Why the PLO Covenant Annulment Means Little

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December 15, 1998

The high point of President Bill Clinton’s middle east mission – his participation in the Palestine National Council meeting where he witnessed the PNC annulling the PLO Covenant by a voice vote – may turn out to be somewhat anticlimactic.

Arafat’s commitment to annul the 1964 PLO Covenant on 9th September, 1993, remained the condition that the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin required for Israel to enter into any agreement with Arafat and the PLO.

Yet what has transpired in the five years that it took Arafat to cancel the Palestinian covenant is that the PLO Covenant has become engrained in the foundations of the Palestinian state in the making.

Tragically, no decision by the PNC, however well intended, can put the toothpaste back in the tube.

At the outset of the 1998-99 Palestinian school year, the first academic study of the hundred and fifty new school books used by the Palestine Authority showed that the PLO Covenant remains the central theme of the Palestine Authority school curriculum. Israel is referred to in PA school books as the “Zionist enemy”, while Zionism is equated with Nazism, “JIHAD”/holy war is taught as the duty of Palestinian school children, and the need to liberate “all of Palestine” remains a pervasive theme in all PA textbooks, while the official PBC “Voice of the Palestine Authority” radio and TV networks quote the PLO Covenant in almost every aspect of its daily media output. That official PLO media incitement has not let up since the WYE accord was reached in October.

The PLO Covenant remains the living “raison d’etre” of the Palestinian Arab refugee camps operated by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, for almost fifty years, which provides for more than three million Palestinian Arab refugees to refugee camps, under the PLO Covenant‘s premise and promise of the “inalienable right of return” for Palestinian refugees to return to the homes within Israel proper that they left in 1948, a dream endorsed by the annual ratfication of UN resolution #194.

One of the first acts of the Palestine Authority was to reject any rehabilitation of the Palestinian refugee camps, because the PLO Covenant forbids any change in the “refugee status quo”. The spokesman of the Palestine Legislative Council informed me today that the principles of the PLO Covenant that forbid rehabilitation of the Palestinian refugee camps will continue to be enforced.

Indeed, during the American First Lady Hillary Clinton’s visit to an UNRWA school in an UNRWA Refugee Camp, the children excitedly sang songs of their imminent return to the homes that their grandparents left in what are now in Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, and Haifa.

Moreover, since yet another principle of the PLO Covenant is that Jews should not be able to purchase new lands in Palestine since 1917, the Palestine Legislative Council enacted a statute in November that made it a capital crime for Jews to purchase land anywhere which the PLO consider to be “Palestine”. The PLC was not only referring to the west bank and to Gaza. Meanwhile, the popular FATAH movement, under the steady leadership of Yassir Arafat since 1964, issued a new constitution this week in which the FATAH absorbed all of the principles of the PLO Covenant that advocate Israel’s destruction.

Not everyone in the president’s entourage expressed unreserved enthusiasm with the PNC decison to annul the PLO Covenant.

US Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the senior congressional witness to the PNC session in Gaza, held a press conference before returning to Washington to warn that any PLO decision that contravened the annulment of the PLO charter would run into congressional opposition to the aid promised to the Palestine Authority by President Clinton.

The Palestinian Security Services: Between Police and Army

By

David Bedein

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December 15, 1998

Source: The Washington Institute for Near East Policy – Special report on “Palestinian security services: between police and army” – November, 1998.

As a result of Oslo, the PSS (Palestinian Security Services) was established. The PSS includes many of those from the PLA (Palestinian Liberation Army). Originally, the PSS had 12 branches, but after OSLO II, the branches were decreased to 6.
OSLO II only allows the PSS to have 30,000 officers. There could be over 40,000-if this is true, the PA is the most heavily policed territory in the world, 1 officer for every 50 residents, the US ration is 1:400.
the PA is accumulating anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons for confrontation with the IDF.
the PA is considering making mandatory military service after the OSLO Process is completed in May, 1999. The Palestinian GSS (General Security Service) is responsible for coordinating and maintaining most of the Palestinian security branches and services. (including police and intelligence). According to OSLO, the GSS should be the security service under which all other services operate.
GSS Security Branches:
1. National Security Force- 14,000 officers. NSF is responsible for missions along area A and inside. Israeli-Palestinian joint guards. Recruited most of their officers from the PLA and the local areas.
2. Civil Police-“blue police” They are the main tool of the PA. They handle ordinary police functions. They employee more than 10,000 police officers in the W.Bank and Gaza. Also they have 700 officers in a special rapid-deployment police unit who are trained to handle severe riots and counterterrorism operations. Officers in this unit have received training form the former Soviet Union and therefore these officers train other officers of other units.
3. Preventative Security Force-5,000 agents, the largest PA intelligence force. They are involved in ‘information gathering in Israel.’ They have received a reputation for violating civil rights, including deaths of tortured detainees.
4. General Intelligence-the official PA intelligence agency which has 3,000 officers. They are involved in developing relations with other foreign intelligence bodies.
5. Military Police-they are part of the General Intelligence unit, but they are not officially recognized in the OSLO accords.
6. Coast Guard-is situated in Gaza and has 1,000 officers. This unit is equipped with 5 motorboats which are supplied with machine guns. Recruits come from the Palestinian Diaspora who previously belonged to the overseas naval unit of Fatah. They receive special commando training.
7. Aerial Police- is based on Force 14, Fatah’s aviation unit. Responsible for maintaining the PA’s 5 helicopters. This unit is not mentioned in any of the agreements.
8. Civil Defence-is described in OSLO as ‘Emergency Services and Rescue.’ This unit consists of a fire department and rescue services. They administer programs of first aid and rescue training for civilians.
9. County Guard-supply security services to county governors and their offices. They summon people for questioning and resolve local quarrels. They are not recognized by any agreements.
10. GSS
  Arafat created 2 additional services outside of the 1994 Cairo’s Agreement’s definition of GSS-these 2 units are accountable only to Arafat:
  1. Special Security Force (SSF)-was established in Jan 1995, probably the smallest unit. They work under Arafat’s direct supervision. Their main objectives are to gather information about opposition groups in foreign countries (Arab). However, their hidden functions are to collect information on the PA’s other security services and to collect information about corruption and illegal actions by the PA officials.
  2. Presidential Security (al-Amn al-Ri’asah)- has 3,000 officers, many of whom were once members of Force 17, Arafat’s personal security guard while he led the PLO in the Diaspora. According to OSLO II, this unit was supposed to be part of the GSS. Their main objective is to handle counterterrorism, arresting opposition activists, and suspects of collaboration with Israel. Within this unit, there are 2 other units:
    1. An Intelligence Unit-they gather information about the activities of opposition movements and domestic threats.
    2. Personal Guard-these Arafat’s most loyal and trusted inner circle.

There are 8 bodies dealing with anti-opposition related activities, causing responsibilities to overlap and therefore clashes and inefficient work occurs- battles over jurisdiction.
Arafat has appointed Brig. Gen. Amin al-Hindi as head of his General Intelligence. This man disappeared for a while after his involvement in the 1972 massacre of Israeli Athletes in the Munich Olympics.
Arafat has so many security forces because:
- the PA constantly has to monitor and be aware of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and to get rid of the political threat they pose.
- the PA can inflate the number of security personnel without violating the interim agreement quota because most of his intelligence officers are plainclothes agents who look and dress like civilians.
Training: Britain, Austria, Netherlands, Egypt, and Scandinavian nations have all helped to train some of the men. The NSF who works alongside with the IDF is adopting many of the Israeli drills and techniques, disciplinary measures, battle drills, ways to operate radio equipment, and regulations for handling weapons. In 1994 the PSS new officers who were recruited form abroad were not given proper instructions, facilities, etc. Soon enough they became fed up. They were under paid and soon enough corruption set in. These officers began raiding businesses, collecting protection money and using excessive force.

Army or Police Force?

Police?

The Cairo Agreements first allowed the PA to establish a security that included police and internal security forces. The police is supposed to create public order and internal security. Only 9,000 were allowed to be employed by the security services. The agreed upon number rose to 30,000 by OSLO II. The PA is estimated to have 35,000-50,000 more police officers in different branches in the W.Bank and Gaza.
In 1998, the PA gave Israeli Intelligence a list of only 18,600 PSS officers because:
1. The PA does not want Israel to know the ‘real’ number of officers employed.
2. The PA does not want Israel to know the officers real identities because some are former terrorists who are wanted by the Israeli government. (Israel is allowed to veto any Palestinian employees who might be a security threat).
According to the 1994 Cairo Agreement, the PA is only allowed to have 15,00 weapons. An estimate of the PSS and the Palestinian population as a whole own an approximately 40,000 additional weapons than is allowed by OSLO II.
Activities related to preservation of public order in Palestinian cities and in 25 police stationed villages (Area B+) only involve 25% of actual PSS personnel (why is the ratio 1:50).
OSLO II does not specify the nature and the quality of the training required for the practice of law enforcement. As a result, the main branches of the PSS have never been properly trained in police work. 75% of the total force is not assigned to any law enforcement duties. 3/4 of the PSS are technically not police officers.

Military?

the PA emphasizes aggressive patriotism (jihad) and therefore a ‘uniform culture’ has been forged in the territories.
During the Summer of 1998, Fatah set up military camps in Gaza that trained young Palestinians in martial arts, handling light weapons, and military drills. The instructors of these camps came from the military intelligence branch of the PSS. The youth who were accepted into the military camps were chosen according to their intelligence, leadership, and their potential to become future commanders.
the PSS’s recruitment methods deal more with a persons political affiliation and loyalty to the regime rather than intellectual and leadership abilities. Current monthly salary for an officer is $200.
efforts are being made to settle disputes between the PA and Fatah’s faction in Lebanon, so if the peace process breaks down, the PLO fighters in Lebanon will be ready to join in. (Lebanon is the only place where Palestinian soldiers can develop skills in special weapons). Arafat has pledged to help these groups financially. Millions of dollars have been diverted from humanitarian projects in the West Bank and Gaza-to-Lebanon.

During any future conflict:

Assumption that Palestinians are stockpiling light anti-armor weapons, rocket propelled grenades, anti-tank missiles, SAM-7 anti-craft missiles, all which are forbidden under OSLO. PSS has been able to smuggle weapons into the PA across the Dead Sea into the West Bank or across the Mediterranean into Gaza. Or through a secret tunnel that connects from Egypt with Rafah, Gaza.
in 1997, the PSS’s need for anti-aircraft shoulder fired missiles became public when a former IDF scout was arrested for stealing a military patrol vehicle loaded with weapons and ammunition. During investigation he admitted that the weapons were ordered by the PSS.
Palestinians have been digging anti-tank tunnels and trap-holes under central roads in the West Bank and Gaza. These holes can be filled with explosives to block armored vehicles.
For next time, the PA will not restrict their fight only to a military level, but also civilians are to be included.
the PA holds self defense lessons for civilians which include: shooting, hand to hand combat, and ceremonial drill.

The Office of the Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories: UNSCO

1996-97: UNSCO coordinated bilateral and multilateral training programs for the Palestinian police. A team produced a comprehensive project document for the establishment of a police academy for 400 trainees in Jericho.

1998-99: UNSCO will continue to coordinate training programs for the Palestinian police force.

International Maritime Organization: IMO

1996-97: Since 1996, IMO has been doing regional projects, financed by the European Commission’s LIFE Program for the development of port state control capability in the Mediterranean. The PA is one of the project’s 11 participants. It involves technical assistance and training from other states in the Mediterranean.

1998-99 Proposals formulated:

establishment of an independent maritime administration within the Ministry of Transport in order to meet the needs of the proposed sea port and resulting shipping services.
establishment of a maritime training program to respond to the future need for maritime officers and engineers.

My Almost-Trip to Israel

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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December 15, 1998

Considering that the President is aware that I strongly disagree with his position toward Israel, it was a huge surprise when the President invited me to accompany him on his coming trip to Israel and the Gaza Strip. He knows that I have spoken out most critically of his favoritism of the Palestinians in the current and ongoing negotiations before, during, and after the Wye Agreement.

If I accepted and accompanied him, how would it look? How would my presence be perceived? Would it look to others who believe as I do that the President has consistently taken the Palestinian side that I had sold out? Or, maybe, just maybe, was there a productive roll for me to play? After all, it certainly would give me a forum to discuss with the public my differences with the President’s position.

For example, on the issue of the administration’s proposal to provide an additional $400 million in aid to the Palestinians, I could point out that contrary to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s statement that “every dollar of U.S. aid (to the Palestinians) is accounted for and is completely transparent,” the PA itself estimates that 40% of the PA’s annual budget had been stolen, wasted, or misused. I could have noted the Task Force’s study of the ‘PECDAR Papers’ that proved gross embezzlement and misuse of foreign aid on Arafat’s own order. And further that our General Accounting office said it was “unable to independently verify the PA’s financial condition since that organization was unwilling to provide us with requested accounting reports and supporting documentation.”

And, on the issue of the removal of the lethal phrases concerning Israel from the Palestinian National Covenant, I could point out to the President’s press corps that the PA has an unblemished track record of organizing events with the declared intention to address the covenant issue and always with the end result of leaving the covenant unchanged. Moreover, I could have raised other pertinent questions such as the illegal size of the so-called “police” forces Arafat had built; the types of weapons they have; their cooperation with terrorist organizations; their dismal failure to suppress Islamist terrorists even though the PA-controlled areas have one of the world’s largest ratios of police/security personnel per citizen.

I could have asked the President to rationalize his belief in the “peace process” in view of the ongoing anti-Israeli legislation by the PA such as the death penalty for holding/owning land the intensifying, virulent, anti-Semitic incitement in the PA-controlled media that makes genuine reconciliation with Israelis virtually impossible. I would have sought explanations of how can anybody trust an agreement compared to the Treaty of Hudaibiya enacted by the Prophet Muhammad, in which a treaty lasts as long as political expediency dictates, or trust Yassir Arafat after he repeatedly reiterated the enduring validity of the “Phased Plan” of July 1974 the PLO’s long- term plan to destroy Israel in the context of accepting a Palestinian state in the territories.

And I could have asked the President when will the killers of the two US diplomats Ambassador Cleo Noel Jr. and Curt Moore including Yassir Arafat who personally gave the order be finally brought to justice. Oh, and of course, I could point out that for many reasons it is clear for everyone that the real motivation for the administration’s interest in the Middle East has little to do with peace in the region and a lot to do with the President’s problems here at home.

And still the invitation had been extended and now, at 4:30 pm on Friday, December 4, I had accepted. What an interesting few days I will have next weekend. What a great opportunity to tell what I really believe to the American people, I thought.

Oh, but for short lived opportunities. By the next morning, Saturday at 930 am, the President withdrew the invitation. I should have known that you have to get up extremely early in the morning to beat the spin of this President.

Congressman Jim Saxton (R-NJ) is Chairman, The Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare U.S. House of Representatives

Implementation of the Wye Agreement: Release of Palestinian Prisoners

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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December 15, 1998

Israel’s release of ordinary criminal prisoners instead of security prisoners in the wake of the Wye Agreement has provoked anger among Palestinians. Those members of the Palestinian negotiating team charged with overseeing the prisoner release issue have blamed it on the Israeli government.

