Palestinians Equally Disgusted With Shabby Government Performance, Failed Peace Process

by Maureen Meehan

Palestinians are frustrated with the unclear political situation and panicked by the failing economy, rising unemployment and poverty, according to Palestinian psychologist Dr. Elia Awad. They are further demoralized by the growing realization that important sectors of their leadership are turning out to be corrupt, inefficient and unreliable.

"In a situation such as we have here now, people are becoming alienated and many are just giving up hope for any positive change—they see no light at the end of the tunnel," Dr. Awad told the Washington Report. "As a result, for the first time in our society, we are experiencing the tragic phenomenon of suicide. People are finding they cannot cope and do not see any positive signs for the future."

The Bethlehem-based psychologist said there are no clear data on the suicide rate, but that it is known to be more common in the Gaza Strip than in the West Bank. He explained that, historically, suicide within Palestinian society is uncommon. "There is so much stress and frustration; people are more desperate than ever."

In addition to the now common Palestinian view that the peace process has failed although the Israeli government of Binyamin Netanyahu successfully continues to present itself to the world as a responsible participant in the process while confiscating land, building Jewish settlements, and continuing to occupy 95 percent of the West Bankthere is a serious breakdown of trust and respect for the Palestinian leadership.

Shortly after the return three years ago to Gaza and Jericho of the Palestinian Authority (PA) under President Yasser Arafat, the inadequacies of the peace process became evident. Under the previous Labor government, which managed to garner worldwide praise as a champion for peace by withdrawing from six West Bank cities, Jewish settlements on Palestinian land grew by 40 percent; the sealing off of the West Bank and Gaza was institutionalized; arrests and torture of Palestinians rose to unprecedented levels; and torture, in fact, was sanctioned by law.

As flaws in the peace process became increasingly clear, however, many Palestinians began to express their opposition to the accords as well as to the PA and its negotiating strategy. Arrests of opposition figures by both Palestinian and Israeli authorities then rose. Both Palestinian and Israeli security forces tend to use Israel's security concerns to justify putting people behind bars.

"Palestinians have been horrified for many years at the idea of arrest by the Israelis because they know it surely means torture and brutality," said a Gaza human rights activist. "Now Palestinians are horrified with our own prison authorities and security forces who often are equally as brutal. People ask, 'How can this be?'"

Reports by international and local human rights organizations documenting abuses committed by Israeli and Palestinian authorities underscore Dr. Awad`s claim that life for the two-and-a-half million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem indeed has become desperate.

A report published by the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRG) last month documented some 42 cases of prisoners being tortured, beaten, whipped and otherwise abused by PA security forces while in detention between January and March of this year. In the past three years, 12 people have died while in Palestinian custody.

"There is widespread and pervasive torture of prisoners by all of the Palestinian preventive security forces," said Bassem Eid, head of the PHRG.

Eid blames the PA leadership for the policy of torture, saying there is a total lack of control over the numerous security forces. "And then, when someone does die in interrogation, there is rarely any investigation and no one is brought to trial. Hence the PA implicitly condones these practices," he said, adding that it was obvious the PA was attempting to create a culture of fear.

Responding to the report, recently resigned PA Attorney General Ahmed Kidra said, "There is no policy of torture in PA jails. There may be some individual situations, but in any case of torture those responsible are interrogated and tried." Kidra was recently implicated for taking bribes and was temporarily placed under house arrest and forced to leave his post as attorney general.

The PHRG report, mostly ignored by the Palestinian press, was a rare documentation and public airing of PA abuses, although several other groups regularly publish PA violations. Eid pointed out that Palestinian human rights monitors are essentially powerless to pressure the PA, and indeed have come under attack for publishing their findings.

"Donor countries can pressure the PA but local groups can't do much, although we're trying to raise awareness among Palestinians to pay more attention to abuses and get involved in pressuring the [Palestinian] Authority on a grassroots level," said Eid.

Israel also has stepped up its ongoing use of torture, which recently included beating a man to death while he was bound in a hospital emergency room. Khalil Abu Diayeh, a 37-year-old Palestinian who lived with his wife and five children in Bethlehem, was detained in Jerusalem and held because he did not have his identity card with him when he was stopped by Israeli policemen. Officially an Israeli citizen and resident of East Jerusalem, Abu Daiyeh did not need permission to be in the city as is the case with West Bank Palestinians. For this reason, according to his wife, he forgot to carry his ID to the Al-Aqsa mosque, where he was arrested in mid-May.

Abu Daiyeh was taken to a nearby hospital after having sustained severe injuries while in custody for several days at the infamous Russian Compound. While being brought into the emergency room at the Sha'arei Tzedek hospital, some 30 people, including members of the hospital staff, witnessed Abu Daiyeh being beaten by Israeli policemen and, some witnesses said, by hospital guards. Although Abu Daiyeh's arms and legs were shackled, the policemen claimed he had attacked them.

