Difference between revisions of "Palestinian Authority"

Revision as of 03:14, September 30, 2021

The Palestinian Authority is the governmental unit that governs the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It was established in May 1994.^[1]^[2] In January 2013 president Mahmoud Abbas signed a presidential decree which officially changed the name of the Palestinian Authority to the "State of Palestine".^[3]

It has been noted (Aug/2021):^[4]

As much as 40% of the amount donated to Palestinians by Arab countries and others, has been absconded by Palestinian leaders. Yasser Arafat is estimated to have embezzled $1-3 billion alone. Today, the blackmail money keeps flowing in exchange for quiet.

It is an undemocratic system. As on Aug/2021, it has been reminded that the last election there, the iPhone did not yet exist.

Regarding its mass torture, in 2017^[5] a verdict was issued of a long detailed account of 1,800 pages: “The Palestinian Authority is responsible for severe abuses, including: the murder, kidnapping, imprisonment, torture, and rape of 52 Palestinian and Israeli citizens, residents of the West Bank.” The verdict described horrifying torture. Electric shocks, hanging upside down for long periods of time, pouring boiling plastic on the body, extraction of nails and teeth, sterilization, sleep deprivation, food restriction, the killing and raping of family members, the removal of a pre-mature baby from her incubator, and other forms of inhumane abuse.

Though officially, the official line in recent years is that the PA stopped executing Arabs for selling land to Jews. And this narrative is repeatedly stressed by Haaretz/Btselem anti-Israel fanatics. The hard fact is, however, that it does still bring about torture and deaths via various methods.^[6]

Abu Mazen openly declared his racist 'plan' that no Jew shall reside in his envisioned "Palestine" State.^[7]

Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) charged the PA and Hamas with repeated cases of torture, oppression, assaults on freedom of expression and academic freedoms, as well as ignoring court orders.^[8]

References

↑ The Palestinian Authority: History & Overview. Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved August 20, 2018.
↑ Palestinian Authority. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved August 20, 2018.
↑ Palestinian Authority Officially Changes Name to 'State of Palestine'. Haaretz. Retrieved August 21, 2018.
↑ Avi Kaner (@AviKaner) Tweeted:
As much as 40% of the amount donated to Palestinians by Arab countries and others, has been absconded by Palestinian leaders. Yasser Arafat is estimated to have embezzled $1-3 billion alone. Today, the blackmail money keeps flowing in exchange for quiet.
https://t.co/zIhKtQoHrB Aug 24, 2021
↑ 'Torture and Inhumane Treatment,' Jerusalem Institute of Justice, June 27, 2019.

“The Palestinian Authority is responsible for severe abuses, including: the murder, kidnapping, imprisonment, torture, and rape of 52 Palestinian and Israeli citizens, residents of the West Bank,” stated the long (1,800 pages) precedent setting verdict that was issued approximately two years ago by judge Moshe Drori of the Jerusalem District Court.
The verdict described horrifying torture. Electric shocks, hanging upside down for long periods of time, pouring boiling plastic on the body, extraction of nails and teeth, sterilization, sleep deprivation, food restriction, the killing and raping of family members, the removal of a pre-mature baby from her incubator, and other forms of inhumane abuse.
↑ Death, Prolonged Imprisonment and Torture - The Bitter Fate of Palestinian Land Merchants, Akiva Bigman, Mida, Jan 12, 2016.