Criticism of the Palestinian Leadership

After it became clear that the majority of prisoners released by Israel were common criminals, recently released security prisoners aligned themselves with the families of their still incarcerated comrades in accusing the Palestinian delegation of selling them out during the negotiations. They alleged that the negotiators favored issues of Palestinian sovereignty, over unequivocal demands to release the remaining prisoners. The Palestinian police had to forcibly disperse a demonstration at the residence of Arafat’s deputy Abu Mazen, where participants chanted: “shame on the PA, they sold the prisoners out in return for the airport.”¹ Head of the Israeli Desk in the PA, Sufyan Abu Zayda, stated: “the prisoners are the major issue, [they come] before the airport, the harbor, or the withdrawal.” ²

The criticism of the Palestinian leadership was not unfounded. The prisoners’ cause was not at the top of the agenda of their negotiating team in Wye. Muhammad Dahlan, one of the Palestinian negotiators, made it clear: “our priorities were clear: the land comes first, and the prisoners come second.”³

A coalition composed of relatives of Israeli-held security prisoners, former security prisoners and active public lobbies quickly formed. They all pointed to the PA as the culprit. “We are struggling now,” said recently-released Wajih Al-Rajub “so that the prisoners’ cause can be brought to the top of the agenda and to the fore of the Palestinian negotiators’ minds – those who have forgotten us at the Taba Agreement, at Washington, Cairo and recently at Wye Plantation.”⁴ Similar sentiments were expressed in a letter smuggled out of an Israeli prison, where prisoners complained that they had been “neglected by the Palestinian delegation, which failed to pursue their cause vigorously at the negotiating table.” ⁵

Some PLC members also admonished the Palestinian negotiating team. Qadura Fares, a PLC member for Fatah, stated that if security prisoners were not released, the struggle would go on by every means possible.⁶ Another Fatah member of the PLC, Jamal Al-Shati, saw the Wye Agreement and the treatment of the prisoners’ predicament as “a moral disintegration of national Palestinian decision making.” Al-Shati described Wye as “the burial [ceremony] for the Oslo Accord that was executed by the Hebron Accord.”⁷

Official Palestinian Response to Criticism

In the face of mounting criticism, the Palestinian negotiators went on the defensive. They stressed the priority of the prisoners’ cause in their negotiation strategy. Since November, the PA termed security prisoners “P.O.Ws,”⁸ while erasing the difference between those who had been incarcerated prior to the Oslo Accords to those who were incarcerated after it.

Senior Palestinian officials have, a number of times, defined these prisoners as soldiers in the service of the Palestinian armed resistance, who were captured by Israel and whose release is the PA’s responsibility.

Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saib ‘Arekat addressed this issue, quoting what Arafat had told Netanyahu and Clinton in Wye: “I personally Yaser Arafat – have given verbal orders to these youths to carry out their [attacks]. [It is inconceivable] that I sit next to you and shake your hands, while letting these [youths] languish in jail…”⁹

The PA rejected the distinction Israel drew between prisoners with ‘blood on their hands’ and others. From its standpoint, all the Palestinian prisoners are freedom fighters. Palestinian Minister for Prisoners’ Affairs Hisham ‘Abd Al-Razeq was adamant: “During [our] struggle, we were not strolling around, we were at war. In this war there were many more Palestinian casualties than Israeli ones. Therefore, we do not accept this equation. It is inconceivable that we agree to our prisoners remaining in jails and being tortured, while we – the leadership of the Palestinian people and Brother ‘Abu ‘Ammar [Arafat] – sit next to the Israelis and negotiate with them. Any claim of Palestinians having murdered is racist and unacceptable… The problem of Palestinians who committed killings must be resolved. We are their leadership, so we are responsible for those acts…”¹⁰

The Fatah official communiqu‚, Our Position, also rejects the distinction between prisoners with ‘blood on their hands’ and other prisoners, as well as the distinction drawn between Fatah and Hamas prisoners. In its bi-weekly edition, Our Position, addresses the prisoners ‘of the various factions’ stating: “you are a lung without which oxygen will not circulate in the blood of the revolution, the PA, and the PLO. You are the chandelier which shines over thick darkness… we tell each and every one of those who scented their hands with devotion [to the national cause]… whose hands Zionists and racists attempt to accuse of being caked with blood – you are the pride of the revolution…”¹¹

The PA’s Efforts to Divert Public Anger Toward Israel

The PA has launched a media campaign in an attempt to deflect Palestinian public anger toward Israel. In a PLC session, Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saib Arekat has called upon the council neither to embrace a policy of ‘self-flagellation’ nor put the blame for Israel’s conduct on the Palestinian delegation.”¹²

The Fatah official communiqu‚, Our Position, defended the Palestinian negotiating team by invoking age-old Islamic terminology to accuse Israel of treachery that is ‘characteristic of all Jews’ by saying: “The Palestinian negotiating team has faced ill intentions on the part of the Israelis ever since the times of Rabin and Peres and Chief Israeli negotiators Uri Savir and Yoel Singer who demonstrate [exactly] what Allah ascribed [to Jews]: ‘whenever they make a pact, one of their factions will violate it….'” Later, Our Position, denounces the insults cast at members of the Palestinian delegation by relatives of the still incarcerated prisoners. It states that there is no alternative for Palestinians other than “channeling their anger towards the deceitful party [i.e.Israel]. An Intifada inside and outside of the jails should be launched against it.” It was further stated, on behalf of Fatah, the PA, and the PLO: “…we have reached the level of full preparedness to confront Netanyahu’s government and the gangs of Zionist extremists…”¹³

Following mounting public criticism, senior Palestinian officials – led by Minister Hisham ‘Abd Al-Razeq – have begun making covert threats at Israel, implying that if it did not meet their demands, Palestinians would resort to violence. ‘Abd Al-Razeq alluded to 1985 when “two [Israeli] soldiers were exchanged for 1,200 Arab and Palestinian prisoners, of whom more than 80% had killed Israelis… “¹⁴ The 1985 prisoners exchange resulted from the kidnapping of IDF soldiers in Lebanon. Minister ‘Abd Al-Razeq warned of a repeat of this scenario: “The [refusal] to release [our] prisoners is a serious Israeli message to our people. [It signals that] the peace process fails to liberate [our] sons who are in Israeli prisons, as opposed to the 1983 and 1985 [prisoners] exchange which proved successful in doing so.”¹⁵ ‘Abd Al-Razeq made a similar statement in an interview with the Hamas weekly: “Israel’s refusal to release security prisoners sends a message to the Palestinian people that prisoners can only be released through violence.”¹⁶ In another interview – this time with PA Television – ‘Abd Al-Razeq again made a reference to the 1983 and 1985 prisoners exchange, and added that last year fundamentalist leader, Sheikh Ahmad Yasin, and another 60 Palestinians were released in exchange for two Mossad agents who were arrested in Jordan.¹⁷

‘Abd Al-Razeq’s stance was supported by Sufyan Abu Zayda, head of the Israel desk in the PA, who said: “When prisoners lose hope, and their families and friends lose hope that their sons may be released in the wake of the peace process – this means that they are being told explicitly that [they must] find other ways of releasing their brethren from prison.”¹⁸ On another occasion Abu Zayda said, “there are other ways of releasing the prisoners, as was the case in 1985.”¹⁹ Kamal Al-Shurafi, Chairman of the Human Rights Supervision Committee in the PLC, declared that Israel would pay dearly for its obstinacy regarding the issue of prisoners soon enough.²⁰

‘Abd Al-Razeq and Abu Zaida’s threats were echoed by the Op-Ed pages of the Palestinian press. Political commentator Ashraf Al-‘Ajrami was the boldest of all. He wrote that the principle of reciprocity applied to every issue, and so the Palestinians must take Israeli hostages in order to release their comrades who are still incarcerated by Israel. Al-‘Ajrami added: “…[the Palestinians] will seek other solutions. They will once again instigate the prisoners’ exchange and release of detainees from Ansar [Israeli detention center] in 1983 and the ‘Galilee Operation’ of 1985. Back then, the Israeli government did not speak of ‘murderers’ or [people] with ‘blood-caked’ hands, but was forced to release everyone whose release had been called for… the PA will not be able to prevent Palestinian youths from… carrying out suicide bombings as long as the prevalent circumstances encourage [such acts]… a comprehensive review of the peace process, as well as the issue of prisoners, must be taken. Let us use every trump that is in our hands to force the Israelis into complying with the Agreement in all its clauses.”²¹

Conclusions

The issue of prisoners’ release has exposed a deep-seated moral debate among the Palestinians. While the leadership views the “liberation” of lands and other issues of sovereignty as the Palestinian’s first priority, the families of the prisoners, PLC members, grass-roots PA activists, as well as well as the general Palestinian public, consider the release of prisoners to be the most important issue. They view the PA leadership’s negotiating strategy and priorities as a “moral disintegration.” The tactics used by the Palestinian leadership to evade the public’s ire are worrisome. Blaming the opposite side’s intransigence is a common public relations “spin” on negotiations. But the PA’s statement that the only way to overcome this intransigence is through the use of force is a direct incitement to violence and is beyond “spin.” Their readiness to use violent means to achieve their ends demonstrates a non-committal approach to peaceful negotiations as pledged by Arafat in the Wye Memorandum ceremony and in the Oslo Accords.

Endnotes

¹ Al-Risala, November 11, 1998.
² Al-Quds, December 1, 1998.
³ PA Television, December 6, 1998.
⁴ Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, November 25, 1998.
⁵ Al-Ayyam, November 24, 1998.
⁶ Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, December 2, 1998.
⁷ Al-Ayyam, November 25, 1998.
⁸ This has been promulgated in a recent PLC communiqu‚- Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, November 26, 1998.
⁹ PA Television, October 30, 1998. See also Abu Mazen’s similar statement, “They fought under our orders and our oversight… are they [to be] hostages for the Israelis,” in Al-Quds, November 11, 1998.
¹⁰ PA Television, October 30, 1998.
¹¹ Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, December 2, 1998.
¹² Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, November 26, 1998.
¹³ Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, December 2, 1998.
¹⁴ PA Television, October 30, 1998.
¹⁵ Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, November 23, 1998.
¹⁶ Al-Risala, November 26, 1998.
¹⁷ PA Television, December 2, 1998.
¹⁸ PA Television, November 23, 1998.
¹⁹ Al-Istiqlal, November 27, 1998.
²⁰ Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, November 30, 1998.
²¹ Al-Ayyam, November 25, 1998; See also a statement by Dr. Kamal Al-Astal: “… leaving prisoners behind bars will openly induce the prisoners and their families to take this cause into their own hands. It is [an invitation for the families] to take actions for their release,” Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, November 25, 1998.

The Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization providing translations of the Arab media and original analysis and research on developments in the Middle East. Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are available upon request.

Yotam Feldner is MEMRI’s Director of Media Analysis.
Aaron Mannes is MEMRI’s Director of Research.

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The Habit of Hatred

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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December 15, 1998

Israel charges that the level of incitement in the Palestinian media and the education system is sowing the seeds of the next conflict

If you look for it, you’ll have no problem finding it — by the suitcase-full.

It lurks daily in the pages of the Palestinian newspapers, on the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation radio and TV, in the textbooks currently being studied in the Palestinian Authority schools.

Anti-Israeli incitement is what occupies Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Me-dia Watch, a privately funded Jerusalem-based monitoring organization. But he hesitates to use the “i” word. Rather, he says, the problem lies in the whole atmosphere — the totality of messages coming at the Palestinian public from all angles, creating an all-pervasive, war-like environment in which the idea of peaceful coexistence is entirely absent and in which Israel is either vilified, or not recognized at all.

The more outrageous cases periodically burst into the Israeli headlines. Like Yasser Arafat’s now-infamous Ramallah speech of November 15 in which he declared “our guns are raised. And we will aim them at anyone who prevents us from going to Jerusalem.” Or the scenes broadcast on PBC TV from last summer’s Palestinian Authority military-style children’s camps, in which the cute-looking boys and girls chanted, recited poems and sang in praise of armed revolution, jihad and martyrdom.

Then there was the November 7 opinion piece penned by guest columnist Nasser Ahmad and published in Al-Hayat al-Jadeedah, the semi-official PA daily, asserting: “Corruption is in the nature of the Jews all over the world, to the point that only rarely do you find corruption that the Jews are not behind… If we take a look at history, we discover to what extent the Jews were exposed to oppression and expulsion worldwide because of their ugly deeds and their wickedness.” Or the fact that every news broadcast on PBC TV starts off, and ends, with “the map”: the whole area of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with no borders and no names.

And no sensitivities were spared when PBC recently produced a short film commemorating the anniversary of a problematic Israeli retaliatory attack in October 1953 on the West Bank village of Qibiyah, in which the IDF destroyed scores of houses, killing over 40 civilians in the process. The five or six minute-long film clip included black-and-white images of eyeless and limbless children, taken from the Intifada and possibly elsewhere, as well as staged scenes of “Israeli soldiers” lining up and shooting groups of men and women against a wall, all set to an emotional narrative and plaintive background flute. Says Marcus: “Its purpose was only one — a definite desire to create hatred. You can’t watch that kind of stuff and not hate the people behind it.”

From first grade up, the textbooks used in PA schools in the West Bank are suffused with similar messages. The West Bank schools still use the Jordanian curriculum, as they have done for the past 30 years — and despite the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan, the material has remained violently hostile. Gaza uses the Egyptian curriculum, which is far milder in its treatment of Israel. The Jordanian books are published in Amman, but are then embossed with the Palestinian Authority stamp of approval. During the occupation, the Israeli authorities used to edit out offending parts, redesigning pages and reprinting whole books to avoid large white gaps, but the PA has chosen not to.

An exhaustive search of these school texts by Marcus’s staff — he himself knows no Arabic — resulted in a report that has left many an Israeli gasping. Second-graders, for example, are taught a “Poem of Palestine,” including the lines: “For me, the promise of martyrdom and Palestine is my song/From Jerusalem I shall build my ladder towards eternity.” On page 29 of the “Our Arabic Language” primer for sixth-graders, pupils are asked to “form logical sentences making use of the following expressions: Wise opinion the Zionist danger he called for a Jihad disaster remaining cool-headed.” In a language primer of the same series, seventh-graders are given the following as a subject for composition: “How are we going to liberate our stolen land? Make use of the following ideas: Arab unity, genuine faith in Allah, most modern weapons and ammunition, the use of oil and other precious natural resources as weapons in the battle for liberation.” And so on.

The boundaries of what constitutes “our stolen land” are kept vague, at best. The new PA-approved atlas, in this case privately published in the West Bank city of Nablus, shows Israel, the West Bank and Gaza as all one area with no labels. Where the territories are marked separately, for example in the 10th-grade textbook “Modern Arab History and Contemporary Problems, Part Two,” the color key refers to “Arab lands occupied before 1967” and “Arab lands occupied in 1967.”

“The Palestinians haven’t yet internalized the recognition of Israel,” says Marcus, who moved to Israel from the United States in 1974. He worked in the Religious Affairs Ministry under the previous Labor-led government before turning to full-time monitoring after the 1996 elections. “It would be completely valid if they were to put a map on TV of the whole West Bank and Gaza without a single settlement. But Israel of 1948 is not in dispute now. They’re constantly talking about Lod, Jaffa, Acre and Haifa in future terms, which creates dangerous expectations. It’s a general world view — a view that was supposed to have changed with Oslo. Instead of promoting peace, it’s sowing the seeds of the next conflict.”

Israel’s delegation went off to the Wye Plantation talks in October armed with Marcus’s reports. It came back with a commitment from the Palestinians to issue a decree prohibiting all forms of incitement to violence or terror, comparable to existing Israeli legislation, and to join Israeli and U.S. representatives on a trilateral committee to find ways of preventing incitement.

The decree was issued in mid-November. And on the 24th of the month, the committee held its first meeting.

Marcus was the “professional” on the four-man Israeli team, headed by former Knesset member Yoash Tsidon of the right-wing Tsomet party. The Palestinian side was headed by former Arafat spokesman Marwan Kanafani. U.S. Ambassador Ed Walker stood in for former Congressman Mel Levine, who was unable to attend the opening session.

The sides came out agreeing to work on a definition of what constitutes incitement, and to meet again in early December. Now, The Jerusalem Report has learned, the Pal-estinians are concentrating their efforts on building up their own files citing examples of Israeli incitement against the Palestinians. Whether or not they’ve fully come to terms with Israel’s existence, one thing the Palestinians have clearly internalized is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy of reciprocity.

