August 2, 2022
Palestinian Police States Torture and Kill Thousands of
Palestinians—U.S. Media and Politicians Yawn
Dear Friend of FLAME: A young man from Balata in the Palestinian-controlled West Bank told Human
Rights Watch that officers in the Palestinian Authority’s (PA)
notorious Jericho prison subjected him to electrical shocks, once tied a
cord around his penis, and he witnessed PA officers dislocate the shoulder of another detainee when they beat him with a
chair while his hands were bound behind him.
Though the Palestinian dictatorships torture and murder Palestinian
political dissidents incessantly—and these crimes are well documented—neither the American press nor politicians
show signs of caring.
While others’ perceived misdeeds—like the killings of
journalists Jamal Khashoggi and Shireen Abu Akleh—spark months of
media coverage and even Presidential indignation, the murder of a prominent
Palestinian blogger by Palestinian police last year barely drew a yawn.
Indeed, when it comes to corruption and anti-democratic behavior, the
Palestinians seem Teflon coated—nothing sticks. Media coverage
is minimal, political costs are zero.
In fact, President Biden just announced hundreds of millions of additional dollars to fund the brutal Palestinian dictatorship in
the West Bank.
By contrast, in recent months, the President has lashed out numerous times
at Saudi Arabia for its murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying he
regards the Arab nation as a pariah state. The New York Times has written about Khashoggi’s killing more
than a dozen times and continues to follow the story four years later.
The President also publicly lamented and demanded a “transparent
accounting” of the death of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was
killed this year in crossfire during a gunfight between Palestinian
militants and Israel’s defense forces. The New York Times
has covered Akleh’s death—implying but never proving
that Israel was responsible—more than eight times so far in recent
months.
Yet when Palestinian police dragged blogger and political activist Nizar
Banat from his family’s home in June 2021 and brutally beat him to
death, Mr. Biden has issued no statement. Nor, apparently, did he
mention the matter when visiting Palestinian President Abbas in Bethlehem
last month. The New York Times gave the Banat murder a scant three
articles.
Banat’s treatment was horrible, but not unique. Torture is long-term,
rampant and cruel in territories governed by brutal Palestinian
regimes—the PA and Hamas—but Palestinian torture is simply not judged newsworthy by mainstream media or of political note by
most elected officials.
For example, just last month Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a report
detailing thousands of cases of torture by the PA and Hamas.
Unsurprisingly, the New York Times has neglected to cover
the report. Indeed, it hasn’t reported on Palestinian torture at all
since 2018.
The HRW report said that the PA’s various security services and
Hamas’ Internal Security agency “have used tactics that include
taunting, threats of violence, use of solitary confinement, beatings,
including lashing and whipping of the feet of detainees, and forcing
detainees into painful stress situations, including using cables or ropes
to hoist up arms behind the back.”
HRW concludes such torture practices, which are widespread and have
continued for many years, “amount to government policy and may amount
to a crime against humanity.”
The annual report of the Committee of Families of Political Detainees
called 2021 “the black year of the PA’s suppression of
freedoms,” citing 2,578 violations against Palestinians at the
PA’s Jericho prison. The report said prisoners experienced “the
worst psychological, verbal and physical torture inside the PA
prisons.” Neither the New York Times nor any national media
covered this report.
In 2021, the Independent Commission for Human Rights, an independent
Palestinian organization, reported it received 252 complaints of torture
and ill treatment and 279 complaints of arbitrary arrest against the
Palestinian Authority. It received 193 complaints of torture and ill
treatment and 97 of arbitrary arrest against Hamas in Gaza. No coverage of this report appeared in the Times or any
national media.
The human rights firm, Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center, has filed complaints
about such Palestinian torture and other human rights violations with the
International Criminal Court (ICC), but the court declined to investigate. According to Shurat Hadin leader, Nitsana
Darshan-Leitner, the ICC and Western nations believe “hundreds of
people murdered and tortured to death by the PA aren’t worth one
Jamal Khashoggi.”
Two main reasons
support this conspiracy of silence on the part of the media and politicians
regarding Palestinian torture and human rights abuses.
First, the West—its press and governments—are heavily invested
in the myth that the Palestinians deserve and can manage political
independence. For this reason, they simply ignore the brutal authoritarian
nature of the PA and Hamas—their lack of elections, civil rights and
rule of law. Highlighting the cruelty of these regimes would emphasize the blatant contradiction that the Palestinians are, among the
world’s many stateless peoples, especially worthy of their own
nation.
Exposing the Palestinian police states would also give the lie to the
assumption that the Palestinian people support their corrupt, treacherous
governments.
Second, when it comes to the Middle East, the media are not interested in
violations of human rights in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, Iran or,
of course, the Palestinian territories. Rather, they are interested only in
opportunities to “catch” Israel committing supposed
transgressions.
Thus, when Palestinian children are killed during Israel’s
retaliation from an unprovoked Hamas missile attack . . . that’s front-page news. That fact that the Hamas missile was shot from a
launcher placed next to the children’s school—a war
crime—will be buried on page 31.
Thus, when journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed during a gunfight
between Israeli armed forces and suspected terrorists, the assumption by
many media and politicians—with no proof whatsoever—was
that Israel was guilty of murder.
Please explain to friends, family, colleagues and your elected officials
that the disenfranchised Palestinian people deserve humane treatment and
legal justice . . . and it’s time their corrupt leaders were held to account for continuing gruesome torture and murder of their
citizens.
Emphasize, too, that slandering Israel and blaming the Jewish state for the
Palestinians’ lack of civil liberties is misplaced: The dictatorial
Palestinian leaders should be exposed for the tyrants they are, and Western
nations should cease funding them until basic civil liberties and
rule of law are established.
I hope you'll also take a minute, while you have this material front and
center, to forward this message to friends, visit FLAME's lively
Facebook page
and review the P.S. immediately below. It describes FLAME's new hasbarah campaign—"The Palestinian
Catastrophe”—which exposes the false narrative of “Nakba
Day,” commemorating Palestinians’ missed opportunity for
independence.
Best regards,
James Sinkinson, President
Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME)
P.S. |
U.S. Representative and “Squad” member Rashida Tlaib has
introduced a bill that would make Palestinian Nakba
(“Catastrophe”) Day a national observance. The resolution
promotes the false narrative that Israel’s statehood in 1948
prevented Palestinian Arabs from achieving independence. I think you'll
agree that truth is the only antidote to this lie. FLAME’s new hasbarah message called “The Palestinian Catastrophe”—shows it was in fact Arab refusal to
accept the U.N. proposal of two states for two peoples that created the
problem. I hope you'll review this convincing, fact-based paid editorial,
which recently ran in the Washington Post, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and other media
nationwide. It spells out how it was actually Arab states who stole the
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