The Palestinian Authority does not execute land dealers? Conversations with field people dealing with the subject paint a completely different picture.
About four years ago, a man fell from the window of the third floor of the detention center building in Ramallah, and was found dead. The Palestinian Authority claimed that it was a suicide. But those who are well acquainted with what is happening on the ground are convinced that the truth is different: it was thrown away on purpose. That Palestinian did not murder, steal or rob anyone. His crime was trafficking in land with Jews.
A "fact" investigation published last Thursday documented operatives of Ta'ayush and B'Tselem allegedly handing over Palestinian land sellers to the Palestinian Authority's security forces. One of them, Ezra Navi, explained that the PA "caught them and killed them" and even bragged in part about it. Since then, human rights organizations are in turmoil. Alongside many who justify the acts, as revealed in ‘MIDA’, there are many who seek to challenge the credibility of the findings.
One of the recurring allegations in this context is the claim that since 2005 the Palestinian Authority has not executed execution sentences. "PA courts occasionally sentence him to death," Hagai Matar explains on the Local Conversation website, "but Abu Mazen's policy is not to sign execution orders, so no one has actually been executed in a decade." The column, which has meanwhile become the left's defense correspondent, was also quoted by Amira Hess in Haaretz and other places. The source of the data that Matar mentions in his article, by the way, is the B'Tselem website.
This may be legally the case, but the reality on the ground tells a completely different story. As we shall see immediately, the full truth is much more serious: although the Palestinian Authority does not officially execute, it does cause many deaths by indirect means. Even those who are not eliminated, are sentenced to long and indefinite prison terms in which he is subjected to interrogations with torture, humiliation and severe violence in prison.
"Shot seven times in the head"
As mentioned, the incident in which a man was thrown to his death occurred in 2012. Beyond that, over the years there have been many more victims.
The conversation we had with some field activists was hard to digest. These deal with various aspects of real estate transactions in Judea and Samaria, and tell of a cruel reality. They are exposed on a daily basis to the crimes of the Palestinian Authority, and know it closely; Among other things, they met in person with innocent Palestinians who had "received" special PA treatment from those who sold land to Jews. All the sources for this article sought to remain anonymous. Surely you will understand why.
Like the case we opened, some of them repeat the same description in different ways: Prisoners deprive the authority of prison life in different and weird ways. In some cases, these are prisoners who were murdered by their cellmates: "Prison authorities put them in cells with premeditated murderers, and everyone knows what's going to happen there," a source tells us. "Sometimes, in some cases I know of, people were murdered like that in Jericho Prison."
But sometimes you don't even have to go to jail to meet death. For example, in the case of Muhammad Abu al-Hawa, who sold a property to the Elad organization - and was murdered in Jericho on the street in 2006. One of the sources tells us that he lived in Jericho, and paid silence fees to officials in the area. After some time his existence was discovered, the silence fee became more expensive and when he did not meet the payments, his "defenders" shot him. An article published at the time on the Haaretz website describes that the Fatah organization has officially taken responsibility for this:
Muhammad Abu al-Hawa, 40, a father of eight, a resident of the a-Tur neighborhood in East Jerusalem, was shot dead yesterday in Jericho. Relatives said Abu al-Hawa's car was set on fire with his body inside, after being shot seven times in the head. The Palestinian police handed over the body and the vehicle to the Israel Police, who sent his body for examination at the Pathological Institute in Abu Kabir.
Police estimate that Abu al-Hawa was killed in retaliation for selling a house to Jews in East Jerusalem. Fatah claimed responsibility for the killings. The car was purchased four days ago by Abu al-Hawa, apparently with the money he earned from the sale of the house.
This happened a year after the "new policy" of the Palestinian Authority, which Amira Hess and B'Tselem like to quote. Maybe they would have thought differently, if they had read Haaretz.
The punishment is clear; Navi in fact investigation. Photo cover
"These people know everything I described to you," says one source referring to the allegations on the left, "and they are deliberately hiding it from the public."
As for Palestinian traders, another source who buys land from Palestinians in Judea and Samaria says: "I see the fear in their eyes. It is a primordial fear. Basic. And there is a good reason for that." The fear of being captured by the PA mechanisms accompanies any such deal, and it hovers over the deal all the way. "The chances of rescuing a person arrested by the PA are very low," says another source in the field. "The interrogations are very violent. There is physical pressure. Severe physical beatings. I know people who were beaten in the body, and a man whose jaw was broken and detached from the face. He was stitched for 4 months until it recovered. They are hung upside down, cigarettes are extinguished and humiliated."
After the investigation, a trial takes place, and anyone found guilty of selling land to Jews or in connection with such a sale is usually sentenced to death, awaiting approval signed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. To put it mildly, it is not a matter of pardon or release.
A source familiar with this reality can tell that it is a very severe imprisonment: "They sit in jail with some of the most serious criminal offenders such as murderers, rapists, thieves and the like, who see the new inmates as easy prey that can be earned by abusing them," he says. "They are humiliated in a very cruel way, and they become the bottom of the prison population. They are charged with cleaning jobs at an angle and the like."
Beyond that the arrest of a person on this suspicion leads to total family humiliation. Arrest the family members and humiliate his loved ones in public. "I know a family that has undergone a contempt order," says one of the sources. In another case, a man who was a partner in the sale of land was unable to marry his daughters, and only after they reached an extreme age were they forced to marry mentally retarded grooms.
"The issue of land is taboo"
Selling land to Jews is considered a very serious offense in Palestinian society, even more serious than cooperating with Israel's intelligence services. "I do not encounter so many arrests for cooperating with Israeli intelligence," a source tells us. "But you do see their rampage towards people related to the real estate issue." There are various justifications for cooperating with Israel: sometimes it works for the benefit of the local population, and sometimes it is done as part of tacit agreements between the PA and Israel.
But the sale of land is a completely different story: "The issue of land is a complete taboo for them," the source explains, "it comes from very deep roots. For them land and woman are similar things related to the deepest emotions of Arab culture." And just as the dignity of women - which is a pretext for murder in very detailed rules set by local customs - so is the issue of land. "It means that whoever is suspected of this is perceived as desecrating the most sacred values."
This primordial ideology is, of course, enshrined in law, which in its official wording describes it as "the extradition of land" or "transfer by theft to a foreign body." A term that, due to cultural differences, has no Hebrew equivalent. The penalty for this offense ranges from lengthy imprisonment to execution. It should come as no surprise, then, that the Palestinians are becoming paranoid. "Once someone called me because of various concerns he had," a source tells us. "We drove to him at 4 at night. I sat him on the roof armed to guard him." At dawn they slipped out of the village.
Ezra Navi was right
If so, in contrast to the attempts of B'Tselem members and supporters of the Palestinian Authority to downplay the severity of the danger, evidence of a harsh and brutal reality emerges from the field. The danger is daily and tangible, and the extradition of innocent citizens to the PA's mechanisms often leads to serious consequences.
The "official" numbers provided by the Palestinian Authority and various human rights organizations speak of a complete cessation of executions over the past decade. But field officials estimate that at least a few dozen Palestinians are in lengthy prison terms, and about five of them have died in various and bizarre circumstances. It should be very cruel to hand people over to such a fate, and even more cruel to defend the act in public.
↑ 'Abbas's comment about a state without Jews was racist' Khaled Abu Toameh, Herb Keinon The Jerusalem Post, May 30, 2011. Steinitz: I remind everyone that Abbas denied the Holocaust in his doctoral thesis, and these things need to raise questions about this man... National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau said, “I want to remind everyone that we have Arab citizens in Israel, and that is completely acceptable. I don’t see any problem that there will be Jewish citizens in a Palestinian state, if it is established.”
↑ Ari Yashar, "PA Human Rights Abuses Start with Hamas Flag," INN, May 09 , 2014.
PA security forces charged with beating civilians with weapons, firing live ammo, raiding homes with no warrant.