“We have our own claims of Israeli incitement, every day,” Hafez Barguti, chief editor of Al-Hayat al-Jadeedah, told The Report the morning after the first meeting, having already coordinated positions with Kanafani. “When [Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel] Sharon tells settlers to grab any empty land they can, what do you call that if not a call to violence? It must be mutual, from our side and the Israeli side. On the Palestinian side, you might find an individual here or there. But on the Israeli side, it’s government ministers who make these declarations.”

Asked about the recent “corruption” article that appeared in his paper, Barguti said he’d spent several weeks abroad around that time, and that it was “difficult to control every word in this situation. Yesterday,” he went on, “I gave my editors instructions not to use this word — ‘corrupt’ — about a whole people. We’re going to make peace with these people.”

Barguti added that another recent anti-Semitic item using Shylock imagery had slipped by while he was preoccupied with his father, who was in a coma. As for references in Al-Hayat al-Jadeedah to Israel as the “Zionist entity,” he said he wouldn’t use such terminology himself, then asked rhetorically, and somewhat disingenuously, “since when being a Zionist was an insult? I think the Zionists should be happy to use this, no?”

At PBC headquarters in Ramallah, the PA’s temporary “capital” in the West Bank, radio and television head Radwan Abu Ayyash sits under a portrait of Arafat and the national flag. So far, he says, he’s invested three years of very hard work in getting PBC on its feet. And he insists that while the salaries of the TV and “Voice of Palestine” radio staff come from the Palestinian Authority, and the PBC is accountable to Arafat’s own office (the general coordinator, Hisham Mikki, is based in Gaza), there’s no real interference from on high.

Abu Ayyash even points to moments of daring. Like the time when the popular radio program “Good Morning Palestine,” which deals with local issues, was trying in vain to get PA Information Minister Yasser Abd Rabbo on the phone. With each call, Abd Rabbo’s secretary became ruder, until she was positively cursing. Abu Ayyash instructed staffers to tape the last call, and broadcast it live. Only Arafat himself is immune to criticism on PBC stations. “He’s a symbol. I cannot gamble with this,” says Abu Ayyash.

When it comes to the subject of incitement, however, the PBC is definitely up for a fight. Abu Ayyash pulls out copies of Marcus’s reports, on which he’s scribbled his own notes, and dismisses Palestinian Media Watch as “a Beit Agron production,” referring to the Jerusalem press center which houses, among other things, the Israeli Government Press Office and the military censor. He accuses the Israelis of “picking and choosing” from the programs and taking things out of context. “If some sheikh says live on TV that all the Israelis should be thrown into the sea, what can I do? Cut off his tongue?” he goes on. “I can’t change the hearts, the brains, the language of my people. I can’t make them fall in love by force. We are journalists, mirrors, reflectors. I’m not here to lie, or make propaganda.”

Abu Ayyash says that he’s put aside all the songs and poems calling for Israel’s destruction that were daily fare on PLO radio that used to air out of Algeria. “I try to be fair,” he says, “but at the same time, I cannot surrender my nationality to fit somebody’s mood. We have to build up our national feeling, to chart our origins, like any other people.” Abu Ayyash complains that Israel is ignoring the fact that “90 percent” of PBC’s news broadcasts deal with the peace process — even if they attack Netanyahu’s political position. Like Barguti, he argues that calling people “Zionists” is “not a curse.”

As for the map, Abu Ayyash claims at first that the idea is merely to show the Middle East, and focus on this area. “Give me a final-status map and I’ll use it,” he declares. Prodded further, Abu Ayyash says that he would put up a map of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, “but to be honest, I still have something to do with Jaffa and Haifa. I have a Palestinian refugee problem — I have people watching from Jaffa whose problem hasn’t been solved. That doesn’t mean I want to get into a tank and drive there.”

Israel has particularly objected to a number of items that have repeatedly cropped up on PBC TV. These include short clips showing Intifada violence interspersed daily between regular programming; a six-minute recording of the song “Baladi Ana,” or “My Country,” in which children depict the trauma of 1948, concluding “It’s still my land, my beautiful land, Palestine”; and a blood- and gorefilled series called “Al-Khalidun,” or “The Eternal Ones,” which has run weekly for the past two years. “Al-Khalidun” features Palestinian “martyrs” killed by Israel, describing their lives and times, and keeping their memories alive through interviews with proud family members.

Abu Ayyash rejects charges that “Al-Khalidun” glorifies martyrdom, stressing the centrality of the concept in Islam. “The people don’t need me to tell them this,” he scoffs. “They get it from the kindergarten to the grave. It’s part of their structure, their life. I can’t just delete it from TV.”

Furthermore, he argues, it’s important to remind people of how much pain it’s taken to get to this point. “Why didn’t Israel forget the Nazis?” he asks. “Because of Yad Vashem, you had to reach peace. Because of the Intifada, we have to reach peace. I’m not aiming to destroy Israel, but we have a right to show its atrocities.”

In the wake of Wye, where the subject of incitement was first raised, Israel observed slight “improvements” at PBC TV: The daily barrage of Intifada clips stopped; “Al-Khalidun” abruptly went off the air (Abu Ayyash says the series “came to its end”); and “Baladi Ana” suddenly disappeared. That, Abu Ayyash conceded to The Report, was taken off so as not to give Netanyahu “cards” to play with.

Days after the first incitement committee meeting, however, “Baladi Ana” reappeared. And all efforts at PBC TV are focused, again, on reciprocity. Kanafani has charged Abu Ayyash with building a file of Israeli transgressions. “If they want to play Tom and Jerry, that’s fine,” says the PBC head. “We’re monitoring them now.”

The PA Ministry of Education, meanwhile, refuses to respond to the charges of incitement in schoolbooks on grounds that the PA is working on its own curriculum, to be introduced in the year 2002.

Israel doesn’t want to wait that long. A proposal informally thrown up at the incitement committee would have the Americans fund an immediate reprint of edited versions of the books now in use. The Palestinians replied that they are not prepared to deal with their schoolbooks unless Israeli textbooks are dealt with at the same time.

Surrounded by the mounds of evidence collected by Itamar Marcus and his staff, many plain-thinking people might conclude that the Palestinians don’t aspire to peace at all. Indeed, Marcus’s material has been enthusiastically adopted by a myriad of right-wing Israeli and Jewish interest groups who would rather see the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations stop in their tracks.

Surprisingly, Marcus himself avoids coming to gloom-and-doom conclusions, instead putting a constructive spin on his work. “I see this whole media question as the key to peace,” he says. “We’re talking about the socialization of a people to either accept the Jewish people here or not. For the long-term good and the development of peace, we have to create an atmosphere that promotes peace in the media and in the schools.”

And Marcus goes even further. If the Palestinians themselves were promoting peace, he suggests, there would be a “revolution” in Israeli attitudes toward making concessions. But for that to happen, says Marcus, the Palestinians would need to deal not only with the symptoms — the blatant bursts of incitement — but with the deeper illness itself.

The cure, it seems, is not available yet. Several weeks ago, PBC radio interviewed Marcus about his work. The recording was never aired. Marcus believes that is because he didn’t come across as the easy-to-dismiss right-wing provocateur PBC obviously assumed he was. “They don’t want to present us as reasonable,” he concludes. “They still fear presenting us as anything but the enemy.”

Death Sentence on Israelis

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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December 15, 1998

Not only has a Palestinian land law come into being, but a Palestinian law on weapons is also now in effect, according to which it is permissible for the Palestinian Authority to manufacture weapons and accord its citizens the right to bear arms. Both of these laws are part of a new stage in the Palestinian struggle against Israel. Brigadier-General Uri Shoham, the Chief Military Prosecutor: “This is a serious violation of the agreements with the Palestinians.” Attorney Tewfiq Abu-Ghazzaleh, Chairman of the Palestinian Legal Sub-committee: “There is no declaration of war here, although I would understand someone thinking that there was. If it were up to me, perhaps I would not submit this law.” Palestinian Justice Minister Freih Abu-Medein declined to comment.

A few days after the signing ceremony at Wye River, Justice Minister Tzahi Hanegbi wrote to the Prime Minister, and called his attention to a new Palestinian law, which was, at that time, in the final stages of enactment. It is called the “Law on Foreign Ownership of Real Estate in Palestine,” which was recently brought into law in secret in Gaza, and a copy of which was received by chance by the Justice Ministry. This law amounts — according to jurists — to a declaration of war on the State of Israel.

Justice Minister Hanegbi made it clear to the Prime Minister that the new law severely infringes on Israeli citizens’ and authorities’ land acquisition rights of Israeli citizens and organisations, from both sides of the Green Line, and complete contravenes the instructions of the agreements with the Palestinians, including the Wye Agreement.

According to the new law, revealed here for the first time, any Israeli citizen or institution, certainly any settler or the IDF, holding land in “Palestine”, is harming Palestinian “national security”. Together with this, any Palestinian who aids, in any way, the acquisition or possession of land by an Israeli — is guilty of treason. The land will pass automatically to the treasury of the Palestinian state, and the judgment on the Israeli holding the land or the Palestinian selling it — death.

A few months before the enactment of the land law, senior Justice Ministry and IDF officials brought an additional Palestinian law to the Prime Minister’s attention. This was the “Firearms and Ammunition Law”, which was also passed in secret and signed by “Rais” Arafat last May. According to Chief Military Prosecutor Brigadier-General Uri Shoham, and Central Command Legal Adviser Colonel Shlomo Politis, this law too constitutes a serious infringement of the agreements with the Palestinians. It gives legitimacy to the Palestinian Authority itself, to manufacture weapons and permit citizens to bear arms. All this is seen by the State of Israel as constituting a serious security threat, violates the agreement between the sides, and demonstrates aggressive intentions.

The two laws, on land and on weapons, constitute a single unit of land and fire, and constitute a new and additional stage in the Palestinian struggle against Israel. Despite numerous attempts by political and professional elements to bring this to the attention of the Prime Minister, both before and after the Wye Agreement, Netanyahu has done nothing. It seems, however, from the Justice Minister’s sharp words, that he will soon lead the issue of hostile Palestinian legislation to a serious crisis with the Palestinians.

IDF, the Anger and the Frustration

But these two new laws do not represent the whole picture. For a long time, senior figures in the Justice Ministry and the IDF have been climbing the walls with anger and frustration at Palestinian behavior in the legal sphere. According to unambiguous articles in the Oslo Accords, which were ratified in the Wye Agreement, the Palestinians are required to submit all legislative initiatives to Israel via a special legal committee, in order to enable Israel to examine whether the proposed legislation is in keeping with the agreements. The laws are supposed to be submitted to the legal committee prior to their enactment, so that it would be possible to change or cancel them, before they become law.

Precisely because of this, the Palestinians have not, until today, submitted even one law to Israel. In fact, they are carrying out, by means of legislation, a war against Israel. Countless requests by senior Justice Ministry officials to their Palestinian counterparts, asking them to comply with the agreements and submit the laws which have been enacted or are in the process of being enacted, have simply been ignored. Copies of laws which have reached the Israeli side were obtained by intelligence, or as a result of the monitoring of internet sites and newspapers.

This “legal war”, which has been completely ignored by the media, is causing much anger and frustration on the part of the legal officials, who are required to coordinate with the Palestinian Authority. They constantly send letters and memoranda to politicians, but with no real result.

From the Land Registry to the Gallows

The “Foreign Ownership of Real Estate in Palestine” law, revealed here for the first time, marks a new high in this legal war. In its English version, the law is only two pages long, but this was enough to set off all the warning lights among top Justice Ministry officials.

The law, which, as far is known, has already passed through all the legislative processes, defines as “occupiers” the “Israeli occupying authority and its civil and military institutions, settlements and whomever is under their authority.”

It states that “any actions conducted by or being conducted by the occupying authority (Israel) on Palestinian real estate are considered absolutely null and void.” The law contains no definition of what Palestinian land is, so that according to the accepted Palestinian view, the law also applies to land in Tel Aviv, Acre and Haifa, and certainly that in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria.”

The law also prohibits “all persons who are not Arab Palestinians, whether they are persons real or artificial, to possess any real estate in Palestine or to obtain any material right, by any reason of ownership…” However, while regarding citizens of countries “with which there is reciprocity” the Palestinian “Council of Ministers” may permit the holding of real estate, a special article in the law states that regarding “occupiers,” that is the government and citizens of Israel, the Council of Ministers has no authority to permit the holding of real estate. Such land would be confiscated immediately by the Palestinian authorities.

Of course, the law prohibits brokerage efforts, sales or approval of transactions to foreigners and “occupiers” from being carried out, and states that “Any Palestinian who violates the terms of this law has committed the crime of high treason,” and will be punished accordingly. A foreigner who violates the law “has committed harm to national security” and will be punished accordingly. The punishment for treason and harming national security is death. Thus, Israelis and Palestinians are to march together from the land registry to the gallows.

“A Severely Racist Law”

So far as is known, the bill has secretly passed through all of the required legislative procedures and was even approved by Yasser Arafat. As stated above, not a word of this was reported to Israel. By chance, the draft legislation reached senior officials at the Justice Ministry last September, including attorney Jean-Claude Nidam, who is responsible for contact with the Palestinian Authority at the ministry. They were shocked and appealed to the highest echelon of the judicial system, with a demand for action.

They clarified that “the orders of the aforementioned law severely damage the real estate rights of the country’s citizens and institutions.” They also asserted that “the Interim Agreement clearly states that there will be no harm to these rights, and a number of articles explicitly determine that the (Palestinian) Council is obligated to honor the existing rights.” Therefore, they stated that, “there is a clear contradiction between the law and the agreement.”

They demanded that the Palestinians be informed that the law lacks any validity and is void, and that the lessons from the very fact of its legislation be learned.

Senior jurists both in and outside the civil service point to the even more severe implications than those about which the official documents speak. “This is a racist law, which, if it were legislated by a friendly country such as Britain, we would interpret as a declaration of war against us, and which would cause an immediate severing of relations with it,” says a senior jurist in the civil service. “We must understand the meaning of the legislation. This law states that any Israeli who owns land in a place that the Palestinians determine is Palestine, certainly in the settlements and in Jerusalem, will be sentenced to death. The same holds true for the Israeli government. This is an intolerable law that harms the very ability to continue coming into contact with whoever legislated the law.”

Attorney Dudu Rotem, legal adviser to the Yesha Council, towards whose members the law is especially directed, asserts that the implications are even more serious: “According to this law, if I travel tomorrow to Jericho they can arrest me, since every settler, due to his very ownership of his home, harms Palestinian national security. In fact, this is no law, but a joke. It is a dictator’s order that grants legitimacy to murder and racism, and harms every principle of law and justice. However, the interesting thing is not what Arafat does, but what the Israeli government will do regarding this law.”

A Clear Threat to Israel

On 6 July, the legal adviser to the IDF Central Command and the Civil Administration, Col. Shlomo Politis, wrote a letter to OC Central Command. He warned against another new Palestinian law which had just been legislated. This is the “Palestinian Firearms and Ammunition Law,” which was approved in an order by Yasser Arafat this past May, and which received nearly no exposure.

The law permits the Palestinian Authority to manufacture weapons and to issue licenses to carry all sorts of weapons. The position of the Israeli jurists regarding it is unanimous. Col. Politis’ opinion later received further backing from Chief Military Prosecutor Brig. Gen. Uri Shoham. Both view the law as a direct violation of the Oslo Accords.

According to Col. Politis, “The first part of the law, which deals mainly with licensing and carrying weapons by Palestinians, contravenes the orders of the Interim Agreement, since the law authorizes the ‘minister of interior’ to give a weapons permit for pistols and rifles.” This “contravenes what is stated in the agreement’s security appendix, according to which the Palestinian Police would be permitted to issue licenses only for pistols.”

However, it seems that an even more severe aspect of the law is expressed in its second section, which deals with the manufacture and import of weapons. This section, states legal adviser Politis, constitutes “a violation of the Interim Agreement orders which prohibit the possibility of the manufacture and import of weapons and ammunition.”

“In the agreement’s security appendix,” he states, “it even says that the Palestinian Police have an obligation to prevent the manufacture of weapons in the PA areas.”

