October 15, 2007


John Dugard, the UN human rights envoy to the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, has castigated the world body, accusing it of watching passively and doing nothing to stop serious violations of Palestinian human rights.

In an interview with the BBC Sunday, Dugard said the UN should withdraw from the Quartet of Middle East mediators unless the group addresses Palestinian human rights.

Dugard said the rift between Fatah, which is backed by Israel and the West, and Hamas, the democratically-elected Islamic movement, was threatening the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

He added that the UN, instead of siding with one faction, which is Fatah, should be playing the role of mediator.

"Instead the international community has given its support almost completely to one faction-to Fatah."

The former South African professor of international law echoed recent remarks by a former UN Middle East envoy, Alvaro de Soto, in which de Soto argued that the UN image of impartiality had been badly damaged by its involvement in the Quartet because the US dictated policy.

Human rights activists operating in the West Bank have spoken of "nearly a total collapse of law and order all over the West Bank ."

"It is a police state, the judicial authority doesn’t exist, and police forces routinely refuse to heed court orders to release abducted Palestinians accused of being sympathetic to Hamas," said Ahmed, who wouldn’t give his last name for possible retribution by the PA security agencies.

"They kill people, they arrest people and they torture people. The government does nothing, and the judicial system does nothing."

Several innocent people have been murdered and many others injured at the hands of security personnel or faceless gunmen affiliated with the Fatah organization in the West Bank ever since Hamas’s takeover in the Gaza Strip in mid-June.

In Nablus , at the towns’ main University, a 20-year-old student, Muhammed Raddad, was murdered in cold-blood outside the college administration building in early July, reportedly at the hands of another student who happened to be affiliated with Fatah and serving in the PA security apparatus.

However, the PA security agencies, reportedly in collusion with the university administration, has sought to cover up the incident.

The killer, identified by eyewitnesses as H.M. remains a free man.

On Saturday, two Palestinians, a 21-year-old man and a six-year-old child were killed at the town of Qalqilya at the north-western edge of the West Bank by trigger-happy and highly-undisciplined PA policemen.

The PA said the man didn’t heed orders to stop at a makeshift police roadblock.

The child was apparently killed when policemen fired on protesters, protesting the killing of the man.

Following the incident, the PA brought in reinforcements to Qalqilya and reportedly imposed a curfew on one of the towns’ neighborhood where relatives of the two victims live.

Following the incident, an official from the Ramallah-based government admitted that "effectively, we don’t have any real control over the security agencies."

In addition to the killings and wave of arrests, the PA has been clamping on freedom of speech and expression, beating and abusing supporters of Hamas.

During the Eidul Fitr holiday, which marked the end of the Holy month of Ramadan, Palestinian security personnel reportedly entered numerous mosques, tearing off Islamic banners, including flags bearing the Islamic article of faith, There is No God, but one God, and Muhammed is His Messenger."

Fatah, which had placed its own yellow banner atop mosques in the occupied Palestinian territories, asked Palestinians to hold Eid prayers in school yards instead of mosques. However, very few people heeded the call.