[1] The Palestinian Authority: History & Overview. Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved August 20, 2018.

[2] Palestinian Authority. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved August 20, 2018.

[3] Palestinian Authority Officially Changes Name to 'State of Palestine'. Haaretz. Retrieved August 21, 2018.

[4] Avi Kaner (@AviKaner) Tweeted:
As much as 40% of the amount donated to Palestinians by Arab countries and others, has been absconded by Palestinian leaders. Yasser Arafat is estimated to have embezzled $1-3 billion alone. Today, the blackmail money keeps flowing in exchange for quiet.
https://t.co/zIhKtQoHrB Aug 24, 2021

[5] 'Torture and Inhumane Treatment,' Jerusalem Institute of Justice, June 27, 2019.

“The Palestinian Authority is responsible for severe abuses, including: the murder, kidnapping, imprisonment, torture, and rape of 52 Palestinian and Israeli citizens, residents of the West Bank,” stated the long (1,800 pages) precedent setting verdict that was issued approximately two years ago by judge Moshe Drori of the Jerusalem District Court.
The verdict described horrifying torture. Electric shocks, hanging upside down for long periods of time, pouring boiling plastic on the body, extraction of nails and teeth, sterilization, sleep deprivation, food restriction, the killing and raping of family members, the removal of a pre-mature baby from her incubator, and other forms of inhumane abuse.

[6] Death, Prolonged Imprisonment and Torture - The Bitter Fate of Palestinian Land Merchants, Akiva Bigman, Mida, Jan 12, 2016.