The illegal legislation of this law was brought to the Prime Minister’s attention early last August. The issue was even raised a number of times with Netanyahu and in the cabinet by the Justice Minister, but without any result.

As was said, there is no disagreement between the jurists regarding the meaning of the law, but the truth is that one does not need to be a legal expert to understand the full severity of the matter: the PA is giving itself the imprimatur to manufacture, import and issue licenses for weapons and ammunition, despite the fact that this imprimatur contravenes both the spirit and the letter of its agreements with the State of Israel, and despite the fact that it is clear to it that manufacturing and licensing weapons constitute a clear and flagrant threat to Israel.

How to Bury a Committee

“There is nothing in our legislation which violates the agreements,” claims Attorney Tewfiq Abu-Ghazzaleh, the Palestinian Chairman of the Legal Sub-Committee, the committee was supposed to deal with legal issues arising between the two sides. “I am not claiming that the Israelis are lying in the serious accusations which they are making against us, but there is a misunderstanding here. Regarding the law on weapons, we are trying to create order from the scorched earth situation which existed here when we arrived. Regarding the land law, I would need to check if it has indeed already been published in the official gazette and come into force. If it were up to me, perhaps I would not submit this law, but it has been done to show that we are in control on the ground. There is no declaration of war here, although I would understand someone thinking that there was. I hope that things will be different in the future.”

“In general,” says Attorney Abu-Ghazzaleh, “I can understand the frustration of the Israeli side. I agree with them, there is a problem, but I hope that it will soon be solved. If it depended on me, it would have been solved already, but we need to create a structure and get organized, especially in the West Bank. We need means and people, I hope that it will happen, I am still waiting to hear from our Justice Minister.”

The Justice Ministry and the security establishment have become used to answers of this kind over the last few years. There they claim that Abu-Ghazzaleh’s bosses are deliberately sending him to dole out promises, but in practice are making sure that these promises have no cover, or indeed that in the field, the precise opposite will happen.

By the way, Palestinian Justice Minister Freih Abu- Medein declined to be interviewed for this article, despite repeated calls to his office and his home, and promises that he would, “call back.”

Abu-Ghazzaleh’s basic embarrassment derives from the committee that he heads. The Oslo Accords established a joint legal committee, headed by the two sides’ justice ministers — Tzahi Hanegbi and Freih Abu-Medein. It set up a sub-committee headed by Justice Ministry Director- General Nili Arad, and Attorney Tewfiq Abu-Ghazzaleh.

Palestinian legislation, like all other legal issues, was supposed to be submitted to this committee. But for years now, the Palestinians have prevented the convening of the committee. This is hardly a great surprise, and in the Justice Ministry, they say that “This is the only committee in which they are supposed to give and not receive, and therefore, they are making sure that it does not convene or function.”

Long months pass until dates are set for the meetings of the committee, and when these dates arrive, the Palestinians cancel the meetings at the last moment. In the few meetings which have taken place, in small forums, the Palestinians have been asked to submit all proposed items of legislation to the committee for its consideration. This has not been done.

Gaza Station Is Not Responding

One of the severest aspects of the legal war which the Palestinians have declared is the non-functioning of the legal assistance mechanism which was established by the Oslo Accords. According to the Accords, a body was set up which was supposed to carry out a series of legal coordination activities, in the criminal and civil spheres, as is customary between two countries which are not at war.

The mechanism is supposed to see to it that court decisions of the other side are enforced, that bailiff’s office decisions regarding the collection of debts are implemented, etc., etc. A senior Justice Ministry official, attorney Jean-Claude Nidam, heads the mechanism. His counterpart is an Arab-Israeli attorney, Jamal Abu- Toemeh. Dozens and even hundreds of appeals from the Israeli side reach the mechanism daily. These range from decisions against convicted rapists, to detention orders against criminals who fled, requests to summon witnesses, and requests to carry out decisions against Palestinians who owe vast sums to Israelis. All requests are checked and passed on to the Palestinian side, but merit no response. Even attorney Abu-Toemeh, the man in charge on the Palestinian side, does not succeed in obtaining any cooperation on his side. Gaza station is not responding.

The result is severe. Debts of tens of millions of shekels are not collected, and thousands of files involving residents of the territories are closed. The paradox is that the Israeli taxpayer is massively financing the defense of Palestinian Authority residents who are up for trial inside the Green Line, via the public defender’s office. Indeed, a considerable portion of our crime is perpetrated by Palestinian Authority residents. But the Authority is avoiding any assistance and cooperation, and at the same time, with characteristic audacity, is insisting that VAT funds — which Israel collects from Palestinian residents — be fully refunded.

In the justice establishment, it is claimed that it is precisely the judicial sphere that could serve as the first, and precedent-setting, area for cooperation between the two entities, Israeli and Palestinian. This is not cooperation between peoples carrying difficult psychological baggage, but two bureaucracies, that take orders from the politicians, and are supposed to obey. But in practice, the Palestinian bureaucrats receive contradictory orders from their politicians, orders to make things difficult and obstruct. And thus, the judicial field has become a battlefield which broadcasts hostility and alienation, just like between two hostile entities.

Palestinian Media since the Wye Agreement

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

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December 1, 1998

1. The State of Israel as “Occupied Palestine”

Terminology that expresses non-recognition of the existence of Israel.
Cities of Israel are cities of Palestine.
The maps of “Palestine” erase Israel.

2. The Anticipation and Call for the Destruction of Israel by Means of War

“… The Jihad will liberate the blessed land…”
The anticipation of victims and war in order to liberate “Palestine”, as during the days of Saladin.
The call for the continuation of the struggle until all land is liberated.
“The current occupation – there is no doubt that it too will pass”

3. Threats and Hints of a Willingness to Engage in Violence

Arafat: “Our guns are ready and we are ready to use them…”
The building of Jewish settlement in Jerusalem will bring a wave of violence.
“All options are open”
Arafat: “Intifada – the 7 blessed years”

4. Allusions to the fact that the Wye and Oslo Agreements as well as the Abstention from Violence Are Temporary

Arafat mentions the Hudaibia Agreement in connection with the Oslo Accords.
Razi Jibali mentions the Hudaibia Agreement in connection with the Wye Agreements.
The demand from Hamas to abstain from “military activity” in order to facilitate the pullback.
Abstention from violence until the balance of power offers an appropriate timing.

5. Anti-Semitism

“Corruption is in the Nature of the Jews”
The Jews are “descendants of the Satan”
Negation of the Jewish people’s legitimacy and its connection to the land of Israel.
Arafat quotes from the Koran that “Allah decreed destruction on the Children of Israel”

6. Incitement and Encouraging Hatred

Colonialist Israel is “A Zionist entity on the land of Palestine”
Blaming Israel for carrying out terrorist attacks on Jews in order to harm the Palestinian Authority.
Blaming Israel for arson at Alaksa Mosque in 1969.
Description of Israeli soldiers as cold blooded murderers of citizens.

7. Declaration of lack of intention to carry out the Wye and Oslo Accords

No cancellation of the Covenant
No destructions the Hamas infrastructure or systematic arrests of Hamas members.
No cutback in the number of police officers.
Granting of gun licenses and the lack of collection of illegal weapons.
The declaration of state on 4th May, 1999.
The prohibition of declaring Palestinian independence remains in effect until 4th May, 1998 and Israel is prohibited to build in Judea and Samaria.
Continued Palestine political activity in Jerusalem.
The return of 1967 refugees as an integral part of the interim accords.

1. The Intention of Not Carrying Out the Wye and Oslo Agreements

Through its official media, the Palestinian Authority continues to use messages, terminology and symbols which convey non-recognition of the existence of the Israel and the anticipation of its termination, and the portrayal of all of Israel as “occupied Palestine”. The cities of Israel are the cities of Palestine, settlements and colonies. Israel is described in terms associated with characterizations of non-recognition: “entity”, “the enemy”, “the Tel Aviv government”, “the Zionist entity”, and the like. In various articles, Israel is defined once as “the occupied land called Israel” and another time: “Palestinian lands occupied since ’48”. Israeli Arabs are called: “Palestine ’48 Arabs”. In a song, telecast on official PA television, all the following cities are included in “Palestine”: the land of the Galilee, Jaffa and Haifa, Acre, Tiberias, Safed and Lod. The PA television continues daily to show “Palestine” in the maps, which erase all of the State of Israel.

a. Terminology that expresses non-recognition of the existence of Israel.

“… Imagine, the Jews… have 6,000 houses of worship on the occupied land called Israel…”
[Jarir Alkudwa, Arafat’s Advisor to Educational Affairs, on a program about Judaism, Palestinian Television, 3rd November, 1998]

Article headline: “A legal report which reviews the Israeli attacks against Arabs in ‘Palestine ’48′”.

“A periodical report published by the Legal Center, subordinate to the National Committee for the Struggle against Settlements, ‘North Organization, including many of the attacks of the Israel Government against the Arabs of ‘Palestine ’48’ which are expressed in an attitude “which is not racist-free”… On October 2, the ‘Israel Land Registry’ extended, for the landowners… in the Galilee area.
[Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 11th November, 1998]

“The Palestinian lands occupied in ’48 are witness these days to the waves of propaganda attacks marking the elections for the regional councils and the municipal councils… these elections are held in the shadow of the national and racial discrimination that the Israel authorities are adopting in favor of the Israeli residential centers, and in the shadow of the aggrandizing attacks on the large Arab territories in favor of the military points, Jewish grazing areas and settlements on the backs of the Arab Palestinian resident within the green line…”
[Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 5th November, 1998]

Newscaster: “The Tel Aviv Government renewed its claims of the 3rd phase of the redeployment…”

Newscaster: “The Tel Aviv Government continues to build settlements in Har Homa…”

Newscaster: “… Nabil Abu Radeina: warned about the damaging obstacles of the Tel Aviv Government, who began building housing units in Har Homa…”.

Newscaster: “The Tel Aviv Government refused to agree to this agreement…”
[PA Television News, 12th November, 1998]

“… Which gave the Zionist entity a rare opportunity to impose her conditions for the elimination of the PLO…”
[Manifesto of the Fatah, Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 17th November, 1998]

“… Of what is called the government of Israel…”
[Manifesto, Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 15th November, 1998]

“… Due to the fact that the Fidain actions… caused difficulties and daily loss to the Zionist entity…”
[Opinion article by Nasser Ahmed, Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 17th November, 1998]

“… we reiterate and emphasize the details of the struggle, the contending, the patience and the adherence of the Palestinians against the wicked winds and the clouds of conspiracy and the balls of hatred in the lost wars to eliminate us… we believe that the Palestinian steps on this pathway are secure despite the thorns and obstacles and despite the landmines, the ambush and the traps that the enemy [Israel] is planting in our people’s path and despite its steps that left a mark of blood in the pathways of freedom.
[Editorial, Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 15th November, 1998]

“The Israeli Authorities have escalated their settlement policy in the Palestinian territories… and in the settlement Shikaf within the ‘Green Line’…”
[Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 5th November, 1998]

In ’49 Israel established the colony Kfar Shamai… and in ’50 she founded the colony Amirim…
[Al-Kuds, 11th November, 1998]

b. Cities of Israel are cities of Palestine.

A song that was broadcast on the program: “We Chose for You” on the PA Television:

[… ] My homeland Ramallah, Nablus and Jenin I need to return, on the life of Allah, to my homeland Palestine, to the beautiful sabras in the summer nights… my homeland Jericho, Elbireh, my homeland Hebron, Tulkarm, Shwaika, and the land of Galilee. To the beautiful sabras in the summer nights… My homeland Jaffa and Haifa side by side [?] my homeland Acre, Tiberias, Safed and Lod.
To the beautiful sabras in the summer nights [… ]
Return, return, return, return….
[Palestinian Television, 4th November, 1998]

c. The maps of “Palestine” erase Israel

“Map of Palestine” which erases Israel, continues to appear daily at the start and end of the news broadcast.

A folk dance is shown while the “Map of Palestine” erasing Israel appears in the background.
[PA Television, 26th October, 1998, 5th November, 1998]
In song and dance on “building our country” the pictures of the Palestine Cities include Jerusalem and Haifa.
[PA Television, 27th October, 1998]

2. The Anticipation and Call for the Destruction of Israel by Means of War

a.”… The Jihad will liberate the blessed land…”

“… With belief, unity, and with a firm stand and with Jihad, Allah will impart on us the victory and will achieve our goals, which is the liberation of the blessed land from the conquerors and the establishment of our independent state with its capital the holy Jerusalem. [… ]
[Mustafa Natsheh, Mayor of Hebron, Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 17th November, 1998]

b. The anticipation of victims and war in order to liberate “Palestine”, as during the days of Saladin.

“… The state of occupation was not born in one hour nor in one day and was not established at night. Rather it was planned in advance… [describes in detail] and from this we see that there is no doubt that the peace process takes a long time, patience and an additional sacrifice of victims… like the Jews were helped in all countries of the world in the establishment of the Israeli entity, there is no doubt that the Arab countries will participate in the liberation of Palestine… unify your columns and your words, recruit your resources for the liberation of the filth of the occupation and the liberation of her families, like the winner, Salah Al-Addin Alayubi liberated her from the hands of the Crusaders until she returns to her Arab and Islamic origins…”
[Mahmud al-Madhoun, Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 4th November, 1998]

c. The call for the continuation of the struggle until all our land in liberated.

Majed Alian, Lieutenant in the General Intelligence… calls us to the struggle and giving and the realization of our dream in reality, and the mention of the convoys of Shahids who sacrificed with all their might and sacrificed their chaste souls and their pure blood for the establishment of our independent state on all of our national land and its eternal capital the holy Jerusalem.
[Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 17th November, 1998]

d. “The current occupation – there is no doubt that it too will pass”

“… the Palestinian history has deep roots in this land from five thousand years ago, some three thousand years before the Common Era during the time of the Canaanites and Jebusites… The roots of the Palestinian people are in this blessed land… any occupation of Palestine and Jerusalem is over, even if after some time. The present occupation – there is no doubt that it too will pass…
[Religion Lesson on Palestinian Television, 16th November, 1998]

3. Threats and Hints to a Willingness to Engage in Violence

a. Arafat: “Our guns are ready and we are ready to use them…”

“Yasser Arafat said yesterday in a Fatah Activists convention in Ramallah, that if the way to peace, “which we chose of our own accord” does not bring about the implementation of the rights to a state “with its capital Jerusalem”, then the Palestinians will be ready to turn again to the struggle in arms.”Our guns are ready and we are ready to use them against anyone who tries to prevent us from praying in Jerusalem,”, he emphasized.
[Ha’aretz Newspaper, 16th November, 1998]

“… as representative of the president Yasser Arafat, and spoke on behalf of him pointing out that it is necessary that the memory of the Shahids be kept by means of guarding the treaty of struggle for [the fulfillment] of the goals for which they fell…
[Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 12th November, 1998]

b. The construction of Jewish communities in Jerusalem will bring a wave of violence.

“[Faisal] Al-Huseini warned that the policy of the Israel Government, which stipulates that the settlements [in Jerusalem] should be expanded, will bring a wave of violence especially because the Israelis insist on the continuation of the settlements and we insist on struggling with it…”
[Al-Kuds, 12th November, 1998]

c. “All options are open”

“… Member of the Legislative Council and Head of the Overseeing Committee of the Legislative Council, Kamal Al-Sharafi said that it is necessary that all options be open to our people, as long as our land and rights are taken away, and he emphasized that the right to oppose the occupation is anchored within all international norms and constitutions…”
[Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 12th November, 1998]

“… Therefore it is necessary to clarify the situation to the forces and to the public and to continue the recruitment and the preparation in order to contest with all possibilities, especially due to the fact that all the possibilities are open to us… so there is no avoiding the fact that in difficult conditions such as these, the [management of the] Political Direction continue in her directives to the forces, in order that they not be overcome by frustration and in order that they keep a high morale, high motivation and ongoing preparation… and our people struggle with the occupation with all the available means and battles its [Israel’s] cruelty and arrogance all throughout the ages and does not give up or recoil from the oppression and terror and our people still adhere to their struggle to liberate the land and homeland and still serves victim after victim and Shahid after Shahid for the dear homeland…”
[Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 12th November, 1998]

“… There is no other option open to us aside from the option of struggle against the arrogance of what is called the Government of Israel…” [A manifesto of the youth movement, Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 15th November, 1998]

d. Arafat: “Intifada – the 7 blessed years”

Newscaster: Arafat: We are building our Palestinian state piece by piece and stone by stone, and we will continue this way until we establish our state with its capital the holy Jerusalem. We are now at a distance of just a few steps from Jerusalem, and no one can separate us from even one grain of our land.

