Saeb Erekat
Saeb ErekatAbir Sultan/Flash 90

On September 3, 2020, Arutz Sheva reported that Harvard is under fire for appointing Saeb Erekat, long the Palestinians’chief negotiator, to serve as a mentor.and to give virtual seminars as a fellow in The Future of Diplomacy Project at the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs..

The Jerusalem Post went so far as to write that he is "bringing his expertise to Harvard," adding "The Kennedy School — among the most prestigious graduate schools for public and social policy in the world — announced Erekat’s appointment last week..."

Since Erekat promotes the Palestinian pay to slay policy. calling it "a social obligation," Erekat should be in jail. not in Harvard.

On January 30, 2020, Arutz Shevareported "Palestinian Authority gave 517.4 million shekels to terrorists as salaries in 2019."

Erekat also is part of an oppressive government that was accused by the Human Rights Watch of using torture to crush dissent. Human Rights Watch reported that the PA used threats, arbitrary arrests and violent abuse, including beatings, electric shocks and stress positions to crush dissent.

On October 23, 2018 Joe Dike wrote in the AFP "The Palestinian security forces "systematically" abuse and torture opponents and critics in what could amount to crimes against humanity and undermine Palestinian accusations against Israel, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

"Systematic torture as part of a government policy is a crime against humanity," Omar Shakir, HRW's Israel-Palestine director, told AFP.

The rival authorities of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas both used threats, arbitrary arrests and violent abuse, including beatings, electric shocks and stress positions, the New York-based rights group said in a report released in Ramallah in the "West Bank."

Both particularly focus on those allegedly affiliated with the rival faction, including protesters, dissidents, journalists and bloggers, with the aim of crushing dissent, the report said..."

On December 2, 2018 Bejamin Kerstein reported in the Algemeniner about an interview between the Palestinian Authority’s chief negotiator Saeb Erekat on Deatche Welle’s TV show Conflict Zone “Facing a series of withering questions from hard-nosed interviewer Tim Sebastian, Erekat sought to defend himself and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on issues ranging from their dealings with the Trump administration to the peace process, corruption, and PA human rights violations...

Sebastian then asked about a recent Human Rights Watch report that found 147 incidents of “shocking abuse” by Palestinian security forces. Erekat protested that a committee had been formed to “investigate every single matter.”

“You say this every time. You have exactly the same answer,” said Sebastian.

“The people who committed these atrocities will be held accountable. That’s my promise,” Erekat replied, then said, “Security figures in certain areas were fired. They were demoted.”

“How many?” asked Sebastian.

“I really can’t…” said Erekat.

“It doesn’t mean anything unless you have a number,” asserted Sebastian.

“I will get you the number,” Erekat replied.

Pressed further on the issue of human rights abuses, Erekat cried, “When it happens we stop it! We admit it! We don’t hide it! We don’t find excuses! We don’t buy people!”

Sebastian pointedly asked Erekat, “Aren’t you ashamed of all this?”

“In some cases I’m ashamed, yes,” Erekat said, but added, “Sometimes I can’t because I’m a young Authority. I’m 23 years old. I cannot differentiate between freedom of expression and incitement.”

Asked what a future Palestinian state would look like, Erekat responded, “The future Palestinian state would look like the discussion that’s going on now. The future of the Palestinian state will be the future of democracy, human rights, women’s rights, accountability, transparency, and the rule of law. This is my promise.”

“So very different from what you have now,” Sebastian noted dryly.

Watch Erekat’s full interview with Sebastian here.

On March 30, 2013 David Rose wrote in the Daily Mail "Chilling confessions made by a former official from the Palestinian Authority: Said in nineties people were tortured 'badly' and 'beat them hard'...Nowadays, he adds, the preferred method is termed ‘shabeh’ – the hooding and tying of the prisoner in a variety of agonising positions for up to eight hours. He does not elaborate on the details, but claims: ‘It works with 95 per cent of the subjects.’ It also takes considerable skill: ‘You have to deal with it as if you were playing a guitar. Each case has its own speciality.’

