israel. Last year, he clamped down on social media
and news websites with a vaguely worded decree that critics say allows
his government to jail anyone on charges of harming "national unity" or
the "social fabric."
Abbas' security forces also work closely
with Israel to keep Hamas in check in the West Bank. Critics accuse
Israel of holding Palestinian detainees without charge for extended
periods and also of torture.
Mohammed Khatib, a 20-year-old law student
and activist with Hamas' student branch in the West Bank, told The
Associated Press he was arrested last month and held for 19 days at an
intelligence center in Ramallah. He said he was forced to stand for
hours at a time and hung by his handcuffed hands to a door for 15
minutes, a stress position meant to cause pain but leave no sign of
injury.
"This is not only a violation of human
rights, it is a violation of human dignity, a violation of basic
morals," he said, adding that he believed the aim was to intimidate him.
HRW's report also highlights other tactics
used to silence Palestinian dissent and punish activists, among them the
seizing of phones, leaving investigations and charges open, and
coercing detainees to promise to stop any further criticism.
In Gaza, Taghreed Abu Teer, a 47-year-old
journalist, told the AP that she was held by Hamas authorities for 11
days and interrogated under "humiliating conditions" for her activities
with the rival Fatah movement.
She said she was kept in a dark cell for
days at a time and forced to stand for lengthy periods. Although she was
not physically beaten, she said she could hear the screams of men being
tortured nearby, and that at one point, a man with a whip threatened to
beat her as well. More than a year and a half later, she still cries
when she recalls the "unforgettable experience."
"As long as I was in the cell, I was
wondering what had led to me ending up here," she said. She spoke at a
relative's home so her six children would not hear about the ordeal.
Abu Teer said interrogators threatened to
charge her with collaboration with Israel, widely feared as a stigma,
and that most of the questions focused on a three-day trip she made to
the West Bank, where she met senior Fatah officials and briefed them
about the situation in Gaza. She said interrogators accused her of
inciting the Palestinian Authority to make financial cuts and other
punitive measures against Gaza, a tactic meant to squeeze Hamas.
She denied all the allegations, saying she had only led protests and lobbied for ending the Hamas-Fatah split.
While she was never charged, Hamas officers
advised her "to be quiet" and focus on her home and family, "which I
considered a veiled threat rather than advice," she added.
Human Rights Watch also said it has
encouraged the International Criminal Court to open an investigation
into both Israeli and Palestinian conduct in the Palestinian
territories. It called on both Palestinian authorities to pledge to stop
carrying out arbitrary arrests, end torture, establish an oversight
mechanism or body over its detention practices and hold credible
investigations into allegations of misconduct.
In a rare step, the report also called on
countries that provide funding to either territory's law enforcement
agencies to withhold assistance until concrete steps are taken to end
the practices.
Among the aid is millions of dollars for
the West Bank security forces from the United States, which has
continued its support even after slashing hundreds of millions of
dollars in other assistance to the Palestinians. The report said Hamas
receives assistance from Iran, Qatar and Turkey.
Adnan Damiri, spokesman for the Palestinian
security forces in the West Bank, denied any allegation of systematic
torture and said authorities investigate claims and punish perpetrators.
"These testimonies are not accurate. They
are testimonies of political activists who belong to political parties
with political agendas, and of course they will put any blame they can
on the Palestinian Authority," he told the AP.
In Gaza, Hamas denied arresting critics or
opponents on political grounds. Faraj al-Ghoul, a Hamas lawmaker, said
the report was "unfair," and that Human Rights Watch was welcome to
inspect the group's prisons.
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/10/23/pa-hamas-routinely-use-torture-to-crush-dissent-human-rights-report-finds/
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