Arafat: Alongside the great revolution [which the Fatah movement began], the Intifada was greater. The intifada of the blessed 7 years. Seven blessed years. The intifada of stones. The children of stones. The generals of stones. [… ], the new generals….
[Palestinian Television, 15th November, 1998]

4. Allusions to the fact that the Wye and Oslo Agreements as well as the Abstention from Violence Are Temporary

a. Arafat mentions the Hudaibia Agreement in connection with the Oslo Accords.

Arafat:… When we chose the peace of courageous, we chose it out of the belief in the prophet [that were adopted] in the Hudaibia Contract, and we adopted this in this appeasement contract, the contract of the courageous. Whoever thinks that he can weaken us in the contract of the courageous, must know that we are a strong people. [… ]
[Palestinian Television, 15th November, 1998]

b. Razi Jibali mentions the Hudaibia Agreement in connection with the Wye Agreements.

Razi Jibali: [… ] The proper religion is acting… we want to build an independent state and to build our people – even the prophet, may he rest in peace, accepted the Hudaibia Contract, and there were discriminating conditions in it…
[Palestinian Television, 30th October, 1998]

c. The demand from the Hamas to abstain from “military activity” in order to facilitate the pullback.

Headline: Iz al-Din requests of the opposition [the Hamas] to halt the military activities to return the occupied lands to us. Brigadier General Mazen Iz Al-Din, Assistant Director of the General State Guidance Directorate said that the Wye Plantation Agreement is considered a positive step, important and essential for the return of our land… he added that the worst thing, according to the Israeli and Zionist thought is the yielding of land because this leads to the geographical mapping of a Hebrew state, and this is why it requested of the opposition that it halt the military actions until we can return our land in preparation for the establishment…
[Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 3rd November, 1998]

d. Abstention from violence until the balance of power offers an appropriate timing.

[Fuad Abu Hajleh in his daily column:]
The Wye Plantation Agreement… this is the greatest success to the leadership which has no planes, warships or tanks… but they [the Palestinian Authority]… continued the halt of the “adventurists” [quotation marks in source] who want to set fire by war at the inappropriate timing, as the time has not arrived yet, in the past 30 years, for the war of liberation, and no one can force the timing of the battle before reaching a strategic balance! [exclamation point in source]
[Column writer in the PA newspaper, Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 3rd November, 1998]

5. Anti-Semitism

Since the Wye Accords, there is a repetition of anti-Semitic themes in the Palestinian media. In an opinion article in the PA newspaper, the trait of the Jews is described in style and in claims that were characteristic of “the Protocols of the Elders of Zion”. The Jews are described as being so corrupt by nature “to the point that only rarely can you find corruption the reason behind which is not the Jews.” It is also explained that the Jews brought anti-Semitism upon themselves when the nations saw “their ugly deeds and their wickedness… and the responsibility for the destruction of the land is theirs”.

A preacher in a religion class states that the Jews are “descendants of the Satan” because they distorted the bible in order to claim the ownership of the land of “Palestine”. In a long broadcast about the Jews on the PA television, so-called historical and other claims were brought in order to deny the essence of the Jewish people and Judaism. Among other things it was explained that Judaism “is not a nationality at all” and is “not even a religion in the full sense” and that even the original religion of Moses was Islam. The remnants of the original Israel are the Samaritans and “Neturei Karta”. In his speech, Arafat chose a quote from the Koran, which states that Allah decreed destruction on the Jews.

a. “Corruption is in the Nature of the Jews”

“Corruption is in the nature of the Jews all over the world, to the point where only rarely do you find a corruption the reason for or behind which stand the Jews. Their intense love of money and its accumulation is common knowledge, and the way they get it does not interest them and they are libel to exercise degradation and the most lowly of methods in order to achieve their goals, as long as the persons involved are not Jewish… there are many examples of this, especially the breaching of contracts and constitutions and causing civil war. Did not Allah say about them: ‘Every time that they make an agreement a group among them deserts.’… If we take a look at history, we discover to what degree the Jews were exposed to loss and expulsion the world over, as a result of their ugly deeds and their wickedness. This is after there issues were discovered and their responsibility for the destruction of the land and its people caused its people [of the land] to start a war of annihilation against them and whomever survived it were dispersed around the world. Due to the fact that this is their custom, they concentrated all their concern on sprouting their calculating mentality because they believe that the secret of their survival is embedded in their takeover of the economies of the various countries which opened their doors to them and gave them refuge from the expulsion and harassment…

From the teachings of their sages about the customs and traditions of the non-Jewish nations, they concluded that what concerns them is money and sex… it is interesting that whoever was wounded in their curse continues to hang around their circle [continues to be influenced by them] while carrying out their will, and he doesn’t think of freeing himself… Among those who have been wounded from this [is] the President of the largest country in the world, Bill Clinton, whom Zionism began to besiege when he was still serving as Governer. He began to carry out what world Zionism dictates, out of fear that his issue wold be exposed. Despite the fact that he is the head of the largest country in the world, he does understand that he is a victim of his drives which made him fall into the hands of those cunning people, who put immense pressure on him and robbed him in the most disgusting ways, to the point where he entered distress due to their deeds and the deeds of Netanyahu towards him, until it seems that it is the latter now is the real ruler of America.
[Engineer Nasser Ahmad, Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda newspaper from 7th November, 1998]

b. The Jews are “descendants of the satans”

“… Their bible [of the Jews] today, has no light and no teachings. Their bible today, is just a bunch of notes that were written down by people who lie about G-d, his prophets and his bible… those who do these kinds of things are the descendants of Ivlis, meaning the descendants of the satans… they fabricated a Jewish history book full of promises to Abraham, Issac and Jacob that He will give them the land of Palestine… the entire bible comes to claim ownership on the land for the Jews.”
[Religion classes on Palestinian Television, 3rd November, 1998]

c. Negation of the Jewish people’s legitimacy and its connection to the land of Israel.

From the program: “Palestine – History and Heritage”

Program panel: Historian Jarir Alkudawa, Arafats Advisor for Educational Affairs Historian Salim Almobayyed

Interviewer: We will deal in this chapter with an important subject – “Judaism: Religion or Nationality”?

Alkudwa: The thing is clear, but there is, as you mentioned, a misunderstanding – an intentional misunderstanding, which people are silent about. But the naked truth – Judaism is not a religion in the full sense of the word and it is not a nationality at all… Judaism is not a nationality even though they want to confuse between nationality and Judaism as one thing… imagine, the Jews… 6000 houses of worship on the conquered land called Israel…

Interviewer: Give us a general idea, do the Jews have an origin, are they a pure nationality?

Almobayyed: The Jews have no pure race, what we now call Jews or Israelis or Zionists..

Alkudwa: the Kuzars – millions turned Jewish overnight…”should we make a calculation of the original Jews or Children of Israel today, it would be like a dot in the sea, as if pouring a cup of water into the sea…” Judaism stemmed from the Religion of Moses [The ‘Musawiya’] – Moses brought the Religions of Moses, and it is a continuation of the Islam of our lord Abraham.

Alkudwa:… the Religion of Moses is a religion, apparently it is the Islamic religion, and some researchers some researches that were published find in the Torah which, when translated correctly, its texts show that it is a continuation of Islam [and he continues to give other proofs]

Alkudwa:… we know that today there are two communities that hold by the ancient customs, the Samaritans in Nablus, who say: we are the legal inheritors of the first Israeli dynasty… and they most probably are right. And there is a group in Jerusalem that is called Neturei Karta, meaning Guardians of the City, and these do not believe in Israel and believe that the Kingdom of Israel is spiritually religious and not relating to the land, and that it will not be established until the coming of the Messiah…
[Palestinian Television, 3rd November, 1998]

d. Arafat quotes from the Koran that “Allah decreed destruction on the Children of Israel”

“In his speech, Arafat quotes a verse from the Koran in which: G-d decreed destruction on the Children of Israel. ‘After you sinned we decreed upon you and informed you in the book saying: “Twice you were corrupt in your land after you went higher and higher…”
[Ha’aretz Newspaper, 16th November, 1998]

6. Incitement and Encouraging Hatred

False accusations the goal of which is to incite hatred towards Israel are a repeating theme in the PA media. In a broadcast on a retaliation action in Kfar Kibiya in 1953 it is explained and showed in a (staged!) film IDF soldiers putting citizens against the wall and shooting and murdering them. In the first column of a headline article in the PA newspaper, the PA announced that the Israeli intelligence is responsible for the bombing in Mahane Yehuda market, in Beer Sheva and in Netzarim in order to abase the Palestinian Authority.

In a PA broadcast there is a repeated accusation that Israel is the one who caused the fire in Alaksa Mosque.

a. Colonialist Israel is “A Zionist entity on the land of Palestine”

“… The Balfour Declaration and Britain’s obligation to carry it out, caused the disaster of Palestine who is still subject to colonialism… The Balfour Declaration comprised one chapter in the chapters of conspiracies regarding Palestine… to rob us of our options, to force upon us the influence and rule on her and to suck the blood of our people…the partition decision in ’48 comprised an additional part of the chapters of conspiracy followed by the declaration of a Zionist entity on the land of Palestine… and alongside this, Zionist terrorist massacre incidents were carried out. The occupation did not suffice with the lands, which it conquered in ’48 and its spreading covet remained intact, while initiating war in 1967, during which it took control over the rest of Palestine…”
[Mohmmad Al-Madhoun, Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 4th November, 1998]

b. Blaming Israel for carrying our terrorist attacks on Jews in order to harm the Palestinian Authority.

Headline on the front page:

“Palestinian Sources Believe that the Israeli Intelligence Stands Behind the Bombing.”

“… These sources estimated that there is a mole activity of one of the Israeli [intelligence] staff [which stands behind] the bombing [in Mahane Yehuda], similar to that of the throwing of two had grenades on the Beer Sheva bus station a number of weeks ago, which was found out after to be the deed of Salaam Alsaba who was recruited by the Israeli intelligence… The military activity which of late was related to the Jihad, and the double suicide action in the beginning of ’97 near the Netzarim and Kfar Darom settlements after which the national Authority showed the media a man named Ibrahim Alhalabi who recruited two suicide bombers and planned the activity. Alhalabi confirmed that he works for the Israeli intelligence and that it was he who organized this activity based on their request, in order to cause strife in the relations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel and to stop the implementation of the agreements signed between them.
[Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 8th November, 1998, page 1]

c. Blaming Israel for arson at Alaksa Mosque in 1969.

“… Remnants of the sermon podium [in Alaksa Mosque] that Israel burned in 1969, which is the sermon podium Nur Aldin Zanji that Salah-A-Din laid in Alaksa Mosque after he liberated it from the Crusaders.
[Palestinian Television, 12th November, 1998]

d. Description of Israeli soldiers as cold-blooded murderers of citizens [in a retaliation action in Kfar Kibiya in 1953].

Background of the IDF action:
In 1953, Israel suffered terrorist attacks at the hands of infiltrators from Jordan. In one of the attacks, a hand grenade was thrown into a house and a mother and her two children were murdered in Tirat Yehuda. The Israel Government, headed by Ben Gurion, decided to carry out a retaliation and to destroy 50 houses in Kfar Kibiya, which was the base for the terrorists and which is located opposite the settlement of Tirat Yehuda. During the campaign, the IDF forces did not know that citizens were hiding in the houses and 69 people were killed.

In the description and movie that the Palestinian Television produced, IDF soldiers lined up citizens against the wall and murdered them. Below is the distorted description:

“… This infidel [a picture of Israeli soldiers], deaf to the pleas, did not respond or have mercy on these little eyes [a picture of a baby with one eye], the houses flew and with them went the people, the loved ones, and the friends. On the night of the 15th of the year 1953, Kibiya saw a painful incident, which added shock, sadness and destruction to the Palestinian, a black night [the film is staged: Israeli soldiers put citizens, men and women, against the wall and shoot them], no light of the moon and no star sent its spirit to the torn bodies and a shiver did not pass through the hands of this criminal who carried out this criminal massacre [later in the film: IDF soldiers check to confirm the deaths] which sends shudders to the body and ears, a terrible massacre which killed 80 people who were killed by lead bullets, individuals and groups, put against the walls, and the last scene which they saw was the eyes of their murderers…”
Film [staged] in which IDF soldiers shoot citizens lined up against the wall.
[Palestinian Television, 6th November, 1998]

7. Declaration of lack of intention to carry out the Wye and Oslo Accords

a. No cancellation of the Covenant

“Salim Zanoon, Chairman of the PNC, declared yesterday that the Central Palestinian Council will gather within 4 weeks to approve the change or cancellation of the items in the Palestinian National Constitution… he added that the Central Council, which is an intermediary body between the PNC and the Acting Committee of the PLO “will base itself on the letter that the president Yasser Arafat sent to the American president Bill Clinton, in which the strange and cancelled items in the Palestinian National Constitution are defined.”
[Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 2nd November, 1998]

“The ongoing preparations for the founding of the Central Council, in which the American president is meant to be present, include more than 30 members of the Legislative Council.
[Al-Kuds, 2nd November, 1998]

b. Intention not to destroy the Hamas infrastructure and not to conduct systematic arrests of their members.

“… Nabil Amr, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, said that the option of peace requires that we go with it in the framework of the delegation of political appointments. He emphasized that the dialogue with the Hamas exists and that it is progressing in a positive direction, participating in which are member so the Legislative Council and leader of the Palestinian forces. He expressed his hope that they would arrive at a national agreement, which would facilitate our achieving our national goals…”
[Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 12th November, 1998]

“A security source informed Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda on the arrests of most of the members of the political leadership of the Hamas and of all those suspect in connection with the military activity… The source emphasized that these steps are being taken following the suicide activity. He added that the security staff will release all those who, after interrogation, have not been proven to be connected with this activity.
[Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 30th October, 1998]

b. No cutback in the number of police officers.

From an interview with the Chief of Palestinian Police, Razi Jibali.
“We have 40,000 police officers registered. In accordance with the agreement we are allowed to have around 30,000. We have no problem whatsoever, because the difference between 30,000 and 40,000 is 10,000 and they are the injured and wounded of our blessed Intifada, the prisoners, and some are the officers who left the police force and security staff for the ‘tannets’ [Fatah]. This is a simple matter. Whether or not they will put them in special lists aside from the general security framework, where their salary will be decided… and at the same time they will advance and achieve their rights, or in the special bureaus set up to take care of this issue where they will hold on to their rights, we have no problem with this because the actual number of our general security force, in the police and in the other [security] staff does not pass 30,000… Whether they put them in special lists, not in the general security lists and they will remain with the same rights, or they transfer they to special bureaus, where they will also remain with the same rights, then we have no problem with this. On the contrary, we are in need of a new police force in this new stage of redeployment.”
[Palestinian Television, 13th November, 1998]

c. Granting gun licenses and lack of collection of illegal weapons

Razi Jibali: “… there is a license to carry and there is a license – a license to carry is for a pistol, which are given to a businessman, a venerable, a politician, a wanted person, a person who has [is threatened by] a blood vengeance, etc. – according to certain condition, and to the matter itself – this person will apply to the police and we will respond according to the law.”
[Palestinian Television, 30th October, 1998]

Razi Jibali: “… We have security obligation and I am now talking about the security obligations in a clear manner. Regarding weapons, we are clear, meaning that since we came into the homeland, weapons for us are a clear matter. The weapons that are now in the hands of the national security forces and the security personnel are the weapons of the Authority and no one challenges that. Even the Fatah [tentim] weapons belong to the Authority, due to the fact that these are official and recognized weapons. What are left are the weapons that are in the streets or with people, the Palestinian law is clear on this subject.

