Bassam Tawil
Gatestone, Nov. 25, 2024
“Palestinians still remember how political activist and human rights defender Nizar Banat, an outspoken critic of corruption in the Palestinian Authority, was beaten to death by PA security officers in Hebron in 2021. Until today, no one has been punished for the killing of Banat.”
Palestinian leaders have a long history of cracking down on their political rivals and opponents. For the past three decades, leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas have systematically targeted political activists, journalists, social media users, students, professors and human rights activists as part of an ongoing campaign to silence critics and deter others from speaking out against the lack of democracy and freedom of speech.
In 2017, Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International, warned that “the last few months have seen a sharp escalation in attacks on journalists and the media by the Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza in a bid to silence dissent.” She added: “This is a chilling setback for freedom of expression in Palestine.”
Since then, the situation has only worsened, as a growing number of Palestinians have found themselves targeted by both the PA and Hamas.
In 2018, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report exposing 86 cases of arbitrary arrests and torture of peaceful dissenters by both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, based on personal interviews with the victims and their families. Torture included beatings, solitary confinement, feet-whipping, threats and taunts, and forcing detainees into various painful positions for extended periods. HRW commented that “the habitual, deliberate, widely known use of torture, using similar tactics over years with no action taken by senior officials in either authority to stop these abuses, make these practices systematic.” …SOURCE
Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. His work is made possible through the generous donation of a couple of donors who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.