Hospital director Prof. Yonatan Halevi said, "Two policemen beat the prisoner in full view of everyone and the hospital guards acted on orders given by the policemen." He added, however, that this does not exempt the hospital from responsibility. An Israeli doctor and nurse on duty that night told journalists they saw the Israeli policemen "beat the patient again and again." The two Israeli professionals said they dispersed the crowd that had gathered in the hall, but admitted they did nothing to stop the beating.

Dr. Ruhema Marton from the Israeli Association for Human Rights said, "The physicians did not act on the basis of medical, humanitarian or professional calculation to assure that force applied to the patient would be minimal."

Professor Halevi said Abu Daiyeh died during the 20-minute beating in the emergency room or immediately thereafter. The findings of Israeli, Palestinian and an independent American pathologist coincide in that the cause of death was due to severe beating and torture.

The question of the hospital's responsibility for what happened, along with the responsibility of the doctors and nurses who witnessed the scene and thought only to disperse the crowd, will linger in the Jerusalem hospital whose Hebrew name translates to "Gates of Truth" and whose director is a known human rights activist.

"It shows how Israeli Jews, even the doctors who should be saving lives, have so little respect for Palestinians. It is immoral," said Um Khaled, Abu Daiyeh's neighbor, who had the dead man's five-year-old son on her lap as she spoke to a reporter at the funeral in Bethlehem, which Israeli troops broke up with tear gas and rubber bullets.

On the heels of the harsh human rights report condemning the PA, and shortly after Abu Daiyeh's death and several other well- publicized cases of torture in Israeli jails, Palestinians were hit with yet another shocking revelation about their Gaza-based government, which Palestinian-American Edward Said once called a "mixture of the chaos of Lebanon and the tyranny of Saddam Hussain."

"Serious Financial Violations"

The results of an internal financial audit, done by the PA's Monitoring Institution set up by President Yasser Arafat, were released in a 600-page report which found "serious financial and administrative violations" by most of the PA ministries that resulted in the squandering and misuse of at least $326 million in public fundsabout one-quarter of the current year's budget. It is not clear, however, whether the audit covered only one fiscal year or the entire three years since the beginning of Palestinian self-rule.

Ordered by Arafat, the report was the first official documentation of financial corruption within the PA since its establishment in May 1994. Some critics of the PA say the report, while shocking in its content, is in fact a smoke screen published to coincide with growing criticism of PA financial corruption that was becoming too blatant to ignore.

The report mentions financial mismanagement in five PA ministries and cites many examples of public money wasted by certain ministers who spent lavishly on their homes, bodyguards, cars and mobile phones.

There is no reference in the report, however, to any of the PA-controlled monopolies that dominate important sectors of the economy, the reported secret bank accounts that service those monopolies, or the companies owned by PA officials which dominate investment and private economic projects underway in the Gaza Strip. Arafat's office, which receives 7 percent of the annual PA budget, was not mentioned in the audit. The Monitoring Institution is a part of Arafat's office.

According to a report by the International Monetary Fund, which labels the monopolies "a major structural distortion in the economy," the PA's involvement with import monopolies—especially cement, tobacco, and electronic items—brings in several hundred million dollars annually that do not pass through the Finance Ministry.

The author of the audit, Jirar Qidweh, said he found no evidence that the monoplies exist. However, the economic committee of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) prepared its own report on the monopolies which concluded that indeed the businesses exist and are worth millions of dollars, and that the money is never monitored by financial or taxation authorities.

The PLC now is demanding the monopolies be declared private companies and pay taxes or that they declare their earnings as part of the national budget if they are indeed government companies.

Prior to publication of the financial report, the PLC already was discussing the issue of financial corruption. Those council discussions presumably are what landed well-known Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab in jail for a week. While it was never formally clarified, Kuttab assumes his detention had something to do with the broadcasts of live PLC sessions on the Al-Quds Education Channel, which he heads.

Shortly after the audit became public in late May, Arafat began a damage control campaign in an effort to reinstate trust in his government. He told advisers he was hurt and shocked by the findings and proceeded to order an investigation of the original audit.

Much to the surprise of many people, with the exception of the district attorney none of the ministers in question, such as Arafat adviser Nabil Sha'ath and civil affairs minister Jamil Tarifi, have been called on to explain their financial dealings, which include corporations and monopolies that have long been suspected of being set up with public or donor money. In the case of Sha'ath, immediately after the audit was published, he transferred the ownership of one of his companies to his son.

It is doubtful whether Arafat will be immediately successful in reinstating trust in the government, especially in light of the fact that no measures have been taken to correct the situation. The ongoing economic crisis is only making the criticism of the PA harsher.

"When we're not even receiving our salaries on time and can't feed our families properly, how can we be anything but bitter knowing that our leaders are building mansions to live in and have thousands, maybe millions of dollars stashed away somewhere," said a Palestinian policeman in Gaza City. "Something has to give; Abu Amar [Yasser Arafat] has to do something."