The Palestinian Authority does not execute land dealers? Conversations with field people dealing with the subject paint a completely different picture.
About four years ago, a man fell from the window of the third floor of the detention center building in Ramallah, and was found dead. The Palestinian Authority claimed that it was a suicide. But those who are well acquainted with what is happening on the ground are convinced that the truth is different: it was thrown away on purpose. That Palestinian did not murder, steal or rob anyone. His crime was trafficking in land with Jews.
A "fact" investigation published last Thursday documented operatives of Ta'ayush and B'Tselem allegedly handing over Palestinian land sellers to the Palestinian Authority's security forces. One of them, Ezra Navi, explained that the PA "caught them and killed them" and even bragged in part about it. Since then, human rights organizations are in turmoil. Alongside many who justify the acts, as revealed in ‘MIDA’, there are many who seek to challenge the credibility of the findings.
One of the recurring allegations in this context is the claim that since 2005 the Palestinian Authority has not executed execution sentences. "PA courts occasionally sentence him to death," Hagai Matar explains on the Local Conversation website, "but Abu Mazen's policy is not to sign execution orders, so no one has actually been executed in a decade." The column, which has meanwhile become the left's defense correspondent, was also quoted by Amira Hess in Haaretz and other places. The source of the data that Matar mentions in his article, by the way, is the B'Tselem website.
This may be legally the case, but the reality on the ground tells a completely different story. As we shall see immediately, the full truth is much more serious: although the Palestinian Authority does not officially execute, it does cause many deaths by indirect means. Even those who are not eliminated, are sentenced to long and indefinite prison terms in which he is subjected to interrogations with torture, humiliation and severe violence in prison.
"Shot seven times in the head"
As mentioned, the incident in which a man was thrown to his death occurred in 2012. Beyond that, over the years there have been many more victims.
The conversation we had with some field activists was hard to digest. These deal with various aspects of real estate transactions in Judea and Samaria, and tell of a cruel reality. They are exposed on a daily basis to the crimes of the Palestinian Authority, and know it closely; Among other things, they met in person with innocent Palestinians who had "received" special PA treatment from those who sold land to Jews. All the sources for this article sought to remain anonymous. Surely you will understand why.
Like the case we opened, some of them repeat the same description in different ways: Prisoners deprive the authority of prison life in different and weird ways. In some cases, these are prisoners who were murdered by their cellmates: "Prison authorities put them in cells with premeditated murderers, and everyone knows what's going to happen there," a source tells us. "Sometimes, in some cases I know of, people were murdered like that in Jericho Prison."
But sometimes you don't even have to go to jail to meet death. For example, in the case of Muhammad Abu al-Hawa, who sold a property to the Elad organization - and was murdered in Jericho on the street in 2006. One of the sources tells us that he lived in Jericho, and paid silence fees to officials in the area. After some time his existence was discovered, the silence fee became more expensive and when he did not meet the payments, his "defenders" shot him. An article published at the time on the Haaretz website describes that the Fatah organization has officially taken responsibility for this:
Muhammad Abu al-Hawa, 40, a father of eight, a resident of the a-Tur neighborhood in East Jerusalem, was shot dead yesterday in Jericho. Relatives said Abu al-Hawa's car was set on fire with his body inside, after being shot seven times in the head. The Palestinian police handed over the body and the vehicle to the Israel Police, who sent his body for examination at the Pathological Institute in Abu Kabir.
Police estimate that Abu al-Hawa was killed in retaliation for selling a house to Jews in East Jerusalem. Fatah claimed responsibility for the killings. The car was purchased four days ago by Abu al-Hawa, apparently with the money he earned from the sale of the house.
This happened a year after the "new policy" of the Palestinian Authority, which Amira Hess and B'Tselem like to quote. Maybe they would have thought differently, if they had read Haaretz.
The punishment is clear; Navi in fact investigation. Photo cover
"These people know everything I described to you," says one source referring to the allegations on the left, "and they are deliberately hiding it from the public."
As for Palestinian traders, another source who buys land from Palestinians in Judea and Samaria says: "I see the fear in their eyes. It is a primordial fear. Basic. And there is a good reason for that." The fear of being captured by the PA mechanisms accompanies any such deal, and it hovers over the deal all the way. "The chances of rescuing a person arrested by the PA are very low," says another source in the field. "The interrogations are very violent. There is physical pressure. Severe physical beatings. I know people who were beaten in the body, and a man whose jaw was broken and detached from the face. He was stitched for 4 months until it recovered. They are hung upside down, cigarettes are extinguished and humiliated."
