IPFS

PA Interrogators Torture Palestinians for Israel

Written by Subject: Israel - Palestine

PA Interrogators Torture Palestinians for Israel

by Stephen Lendman

Thousands of US and Israeli trained Palestinian security forces cost the PA over $1 billion annually, over a third of its operating budget, using weapons supplied by Israel, Western and regional countries.

PA collaborators militarized Palestine, serving Israeli interests at the expense of their own people - including torturing Palestinian detainees to extract confessions to alleged crimes they didn't commit, Hamas members and supporters most vulnerable.

A 2010 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report indicated PA security forces tortured political Palestinian detainees unaccountably.

A 2012 UK-based Arab Organization for Human Rights revealed documented evidence, implicating the PA in torturing 96% of its prisoners from 2007 - 2011 - the vast majority held for political reasons, trumped up charges a cover for collaborative persecution with Israel.

Oslo established the PA, largely as Israel's enforcer, doing much of its dirty work or coordinating its activities with Israeli security forces. Last summer, Abbas outrageously called his brutalization policy "holy," assuring no chance for unity Palestinian governance against a common enemy.

Last spring, HRW denounced the PA for targeting Palestinian university students solely for political purposes. At the time, HRW's Sarah Leah Whitson called it "deeply worrying that students are being held by Palestinian forces for no apparent reason other than their connection to Hamas or their opinions."

"Palestinians should be able to express critical political opinions without being arrested or beaten," she added.

Hamas members and supporters, as well as anti-Zionist activists are regularly assaulted, detained and tortured. The Abbas-led PA collaborates with Israel to eliminate internal opposition - a disgraceful longstanding betrayal.

On December 16, Maan News reported PA security forces lawlessly arresting and torturing Palestinian detainees - citing  Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) director Ammar Dwaik, saying his organization received around 1,220 complaints this year.

They show PA interrogators use physical and psychological torture - including "lashing, cursing, blasphemy, sleep deprivation, foot whipping, and tying detainees in one position for several hours," according to Maan News.

International law prohibits torture at all times, under all circumstances with no allowed exceptions. So does Palestinian Basic Law's Article 13, stating:

"1. No person shall be subject to any duress or torture. Indictees and all persons deprived of their freedom shall receive proper treatment.

2. All statements or confessions obtained through violation of the provisions contained in paragraph 1 of this article shall be considered null and void."

The PA commits grave abuses of power daily, including brutally torturing Palestinian detainees, serving Israeli interests.

In 2014, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said torture and other forms abuse are commonplace throughout Occupied Palestine.

PA officials claim they'll prosecute security forces involved in torture during interrogations but never follow through - saying one thing, permitting another, Abbas directly involved.

Last year, he duplicitously joined the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment - while authorizing practices the convention prohibits.

According to ICHR director Ammar Dwaik, Palestinian officials have "a long way to go until torture is" once and for all stopped. 

Defenseless Palestinians continue being brutalized, solely for political reasons, in service to Israel.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 

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