A Human Rights Watch report released Tuesday has claimed that both the Western-backed Palestinian Authority and Hamas “routinely arrest and torture peaceful critics.”
The 149-page report, “Two Authorities, One Way, Zero Dissent,” dealt exclusively with Palestinian society and largely focused on acts of torture committed by Palestinians against Palestinians.
Human Rights Watch reports have until now generally focused on allegations against Israel, with criticism of Fatah and Hamas treatment of Palestinians receiving minimal attention.
Since Hamas successfully drove the Fatah-led PA from the Gaza region in 2006, the report said that the PA-Hamas feud has deepened, leading each to target the other’s supporters often even more than they target Israel or Israeli collaborators.
The PA was also taken to task by the report for allegedly torturing supporters of Mohammed Daḥlan on a regular basis.
Daḥlan, who had been Washington’s choice to rule Gaza following Israel’s withdrawal in 2005, is an internal political rival within Fatah to PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
The Human Rights Watch report hits the PA and Hamas with nearly equal criticism, despite the fact that the PA is widely accepted globally as more moderate, while Hamas is perceived by the West as far more extreme in ideology and tactics.
147 witnesses, including former detainees and those close to them, were said to be interviewed for the report. Photographic evidence, medical reports and court documents were also reviewed.
The report also stated that as far as it could determine, “few security officers have been prosecuted and none have been convicted for wrongful arrest or torture.”