After the investigation, a trial takes place, and anyone found guilty of selling land to Jews or in connection with such a sale is usually sentenced to death, awaiting approval signed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. To put it mildly, it is not a matter of pardon or release.
A source familiar with this reality can tell that it is a very severe imprisonment: "They sit in jail with some of the most serious criminal offenders such as murderers, rapists, thieves and the like, who see the new inmates as easy prey that can be earned by abusing them," he says. "They are humiliated in a very cruel way, and they become the bottom of the prison population. They are charged with cleaning jobs at an angle and the like."
Beyond that the arrest of a person on this suspicion leads to total family humiliation. Arrest the family members and humiliate his loved ones in public. "I know a family that has undergone a contempt order," says one of the sources. In another case, a man who was a partner in the sale of land was unable to marry his daughters, and only after they reached an extreme age were they forced to marry mentally retarded grooms.
"The issue of land is taboo"
Selling land to Jews is considered a very serious offense in Palestinian society, even more serious than cooperating with Israel's intelligence services. "I do not encounter so many arrests for cooperating with Israeli intelligence," a source tells us. "But you do see their rampage towards people related to the real estate issue." There are various justifications for cooperating with Israel: sometimes it works for the benefit of the local population, and sometimes it is done as part of tacit agreements between the PA and Israel.
But the sale of land is a completely different story: "The issue of land is a complete taboo for them," the source explains, "it comes from very deep roots. For them land and woman are similar things related to the deepest emotions of Arab culture." And just as the dignity of women - which is a pretext for murder in very detailed rules set by local customs - so is the issue of land. "It means that whoever is suspected of this is perceived as desecrating the most sacred values."
This primordial ideology is, of course, enshrined in law, which in its official wording describes it as "the extradition of land" or "transfer by theft to a foreign body." A term that, due to cultural differences, has no Hebrew equivalent. The penalty for this offense ranges from lengthy imprisonment to execution. It should come as no surprise, then, that the Palestinians are becoming paranoid. "Once someone called me because of various concerns he had," a source tells us. "We drove to him at 4 at night. I sat him on the roof armed to guard him." At dawn they slipped out of the village.
Ezra Navi was right
If so, in contrast to the attempts of B'Tselem members and supporters of the Palestinian Authority to downplay the severity of the danger, evidence of a harsh and brutal reality emerges from the field. The danger is daily and tangible, and the extradition of innocent citizens to the PA's mechanisms often leads to serious consequences.
The "official" numbers provided by the Palestinian Authority and various human rights organizations speak of a complete cessation of executions over the past decade. But field officials estimate that at least a few dozen Palestinians are in lengthy prison terms, and about five of them have died in various and bizarre circumstances. It should be very cruel to hand people over to such a fate, and even more cruel to defend the act in public.

[7] 'Abbas's comment about a state without Jews was racist' Khaled Abu Toameh, Herb Keinon The Jerusalem Post, May 30, 2011. Steinitz: I remind everyone that Abbas denied the Holocaust in his doctoral thesis, and these things need to raise questions about this man... National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau said, “I want to remind everyone that we have Arab citizens in Israel, and that is completely acceptable. I don’t see any problem that there will be Jewish citizens in a Palestinian state, if it is established.”

[8] Ari Yashar, "PA Human Rights Abuses Start with Hamas Flag," INN, May 09 , 2014.
PA security forces charged with beating civilians with weapons, firing live ammo, raiding homes with no warrant.

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[2]

[3]

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@@ Line 73: / Line 73: @@
+Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) charged the PA and Hamas with repeated cases of torture, oppression, assaults on freedom of expression and academic freedoms, as well as ignoring court orders.<ref>Ari Yashar, "[https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/180435 PA Human Rights Abuses Start with Hamas Flag]," INN, May 09 , 2014.
+<br><i>
+PA security forces charged with beating civilians with weapons, firing live ammo, raiding homes with no warrant.</i></ref>
 ==See also==
 *[[State of Palestine]]

Difference between revisions of "Palestinian Authority"

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