Even the Legislative Council, our parliament in which we take pride, passed a law called ‘the Law of Weapons and Ammunition’. It passed this authority on to the minister of Interior, and the honorable president will inform me of his responsibilities in the matter. If so we can grant licenses for weapons, but of the weapons we approve are the pistol. A citizen who wishes to protect himself, like a businessman, a wealthy man or a politician, needs a pistol. In accordance with the conditions and the limitations of the law, we give him a license for a pistol.
[Palestinian Television, 13th November, 1998]

e. The declaration of state on 4th May, 1999.

Arafat:”… But we, our brothers, stand before this huge and worldly force and our people remain strong in Jerusalem and Palestine. Yes, we will establish this state on 4th May, 1999.”
[Palestinian Television, 15th November, 1998]

“… the president emphasized once again the Authority’s adherence to declaring the independent state on May 4th of next year…”
[Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 15th November, 1998]

f. The prohibition of declaring Palestinian independence is until May 4th, 1999 while Israel is prohibited to build in Judea and Samaria.

“Dr. Erikat disclosed that there exists a Palestinian-American accord which stipulates that the Authority will abstain from changing the circumstances of the West Bank and Gaza until May 4th, and all there exists an Israeli-American accord which stipulates that Israel will not build settlements or expand them, will not requisition lands…”
[Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 5th November, 1998]

g. Political activity in Jerusalem.

A public conference for the regional elections within the Movement for the Palestine National Liberation, Fatah, will be held this coming Sunday at the Alhakwati Theatre in occupied Jerusalem. During the three days of elections for the Fatah movement, 1200 members will elect 15 members for the region and 16 members for the West Bank Convention. Consuls and diplomatic representatives will be present at the convention. Yasser Kra’in, in charge of the Fatah movement in his village of Silwan in occupied Jerusalem, stressed that holding the convention in a public forum in this fashion will accelerate the [establishment of] Palestinian State and that it prepares for the upcoming May 4th festival, when she is to be announced.
[Al-Hayat al-Jadeeda, 12th November, 1998]

h. The return of 1967 refugees as part of the interim accords.

Walid Zakot, Member of the Delegation of Refugees of ’48 and ’67, writes: “… Here comes the big question, what is the fate of the refugees according to these two options, especially because the subject of refugees is one of the most complex subjects of the permanent arrangement. We are not talking here about the refugees of ’67 who have the right of return before the commencement of the permanent stage, according to the Oslo agreements, but rather the discussion here is about the refugees of ’48 whose number reaches about 4 million, of which 3 million are outside of the Palestinian homeland.
[Al-Kuds, 12th November, 1998]

Prepared by “Palestinian Media Watch”, under the direction of Itamar Marcus, Tel: (+972-2) 625-4140

Palestinian Media 17th November – 23rd November, 1998

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

-

December 1, 1998

“Several days ago, the Islamic world commemorated the Isra and Mi’arage [… ascent of Muhammad to heaven]. Did you “seriously” celebrate the Isra and Mi’arage with all your heart? And by doing this, did you fulfill your obligations to the Alaksa Mosque?

In the beginning, during the time of Muhammad and his friends they prepared an army and went forth to conquer the blessed land… and not by coincidence did Saladin liberate Jerusalem [through war] from the hands of the Crusaders and go into Jerusalem on Friday, which was the day of the Isra and Mi’arage on the 27th of the month of Rajeb. This is the work that Allah commanded us to do for Jerusalem.

Today, the residents of Jerusalem look forward to this commemoration of the 27th of the month Rajeb, sadly waiting during 31 years for the 27th of Rajeb to come and the imprisonment of the Alaksa Mosque will be lifted and the country will be liberated from the hands of the conquerors and oppressors.

The question is asked, how was Alaksa Mosque lost? How was Palestine lost, and how is it that the Muslims did not succeed in saving her? And what is the way to regain her? Are the Muslims allowed to turn their back to Jerusalem and wait for negotiation in order to return the oppressed rights to their owner?…

The residents of Palestine were not the reason for the loss of Alaksa, rather the weakness of the Arab world, which was torn, and that is how Palestine was a tasty morsel for the enemy…

So we see that they [the Jews] have complete control of the political leadership, not only in America and the Western world, but also of the leaderships of all countries, including the leaders of the Arab and Muslim world. Jewish money and media are the leaders of nations and continents. This should not scare the Islamic nation, or that she surrender to the reality, because the reality will not remain this way for long, because Allah promised that they would be humiliated and tortured from time to time when they spoil….

The Jews entered the land of Palestine during the time of David, may he rest in peace… but when they sinned against the prophets, Allah brought upon them those who banished them from this land and they were dispersed all over the world… They entered again not by the commandment of Allah, but rather from humans.

Oh the believers – all the afflictions that come upon us from the Jews and from America and their friends, and from the oppression of the leaders who turn around in the path of America [like the stars], this must pass and this demands an Islamic awakening… and Allah will give the victory… “
[From a sermon, Voice of Palestine Radio, 20th November, 1998]

Question: “Will the obligations regarding the prohibition of incitement hinder the freedom of expression and the human rights and the political liberty?”

Nabil Shaath: “A legitimate question, and it indicates that there are two issues in the Wye Agreements… We insisted on inserting an entire paragraph because all involvement in security issues will be implemented by the Palestinian law and the international law, and it is a man’s right to express himself and to organize etc. in accordance with democratic freedom… The second issue, that Arafat is fighting for, is the separation between actions with the political organization of the civil institutions, and its military arm which carries out killings and military activities against Israel, and this is a very important point, because [we] could not, in the Wye Accord, agree with the Israelis on the limitation of [freedom of] expression on anything but one point – that no man be allowed to call for murder, whether a murder of a Palestinian or of an Israeli. [Palestinian Authority Television, 19th November, 1998]

Headline: “The Saving Party commends the departure of the occupation.” “… Sheikh Ahmad Bahar, Chairman of the Shura Council in the Saving Party, said in a declaration to Al-Hayat Al-Jadida that the pullback of the Israeli army from every portion of our land, is an achievement for the Palestinian Authority and our people, who have fought during a half a century [Israel’s creation] for the elimination of the occupation and the tightening of its authority on its land. Sheikh Bahar expressed his hope that the liberation of all of our homeland will occur soon, and that the authority of our people on our national and sanctified land will be realized.
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 23rd November, 1998]

Anour Az Aladin, Mayor of Arabeh, mentioned that the liberation of the town comes at the time of the 6th anniversary of the fall of the expelled Ahmad Daka and Amin Rahaal as Martyrs, by a special Israeli unit. He noted that we are going in their paths towards the liberation of Jerusalem, the eternal capital of our state.
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 23rd November, 1998]

“Hashaam Abed Alarazek, [State Minister for Liberated Soldiers Affairs] during a program “Meet the Media” that was organized yesterday in the Ministry of Prisoners Affairs headquarters in Gaza, by the Ministry of Communications, warned of a dangerous explosion within the prisons, which will bring about the real revolution. He emphasized that he is hereby calling to the world, a short time before the occurrence of the explosion, and especially due to the fact that the prisoners within the Israeli prisons are determined to take drastic steps, which will influence dangerously the entire peace process in the area.”
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 23rd November, 1998]

“Sheikh Ismail Hanya… emphasized that the Hamas movement strives to make stable contact with the Authority and with all the national forces… regarding the steps of goodwill that the Palestinian Authority took towards the Hamas by the release of most of her leaders, Sheikh Hanya said that the Hamas looks positively at these steps which may eliminate the tension or [bring] avoid bloodshed and strengthen the way of dialogue with the national authority which did not cease.”
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 22nd November, 1998]

Tzafia Alnajar, Responsible for the Organization Department of the Water Authority, noted… that the current consumption of water in the Palestinian state does not go above 250-330 million cubic meters per annum, for all purposes,…while the Hebrew state takes over the rest…
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 22nd November, 1998]

Headline: Weekly Discussion: Raouya Alshawa “… My father and his friend entered all ways of jihad in order to save the homeland from doom. His personality was more boldthan the local and average Arab among his friends. After the theft of Palestine [the establishment of the State of Israel] the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were conquered after the loss of the war of ’67… “
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 22nd November, 1998]

“Abed Alaziz Shahin, Minister of Supplies, emphasized that the Israeli redeployment in the areas adjacent to Jenin is considered a certain addition to the national authority, which enables it to improve its position in the struggle which exists between us and the Zionist project.”
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 22nd November, 1998]

“Tzahir Habash, Member of the Central Committee of the Fatah movement, said during the convention held under the title: “Preparations for the Realization of the Declaration of the State in May ’99”, that next May 4th will represent an enormous achievement, despite the fact that we are tied up in the Oslo Accords. [He said] that we face 12 weeks during which we will put Israel to a test with the obligation to implement the agreements. He emphasized that should Israel avoid implementing the agreements and attempt to return the situation back, then all the options are open, among them military conflict. Habash said that the 4th of May is the date, which cannot be extended under any circumstance, and if they [Israel] receive the extension it would mean the inclusion of Israel in the self-determination of our people… “
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 22nd November, 1998]

The signs [in the celebrations for the liberation of Jenin] contained the main motto: “Arab Jerusalem, capital of the independent Palestinian state forever” and “Welcome through the passage gates, the crossing in the direction of Jerusalem”, while hundreds of teenage girls, from the schools in the city waved the victory signs and shouted “in spirit and blood we will redeem you, oh Palestine and Arafat”…
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, 22nd November, 1998]

US Consul Won’t Help the Boims: “We Can’t Visit Foreign Jails …”

By

David Bedein

-

November 24, 1998

An underlying premise of the Wye accords that were signed by the US, Israel, the Palestine Authority and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan at the White House on October 23 was that the CIA will play a definitive role to make sure that terrorists are brought to justice. Yet on the very day that the Wye accords were ratified by the Israeli government, Joyce and Stanley Boim, American Israelis in Jerusalem, were more surprised to learn that the Israeli government was asking for the PA to arrest Amjad Hanawi, who had already been convicted in a PA court in February, 1998, of murdering their teenage son, David, back in May, 1996.

Amjad had been arrested after the Boims carried out a campaign both in Israel and the US to get him arrested.

Only after the Boims sued the Israeli government did the Israeli government make the initial August 1997 request for Hanawi’s arrest.

Only after President Clinton made a personal call to Arafat did the PA finally arrest him in February, 1998.

After I learned from PA sources two months ago that the PA had released indeed Hanawi, I asked for comment from the press section of the US consulate. I got none.

After Israeli intelligence finally confirmed that Hanawi had been released, the US consulate press office still would provide no comment. Neither would an Israel-based representative of American intelligence.

The US consul had a different answer for the Boims. For the past two months, the US consul simply told the Boims that the US assumed that Hanawi was in jail. The consul would not tell the Boims as to whether a US government official had been to the jail to ascertain that Hanawi was indeed still in jail.

“We cannot visit foreign jails”, the US consul told the Boims.

Then there are Esther and Yehudah Wachsman, whose son, Nachson, was kidnapped and murdered in 1994, at the order of Muhammad Deif, a Hamas official from Gaza. Esther is an American citizen, as was her late son, Nachshon. Esther appealed to the US government to demand that the American government intervene to demand that Arafat order the arrest of Deif.

When President Bill Clinton came to Israel, in March 1996, he met therefore met Esther and Yehudah at the grave of Nachshon, which lies only a few feet away from the tombstone of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. It was on that occasion that Clinton made a solemn promise to the Wachsmans that the peace process would not continue unless and until Arafat orders the arrest and hand-over of Muhammad Deif.

In July, 1996, Yehudah Wachsman met with Arafat’s Gaza police chief, together with a translator provided by the Palestine Authority. I was witness to the meeting. Yehudah asked Arafat’s police official if Deif would be arrested. However, the Palestinian police official informed him that Arafat had given orders not to apprehend Deif.

A week later, Esther Wachsman flew to Washington, where she met with Clinton’s national security advisor, Anthony Lake, when she informed Lake of what Yehudah had been told.

Lake said that he would personally intervene with Arafat on this matter. He did.

Arafat’s response was to order the arrest and torture of the man who translated the meeting between Arafat’s Gaza police chief and Yehudah Wachsman.

Since that time, Esther Wachsman’s letters to Clinton have gone unheeded.

At the Wye plantation plantation press center, I asked US government spokesman James Rubin if the President of the United States would fulfill the commitment that he gave to an American citizen, Esther Wachsman, to demand from Arafat that he arrest Muhammad Deif and place him on trial for the kidnapping and murder of an American citizen, Nachson Wachsman. Rubin’s answer was that “we cannot deal with issues like that”.

At a time when the CIA is supposed to provide assurances that it will deal with all matters of terror, the question remains: Even In the case of the murder of two US citizens, has the way that the US intelligence community has dealt with the murder cases of David Boim and Nachshon Wachsman represent any indication as to how the US will continue to relate to Israel’s security concerns ?

Deterioration of Human Rights

By

Center for Near East Policy Research

-

November 24, 1998

In order to more correctly assess the impact of the Palestinian authority on human rights it is necessary to go back only one year to July 1997. During this period between Har Homa (the alleged reason for discontinuing contact between the Israeli Government and the PA) and until the Wye Agreement, a massive effort was taken by the PA to silence the liberal and progressive elements within it’s own society, instead of the Hamas and other Terrorist groups.

On 2 July, the Palestinian Preventative Security Service (PSS) arrested Dr. Fathi Ahmed Subuh, professor at the Department of Education at al Azhar University in Gaza, for asking several critical questions on a final exam.

Dr. Subuh was tortured and interrogated. During the three days that he was submitted to torture he was asked questions about his ties to Israeli and International Peace Groups.

Dr. Subuh has never been charged with any crime.

That same week Doctor Sabuh was taken from his cell in the Police detention center and rushed to Shifa Hospital in Gaza. He remained delirious with a high fever for over 20 hours. Hebcom’s human rights investigator, who managed to visit Doctor Sabuh in the recovery ward, reported that the doctor had lost over 10 kilograms of weight.

On 10th November, 1997, due to massive international pressure, Dr. Sabuh’s jailers offered him a deal; his freedom in return for his silence about what had been done to him in detention. His reply was that he would not give up his right to free speech, even in return for his freedom.

On 2nd November 1997 the lawyer of the Human Rights Action Project of Birzeit University submitted a petition to the Palestinian High Court in Ramallah on behalf of three Birzeit University students who had been detained by the Palestinian Authority without charge to trial for seven consecutive weeks at the Ramallah Central Prison.

The petition called on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to declare the legal basis of the detentions or to release the students immediately.

Basic standards of law guarantee to each prisoner the right to be informed of the reason for arrest, the right to be brought before a person authorized to exercise judicial power within three or four days of arrest, and the right to meet regularly and without supervision with his or her lawyer.

The students were:

Ayman Muhammad Abu Zeid, from the town of Bitunya, a second year science student at Birzeit University. Ayman was arrested from his home on 10th September 1997 and is being held in the General Security section of the Ramallah Central Prison. He has not been informed of the reason for his arrest, nor the length of his detention.

Jamal Sa’dat Jarboua’h, from the town of Bitunya, a graduate student of Arabic language and is currently working on his teaching certificate at Birzeit University. Jamal was arrested from his home on 8th September 1997 and is being held in the General Security section of the Ramallah Central Prison. He has not been informed of the reason for his arrest, nor the length of his detention. Jamal’s health during his detention is a serious concern, as he suffers from severe allergies which result in debilitating headaches and ear infections which require regular injections and prescription medicine. Although Jamal has been taken to the hospital three times while in detention, his health continues to deteriorate. Musa Muhammad Al-Khaldi, from the town of Bitunya, is a masters student in Education at Birzeit University. Musa was arrested on 8th September 1997 after complying with a request to present himself to the PNA headquarters in Ramallah. He is being held in the General Security section of the Ramallah Central Prison and has not been informed of the reason for his arrest or the length of his detention. Musa recently received a scholarship to continue his studies in Germany, which is now at risk if he is not able to complete his masters thesis.

On 11th December 1997, Mahmoud Musleh was arrested without charge or arrest warrant along with 76 other suspected Islamic activists. LAW took his case as a test case against illegal arrest for the other 76 detainees. LAW filed a suit against his detention without charge at the Palestinian High Court. An order for his release was issued by the High Court on 30th November 1997.

However, 11 days later, the PNA executive still refuses to set him free. Musleh had been detained since 4th September 1997.

The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRM), headed by Mr. Bassam Eid, is probably the most respected Palestinian Human Rights group in the Middle East today. Its’ unflinching dedication to human rights has many times brought this group into conflict with members of the Palestinian Authority who use questionable methods during the detention and interrogation of suspects.

Members of this monitoring group, including Mr. Eid himself, have been detained without warrant as a result of their activities.

Hebcom remembers Mr. Eid as a field worker for B’Tselem, the Israeli Human Rights Monitoring Group, who fought tirelessly for both Palestinian and Jewish Administrative detainees during the last several years. Mr. Eid left B’Tselem in order to form the PHRM, a Palestinian group that strives to make positive changes in the PNA by working within the Authorties’ borders.

PHRM held a press conference last Wednesday, 17 December, in which charges were leveled against the PNA for neglecting to report any deaths which occurred in their detention facilities in Gaza during the last three years.

According to PHRM, there were 18 deaths in the Gaza detention centers since July 1994, when Gaza came under the jurisdiction of the PNA. Although the PNA had agreed to investigate these allegations, to date no report has been filed.

In Nablus, a city completely under PA control, Mr. Muhammad Jumayal was tortured to death sometime during July 1996. PHRM notes that although murder charges were made against three low ranking security guards, the identity of the superior officers who ordered the interrogation remains unknown.

Bassam Eid called on President Arafat to launch a “clean up” of the PA security forces, prison system, and prosecuting attorney’s offices.

During January 1998, Hebcom received preliminary notification of a Palestinian American citizen who is being held in administrative detention by the PA Police and Security apparatus in Ramalla detention center.

Mr. Abu Hakim was reportedly arrested about six months before on suspicion of attempting to handle land and property transactions between Jews and Palestinians, an offense for which many members of the PA are proposing the death penalty.

Abu Hakim is the father of two, and holds U.S. Citizenship. Although the Jerusalem American Consulate has been informed of the matter, according to the best information available, Mr. Hakim is still incarcerated.

He has not been charged and no trial date has been set. Mr. Hakim’s full name is: Abdel Mugnik Abu Hakim.

He was the former Muktar or Beit Batillo, Ramalla,

His wife and children are American Citizens living in the USA.

He has family in Ramalla.

On 13th April 1998, the Palestinian police refused yesterday, to allow the Palestine Center for Human Rights’ (PCHR) lawyer to visit his client, Dr. Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, who had been detained in Gaza since 9th April, 1998.

Dr. Abdel Aziz Ali al-Rantissi, 51 years old, from Khan Younis, is a medical doctor, a lecturer at the Islamic University in Gaza, and one of the most prominent Islamic figures in Palestine. He was released from Israeli jails in 1997 after more than four years of detention. Prior to that detention, he was one of more than 400 Palestinians deported to Southern Lebanon by Israel in December 1992. Dr. Ibrahim al-Maqadma, 46 years old, from el-Bureij, is a medical doctor at al-Nassr hospital in Gaza and a prominent figure in the Islamic movement in Palestine. The detentions of Dr. al-Rantissi and Dr. al-Maqadma come as part of a campaign of arrests carried out by Palestinian security forces against tens of citizens in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

These arrests specifically targeted prominent Islamic figures, among them Abdullah al-Shammi who was released yesterday, April 12, after five days of detention. This arrest campaign coincides with other measures taken by Palestinian security forces following the March 29 assassination in Ramallah of Muhyideen al-Sharif, a leading member of Kata’ib al-Qassam (the military arm of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas).

Palestinian security officials announced that their investigation revealed that al-Sharif was assassinated by other members of Kata’ib al-Qassam as part of an internal power struggle.

Hamas and its leaders rejected the results of the investigation by the; Palestinian Authority and announced that they would carry out their own investigation to unveil the facts surrounding the assassination of al-Sharif. It seems that Dr. al-Rantissi had been arrested in connection with his statements rejecting the Palestinian Authority’s account of the assassination.

Among the other measures carried out in the wake of al-Sharif’s assassination, Palestinian police closed the Gaza office of Reuters News Agency on 9th April, 1998.

This illegal closure took place after the Jerusalem office of Reuters distributed a videotape in which Adel Awadallah, another leading member of Kata’ib al-Qassam, rejected accusations by the Palestinian Authority that he assassinated his colleague, al-Sharif. The Palestinian police also forced the senior correspondent of Reuters, Taher Shrateh, and four colleagues, to sign a pledge that they will not deal with the news agency for three months.

The United States Department of State has documented P.A. human rights violations in their report which was released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. In this report they state that the PA does not have a uniform law on administrative detention, and security officials do not always adhere to the existing laws in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Laws applicable in Gaza, which are not observed in the West Bank, stipulate that detainees held without charge be released within 48 hours. These laws allow the Attorney General to extend the detention period to a maximum of 90 days during investigations.

Human rights organizations and the PA Ministry of Justice assert that PA security officials do not always adhere to this regulation. Prevailing law in the West Bank allows a suspect to be detained for 24 hours before being charged. The Attorney General can extend the detention period.

PA authorities generally permit prisoners to receive visits from family members, attorneys, and human rights monitors, except for prisoners held for alleged security offenses. PA security officials are not always aware that lawyers have a right to see their clients. In principle detainees may notify their families of their arrest, but this is not always permitted.

PA security services have overlapping or unclear mandates that often complicate the protection of human rights. Under existing law in the West Bank, only the PA’s civil police force is authorized to make arrests. In practice, all security forces are known to detain people at various times. The operating procedures and regulations for conduct of PA security personnel in the various services are not well developed and have not yet been made fully available to the public.

There are many detention facilities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip administered by the overlapping PA security services, a situation that complicates the ability of families, lawyers, and even the Ministry of Justice to track detainees’ whereabouts. Security services including Preventive Security, General Intelligence, military intelligence, and the coast guard have their own interrogation and detention facilities.

In general these services do not, or only sporadically, inform families of a relative’s arrest. Most PA security officers remain ignorant of proper arrest, detention, and interrogation procedures, as well as basic human rights standards. Human rights groups continue to provide basic human rights training to PA security services. During 1997, human rights groups provided training to representatives of all the PA security services, including the PA military intelligence service. In 1997 more than 60 PA security officials participated in human rights courses, bringing the total number of security officials who have graduated from human rights courses to almost 700, according to human rights groups.

PA security forces continued to arrest arbitrarily and detain journalists, professors, political activists, and human rights advocates, who criticized the PA, including journalist Daoud Kuttab and university professor Fathi Ahmed Subuh.

PA security services in Gaza and the West Bank arrested dozens of Palestinians in the wake of the three 1997 suicide bombing attacks, a more targeted campaign than in past years. The majority of arrests were conducted without warrants; most of those arrested in these campaigns remain in detention without being charged.

Human rights organizations estimate that the PA has held approximately 120 people for more than a year without charge, and the total number of Palestinians in PA jails reached 725 by November.

The PA inherited a court system based on structures and legal codes predating the 1967 Israeli occupation. The Gaza legal code derives from British Mandate law, Egyptian law, and PA directives and laws. Pre-1967 Jordanian law applies in PA-controlled areas of the West Bank. Bodies of law in the Gaza Strip and West Bank have been substantially modified by Israeli military orders.

According to the DOP and the Interim Agreement, Israeli military decrees issued during the occupation theoretically remain valid in both areas and are subject to review pursuant to specific procedure. The PA states that it is undertaking efforts to unify the Gaza and West Bank legal codes, but in 3 years little progress has been made.

The court system in general is recovering from years of neglect; many of the problems predate PA jurisdiction. Judges and staff are underpaid and overworked and suffer from lack of skills and training; court procedures and record-keeping are archaic and chaotic; and the delivery of justice is often slow and uneven. The ability of the courts to enforce decisions is extremely weak, and there is administrative confusion in the appeals process.

The PA Ministry of Justice appoints all civil judges for 10-year terms. The Attorney General, an appointed official, reports to the Minister of Justice and supervises judicial operations in both the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

In 1995 the PA established state security courts in Gaza and the West Bank to try cases involving security issues. Three military judges preside over each court. A senior police official heads the state Security court in Jericho and three judges preside over it. There is no right of appeal, but verdicts may be either ratified or repealed by the PA Chairman, Yasir Arafat. The PA Ministry of Justice has no jurisdiction over the state security courts, which appear to be subordinate only to the Chairman of the PA.

In 1997, PA security courts sentenced 14 defendants: 3 received death sentences, bringing the total number of Palestinians sentenced to death to 13.

The PA usually ignores the legal limits on the length of pre-arraignment detention of detainees suspected of security offenses.

Defendants are often brought to court without knowledge of the charges against them or sufficient time to prepare a defense.

Defendants are typically represented by court-appointed lawyers. Court sessions often take place on short notice in the middle of the night and without lawyers present; all violations of defendants’ right to due process. In some instances, security courts try cases, issue verdicts, and impose sentences in a single session lasting several hours.

Palestinian Attorney General Fayez Abu Rahme acknowledged that at least 100 political prisoners are being held by the PA.

PA authorities arrested approximately 200 people on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activity.

PA security forces subjected some of the detainees to torture and repeated beatings.

Although the PA claims to respect its citizens’ right to express themselves freely, the PA limited freedom of speech and the press. The PA continued to harass, detain, and abuse journalists.

PA harassment has lead many Palestinian commentators, reporters, and critics to practice self-censorship.

Fathi Ahmed Subuh, a prominent university professor, and Daoud Kuttab, a well-known journalist who criticized the PA, were both imprisoned without charge during the year and Sobah was tortured. PA prison conditions are very poor. PA security forces arbitrarily arrest and detain persons. Prolonged detention and lack of due process are problems. The courts are inefficient, lack staff and resources, and do not ensure fair and expeditious trials. PA security forces infringed on the right to privacy, and there were reports that the PA placed some limits on the freedom of association.

Discrimination against women and the disabled is a problem.

During 1997, two Palestinians died in PA custody, after being tortured.

In 1996 two Palestinians who died in PA custody also were tortured. In the most egregious case, Yusif Baba, who was being held without charge in Nablus, died on January 31 after being tortured by PA Military Intelligence officials. Baba’s autopsy showed contusions from repeated blows to the head, rope burns around his head and feet, cigarette burns on the right shoulder, and burns caused by an electrical instrument on many parts of his body. The PA admitted that Baba had been tortured to death, but never charged any of the security officials involved with a crime.

On June 30, 28-year-old Nasser Abed Radwan from the Gaza Strip was killed in detention while being held without charge by PA Presidential Security (Force 17). Force 17 authorities told Radwan’s family that he banged his head on the wall, but a PA autopsy concluded that Radwan had been tortured to death. A PA military court sentenced three of the Force 17 bodyguards involved to death and three others to prison terms ranging from 6 months to 5 years.

The wife of Hakim Qamhawi, who died in PA custody in June, told the press that his body showed signs of torture

In April five undercover members of the Palestinian Intelligence Service shot and killed a Palestinian woman outside of Ramallah when the vehicle she was riding in failed to heed the agents’ signal to stop. In a subsequent trial, a PA court convicted the five security officials involved of causing a death through negligence.

The intelligence official who fired the shot that killed the women was sentenced to 5 years in prison, the commander of the unit was sentenced to a 1-year prison term for failing to maintain discipline among his unit, the three other men in the unit were sentenced to 2 months each for failing to prevent a crime.

On May 5, PA Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein announced that the death penalty would be imposed on anyone convicted of ceding “one inch” to Israel.

Later that month, two Arab land dealers were killed. Farih Bashiti, a real estate dealer from Jerusalem who was accused of selling land to Jews, was found dead in Ramallah. Two persons were arrested in the case.

In another incident, Harbi Abu Sara was shot and killed in Ramallah 8 days after Bashiti’s body was found. PA officials deny any involvement in the killings. The PA has arrested and continues to hold several suspected land dealers for violating the Jordanian law (in force in the West Bank), which prohibits the sale of land to foreigners. (Jews)

On November 20, an unidentified gunman shot two Jewish religious students in Jerusalem, killing one, and seriously wounding the other. The Israeli investigation into the case is ongoing, but no suspects have been arrested at year’s end.

A security court sentenced the principal killers of two Israeli settlers, Etta Tsur and her 12-year-old son Ephraim, (killed on 11th December, 1996) to 25 years’ imprisonment and an accomplice to 15 years’ imprisonment.

The court convicted Palestinian Preventive Security officer Moussa Mustafa of abducting a suspected Arab informer for Israel from Jerusalem, torturing him, and holding him for 5 months.

PA security officials abuse prisoners by hooding, beating, tying in painful positions, sleep and food deprivation, threats, and burning detainees with cigarettes and hot instruments. International human rights monitoring groups have documented widespread arbitrary and abusive conduct by the PA.

Gaza University professor Fathi Ahmed Subuh reported that he was subjected to torture by sleep deprivation, being forced to stand for long periods, and being shackled.

During the year, seven Palestinians died in PA custody, two after being tortured.

In 1996 two of the four Palestinians who died in PA custody also were tortured. In December the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG) reported that the PA has not sufficiently investigated deaths in custody. The PHRMG added that the PA has tried to cover up incidents by claiming that several deaths were the result of heart attacks or suicides. In mid-June Hakam Qamhawi died while in PA General Intelligence custody in Jericho. PA officials said that Qamhawi committed suicide and died on the way to the hospital, but his wife told the press that his body showed signs of torture. A PA forensic expert stated that Qamhawi died of a heart attack. No official autopsy was conducted.

In January Fayez Qamsieh died while in the custody of PA Military Intelligence in Bethlehem. The PA claimed that Qamsieh, who had a history of heart trouble, died of a heart attack. Doctors observing the autopsy on behalf of Qamsieh’s relatives agreed that he died of a heart attack, but bruises on his body suggest that mistreatment may have triggered his death. There were complaints that Qamsieh had not received prompt medical attention. The PA said that it would investigate this charge, but has never published the results of its investigation.

Sami Abed Rabbo, held in Saraya prison in Gaza without charge, died on July 4, also under the custody of PA General Intelligence. Family members were told he died of a heart attack. Despite demands from human rights groups for an official autopsy, there has been no official response. The PHRMG stated that his death does not appear to be the result of torture or denial of medical treatment, his lengthy illegal detention may have contributed to his illness (liver disease and mental illness).

On October 14, Ibrahim Al-Sheikh died of a heart attack while serving a prison sentence in Nablus for involvement in a murder.

On November 9, Nafea Mardawi died in a Nablus prison also of an apparent heart attack. He was serving a sentence for selling land illegally to Israelis. Human rights groups concur that both men had preexisting medical conditions that support the PA’s assertion that they died of heart attacks. However, concerns linger that the prisoners were not provided the most prompt or thorough preventive medical care.

At around 12:00 p.m. on 28th April 1998, a student from Al-Azhar University was playing with his gun in a cafeteria near the university when suddenly a bullet was fired, resulting in the injury of Kamilia Al-Mughayar, a student who was walking on the opposite side of the street.

Al-Mughayar was shot in the right side of her body and immediately transferred to Al-Shifa Hospital, where she received treatment. In addition to being a student in the Law School at al-Azhar, the perpetrator works with the Palestinian General Intelligence. He is currently being detained by the Palestinian police.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights expressed its deep concern about this bloody incident as well as the general lack of caution in the handling of weapons and lack of concern for the safety of civilians. Despite declarations by the Palestinian police that they have initiated a campaign to collect weapons from civilians and that they promote the protection of civilian lives, weapons remain widespread in Gaza.

Several times this dangerous situation has raised the concern and drawn the attention of the PCHR. Now it has reached the point that university students carry weapons, endangering the lives of other students and violating respect for the campus and its surroundings.

Journalists Under Attack by Palestinian General Intelligence

On 5 May, two armed agents of the Palestinian General Intelligence raided the Jerusalem Media Office and arrested its owner, photographer and reporter Abbas al Moumani. He was taken to the detention center in Ramallah. It is not known why he was arrested.

Eyewitnesses reported that the two officials had arrived to the office at 8:00 in the morning, and on the arrival of Mr. Moumani, asked him to go for a five-minute talk. Mr. Moumani has been detained since that time, and has not been allowed visits from his family and has been denied legal representation.

Mr. Moumani works for Reuters news agency, and was interrogated previously in relation to a video of LAW’s client Imad Awadalla, the man accused of killing the Hamas military leader Muhiyyadin Sharif. The Palestinian General Intelligence has raided this office on more than one occasion, examining telephone records and questioning staff.

This incident, along with the closure of the Reuters office in Gaza in April and other attempts to control the reporting of this assassination, seriously undermines the independence of the media and curtails the freedom of expression. The fact that Mr. Moumani has been denied family visits and legal representation is a cause for alarm. LAW called on the General Intelligence to release Mr. Moumani immediately, and to desist from interfering in his work.

The PA’s Treatment of Christians

In several editions this year, the Middle East Digest has highlighted the plight of Christian Arabs living under Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority. In mid-October, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office released the findings of its investigation into claims that PA police were systematically harassing and persecuting Christians.

The Takeover of Bethlehem

On taking control over Bethlehem in December 1995, the Palestinian Authority changed the rules for Christians. The Church of the Nativity and other sites of central importance to Christianity came under Palestinian Authority control, giving Yasser Arafat leverage over the heads of the Christian communities.

Since then, the local Christian leadership has toed the line of the Palestinian Authority.

The Latin patriarch, Greek archbishop, Anglican bishop and Lutheran bishop are all Palestinian Arabs. They have become effective propaganda mouthpieces throughout the Christian world.

An example of Arafat’s attitude toward the Christians was his decision to unilaterally turn the Greek Orthodox monastery near the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem into his domicile during his periodic visits to the city. This was done without prior consent of the church.

Treatment of Christians by the PA

On the social and religious level, the Christians remaining in Palestinian Authority-controlled areas are subjected to relentless persecution.

Christian cemeteries have been destroyed, monasteries have had their telephone lines cut, and there have been break-ins at convents. Nuns are afraid to report such incidents.

In August 1997, Palestinian policemen in Beit Sahour [near Bethlehem] opened fire on a crowd of Christian Arabs, wounding six.

The Palestinian Authority is attempting to cover up the incident and has warned against publicizing the story.

The local commander of the Palestinian police instructed journalists not to report on the incident.

Palestinian security forces have targeted and intimidated Christian leaders and Palestinian converts to Christianity.

Recent incidents of persecution include the following:

In late June 1997, a Palestinian convert to Christianity in the northern West Bank was arrested by agents of the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Service.

He had been regularly attending church and prayer meetings and was distributing Bibles. The Palestinian Authority ordered his arrest. He is still being held in a Palestinian prison and has been subjected to physical torture and interrogations.

The pastor of a church in Ram’Allah was recently warned by Palestinian Authority security agents that they were monitoring his evangelistic activities in the area and wanted him to come in for questioning for spreading Christianity. A Palestinian convert to Christianity living in a village near Nablus was recently arrested by Palestinian police. A Muslim preacher was brought in by the police, and he attempted to convince the convert to return to Islam.

When the convert refused, he was brought before a Palestinian court and sentenced to prison for insulting the religious leader. He is now sharing a prison cell with more than 30 people, most serving life sentences for murder. A Palestinian convert to Christianity in Ram’Allah was recently visited by Palestinian policemen at his home and warned that if he continued to preach Christianity, he would be arrested and charged with being an Israeli spy.

As a result of unceasing persecution, the Christians are forced to behave like any oppressed minority which aims to survive. Christians in PA-controlled areas have taken to praying in secret. The wisdom of survival compels them to assess the “balance of fear”, according to which they have nothing to fear from Israel but face an existential threat from the Palestinian Authority and their Muslim neighbors.

They act accordingly: they seek to “find favor” through unending praise and adulation for the Muslim ruler together with public denunciations of the “Zionist entity.”

Emigration of Christians from PA territory

In the last census conducted by the British mandatory authorities in 1947, there were 28,000 Christians in Jerusalem. The census conducted by Israel in 1967 [after the Six-Day War ended a 19-year Jordanian occupation of the eastern part of the city, uniting Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty] showed just 11,000 Christians remaining in the city.

This means that some 17,000 Christians (or 61 per cent) left during the days of King Hussein’s rule over Jerusalem. Their place was filled by Muslim Arabs from Hebron.

During the British mandate period, Bethlehem had a Christian majority of 80 per cent. Today, under Palestinian rule, it has a Muslim majority of 80 per cent.

Few Christians remain in the Palestinian-controlled parts of the West Bank. Those who can emigrate, do so, and there will soon be virtually no Christians in the PA-controlled areas. The PA is trying to conceal the fact of massive Christian emigration from areas under its control.

Christians Under Threat

“‘Palestine’ is an Islamic state”, top Arafat advisor tells pastors concerned about Christian persecution under PA.

In recent issues, the Digest has reported on the Palestinian Authority’s oppression of Arab Christians in the self-rule areas.

Despite noteworthy efforts to end this official campaign of persecution, the PA is unrelenting, particularly in its targeting of Christian converts from Islamic backgrounds.

Arab Christian Mohammed Bak’r is entering his sixth month in a PA prison for openly proclaiming his faith. Numerous inquiries have been made to PA officials concerning his case, but no trial date has been set or evidence produced against him.

The Foreign Minister of Norway, Knut Vollebaek, reportedly raised the issue of Bak’r directly with PLO chairman Yasser Arafat in a private meeting, but to no avail. Afterwards, Arafat abruptly ended their joint press conference when a Norwegian journalist asked him a question about Bak’r.

Threats against another Muslim convert to Christianity proved all too real in November as a radical Islamist drove into his village near Nablus and, according to several eyewitness accounts, intentionally swerved onto the sidewalk to hit his eight-year-old daughter.

Although she suffered a fractured hip and a severe head injury, she has had a miraculously quick recovery. Her father first learned of her fate through an anonymous caller claiming that the “down payment” for his conversion had been made–with more “payments” to follow. Although numerous villagers confirmed the driver’s identity to Palestinian police, they have refused to take action.

These and other cases were highlighted in a special broadcast on a Dutch Christian television station in early December, which included a live interview with PA Minister for Education Hanan Ashrawi, a Greek Orthodox Christian. After denying such reports as Israeli propaganda early in the show, Ashrawi had to retract after viewing footage of disguised Christians from Bethlehem and Nablus tell of the persecution they have suffered since they came under PA rule.

The show’s host, Joppe Meijers, told the Digest he also had located eyewitnesses to the PA’s shooting of six Christian Arabs near Bethlehem in August, but none were willing to discuss the incident on his program, even in disguise.

A leading PA advisor to Arafat and member of the Palestinian Legislative Council recently told area pastors their evangelical activities among Muslims were considered subversive and a threat to the PA. He is familiar with the Bak’r case and maintained that the PA is an Islamic state which has adopted Islamic sha’ria law, making democratic considerations secondary.

“Our religion comes first,” he insisted, adding that the PA doubts any donor nation would cut off funds based on religious grounds. In an opinion piece in The Jerusalem Post concerning the unexplained deaths of at least 18 prisoners in PA custody, Palestinian human rights activist Bassam Eid lamented that “the PA is not serious about solving its human rights problem” and often uses “blackmail” against aggrieved families (Dec 17).

Charles Kopp, who has pastored in Israel for several decades, expressed the sentiments of many local Christian organizations when he said he was saddened to see the PA’s lack of respect for democracy, human rights and religious liberties. Even veteran ministers who went through the intifada are wondering how long they can continue their outreach in PA areas under the current oppressive conditions. And one source suggested we may have uncovered only the tip of the iceberg, as rumors abound of slain and missing Christian Arabs in and near Nablus in recent months. Respected British paper reports on converts’ plight: “Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority is waging a campaign of intimidation and harassment to push Muslims who have converted to Christianity to renounce their new faith,” the London Sunday Telegraph reported on December 21.

According to reporter Aliza Marcus, a number of Arab converts told her they had been threatened, beaten, and some jailed by PA officials. One recounted how Palestinian police had warned him he had “better become a Muslim again”. When he refused, he said, he was accused of spying for Israel and eventually had to flee for his life. Another, who became a Christian six years ago, alleged he had been detained twice this year, had his shop burnt down and Islamic slogans painted on his car.

Since taking control of areas in Judea, Samaria and Gaza under the Oslo Accords, said the Sunday Telegraph, the Arafat authority had been accused of “torturing detainees, jailing people for years without charge and holding midnight trials in which defendants are sentenced in a matter of hours”. The situation had been described as “deplorable” by the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

The newspaper incorrectly stated that the PA “does not have any laws making it illegal to convert”. In fact, as reported in the Digest (Oct 1997), PA Justice Minister Fayez Abu Rahmeh confirmed to the Jerusalem Report (Sept 4) that, based on a law from the British Mandate period, missionising aimed at Muslims “will be considered a crime”.

Around 106 converts are living largely secretive lives among the 1,5 million Muslim Palestinians in Judea-Samaria, Marcus estimated. “Palestinians suggest that converts are being harassed because Islam demands death for ex-Muslims who do not renounce their new faith. Converts may also face problems because generally they are members of evangelical churches which opposed an independent Palestinian state.

Evangelical Christians read the Bible literally and say that God gave this stretch of land to the Jews: “It appears that Palestinian officials are both accusing converts of disloyalty and using laws–such as accusing converts of stealing or selling land to Jews–as a way to put a legal face on the harassment,” Marcus wrote. “One convert, a 34-year-old father of six, has been in prison four times this year because police say they suspect him of stealing. He has never been charged. Another has been held for five months, allegedly for selling land to Jews. But his seven children and wife live in two cramped rooms in a poverty-stricken village in the West Bank. His relatives say he never had any land.”

Christian Embassy Assails PA Torture of Arab Christians

The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (“Embassy”) today expressed urgent concern over the Palestinian Authority’s brutal torture and persecution of Palestinian Arab Christians, and urged government and church leaders worldwide to condemn and sanction the PA for such behavior.

Embassy officials stated: “We understand that Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian police have been holding on false charges Muhammed Bak’r since June 30 in deplorable conditions, first at the Qalqilya interrogation center and now at the Nablus prison. Bak’r has been repeatedly tortured, including beatings on his back and being hung from the ceiling by his hands, in an attempt to force a totally unwarranted confession from him of either “collaboration” with Israel or selling land to Jews.

Bak’r, who comes from the village of Kiri (which is still within Israel’s security jurisdiction under the Oslo agreements), is an ex-Muslim who converted to Christianity six years ago. The consensus among those in his village is that Bak’r is actually being tortured for proclaiming his faith, and that he is a victim of Arafat and the PA’s religious campaign against non-Muslims.

“Bak’r is the latest victim in the PA’s officially-sanctioned campaign to persecute ex-Muslims who have converted to the Christian faith in hopes of deterring other such conversions. According to Islamic law, converting to another religion is a crime punishable by death. The PA has been utilizing brutal and repressive means to impose such cruel, antiquated pronouncements upon all of the Palestinian Arab population, even those not within its jurisdiction.

“Other ex-Muslim converts to Christianity have been routinely subjected to detentions, beatings, interrogations and threats, including Shak’r Saleh, who was held and tortured in a Jericho prison by Palestinian Security Services two years ago, before being released after the intervention of former US President Jimmy Carter, and others, on his behalf.

“We demand the immediate release of Muhammad Bak’r and guarantees of safety for him and his family. Further, we urge government and church leaders worldwide to condemn Arafat and his Palestinian Authority for this deplorable campaign of abuse against religious freedom and human rights. To avoid their own complicity with the PA’s actions, the Western donor nations should sanction the PA by withholding funding, and conduct an immediate investigation into this and other violations of human rights in the PA.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We are sending out this urgent communique on behalf of our brother Muhammad Bak’r who is an ex-Moslem who accepted Jesus as Lord approximately six years ago. He was arrested by the Palestinian Secret Police on Monday, June 30th.

His detention is illegal as his village, Kiri, is under Israeli jurisdiction. Since his conversion, Muhammed has been faithfully giving out Bibles and boldly declaring the Gospel. He has befriended many brothers and sisters from around the world who come to Israel to visit, and has shared with them how God has saved him, and given him love for all mankind.

He faithfully attends church, Bible study and prayer meetings. According to Islam, converting to another religion is a crime punishable by death. Because of this, he has been accused by the Palestinian Authority on trumped up charges of being a spy for Israel and selling land to Jews.

(This has been declared a crime punishable by death by the Palestinian Minister of Justice) The charges are totally false, as he lives with his wife and 9 children in 2 small rooms. He lives from hand to mouth as a construction laborer. We’ve heard from reliable sources that he is being tortured, and starved.

The Palestinians have a new saying now, which goes something like this, “If you want to know what hell is like, visit a Palestinian prison when prisoners are being tortured. Only God can help you once you’re in there”.

We are asking primarily for prayer for Muhammed for his immediate release (as per Acts 12:5).

Summary

During the days immediately preceding the Wye agreement, an almost total silence fell on the few human rights activists still maintaining some sort of presence in the PA.

The silence regarding the issues of human rights does not mean that the abuses have stopped on the contrary, it only means that the Palestinian Authority Police State has finally succeeded in muzzling it’s opposition.

Most of the “wanted criminals” which are to be jailed under the agreement are equally dangerous to the PA as to the Israelis. The few PLO loyalists on the lists will not spend any significant time behind bars. The revolving door policy is still in force for these men. The PA believes it can barter information on Iraq and other terrorist states to the CIA in return for a “closed eye” policy regarding the incarceration and release of their loyal soldiers.

Summary executions are still taking place on the streets. Last month Hebcom received a report of an execution in Bethlehem in which a PA policeman shot and killed a man during an argument. There were no arrests and his family is to frightened to go public.

The Christians in Bethlehem are afraid to place crosses on their houses, which they had wished to display in honor of the second millenium. They have had their houses stoned, and their children beaten as another “first installment” for not showing proper respect for the Prophet and his Koran. Their tormentors continue to work unmolested by the PA police.

This silence is the silence of fear mixed with apathy. The Palestinian human rights activists have received no aid from the U.S. and Israel. The world community has abandoned them, and as they approach the creation of their “state”, many view this change with outright fear. The Palestinians continue to be the major looser in the Middle East.

The Palestinians are creating their own inferno and on their borders is emblazoned the warning: “abandon all hope ye whom enter here.”

Israel Behind the News

Why the PLO Covenant Annulment Means Little

The Palestinian Security Services: Between Police and Army

My Almost-Trip to Israel

Implementation of the Wye Agreement: Release of Palestinian Prisoners

The Habit of Hatred

Death Sentence on Israelis

Palestinian Media since the Wye Agreement

Palestinian Media 17th November – 23rd November, 1998

US Consul Won’t Help the Boims: “We Can’t Visit Foreign Jails …”

Deterioration of Human Rights

Column from the Director