This extraordinary interview is the first admission by a former perpetrator of the widespread torture of Palestinians – not by Israel, but by the Palestinian Authority (PA)

...Just what ‘it’ means was described by a very recent victim, a professional man in his 40s who was freed without charge two weeks ago after more than a month in Mukhabarat detention.

‘For most of the time I was held, they gave me shabeh every day,’ he says. ‘Always I was hooded, and sometimes they tied my arms in front of me and attached me to the wall, leaving me like that for long, long hours, on tiptoes. You have pain in the arms, in the legs and in the body, and swelling in your muscles. Often I could also hear screaming from the prisoners.

‘But it was worse when they suspended me with my arms tied behind me. Your body is curved, like a banana. Most of the time they do not let your feet touch the ground.’ He showed me his arms and hands – they were still puffy and swollen. ‘During the shabeh, they looked much worse,’ he added.

In another variant, the suspect was hog-tied – laid on his back on top of a chair with his wrists and ankles lashed together beneath the seat. Usually the torture happened at night: ‘When you’re exhausted, they take you back to your cell.’

He was arrested because someone claimed he had an illegal weapon. ‘But I’ve never had a weapon and I am opposed to Islamic extremists. I’ve criticised the PA at social gatherings – maybe that’s why someone denounced me. That was the worst thing of all – that I was in jail at the hands of my own Authority.’..."

Bassam Tawil reported in Gatestone Institute that Erekat repeatedly lied "...In an interview with CNN on April 10, 2002, Saeb Erekat falsely claimed that Israeli troops had killed "more than 500 people" during a counter-terrorist operation in the 'West Bank' city of Jenin. Two days later, he repeated the charge on CNN: "A real massacre was committed in the Jenin refugee camp." He added that 300 Palestinians were being buried in mass graves. On April 15, 2002, Erekat continued his charges: "And I stand by the term 'massacres' were committed in the refugee camps."

The truth is that "hundreds" of Palestinians were not killed during the anti-terrorist Israeli military operation in the 'West Bank' in 2002. The Israeli military confirmed that there were 54 bodies, mostly gunmen, and 23 IDF soldiers who fell in Jenin, a launching area for terrorism, and Palestinian officials have verified the Israeli numbers. Mousa Kadoura, director of the Palestinian ruling Fatah faction in the northern 'West Bank', said that 56 Palestinians died in Jenin.

The Washington Times later commented on the false accusations that Israel had committed a "massacre" in Jenin:

"It is not strange that many Jews have started to suggest the world is seeing a resurgence of anti-Semitism. Take, for instance, the so-called 'Jenin massacre.' Remember the screaming headlines and the front-page pictures of devastation as Israeli troops fought their way through the Palestinian refugee camps in early April? Bad as it looked, the evidence is now clear - evidence presented to the United Nations, no less, that the operation in no way justified the accusations of genocide and crimes against humanity that were being flung at Israel. There was no mass murder of Palestinian civilians at Jenin."

Has Saeb Erekat since apologized or retracted his false accusation? No. Not only has Erekat failed to apologize for his fabrications, but he has continued to spread more lies about Israel. One of Erekat's famous lies: "Israel has effectively interfered with and changed the status quo of Christian and Muslim prayer sites and institutions in Occupied East Jerusalem."

"Exactly the opposite is true, given Israel's scrupulous respect for the existing religious practices in Jerusalem, " commented Dr. Eran Lerman, former deputy for foreign policy and international affairs at the National Security Council in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, on Erekat's lie.

Referring to another claim by Erekat that "Israel has effectively changed Al-Aqsa [Mosque] Status Quo," Lerman noted:

"Here Erekat's shameless campaign of lies, apparently aimed at journalists who will not bother to check the verbiage they are fed, reached new heights. No respect is paid to the Jewish heritage and patrimony on the Temple Mount. Nor has such respect been evidenced on the Mount, where the [Islamic] Waqf has deliberately destroyed archeological evidence of the ancient Jewish temples."

Lerman, commenting on a document published in 2015 by the PLO official's "Negotiations Affairs Department," concluded:

"Saeb Erekat is a unique phenomenon in the Palestinian orbit. For years, he has played the dual role of negotiator-in-chief for Palestinian-Israeli peace talks and propaganda par excellence for the regimes of Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas. His record of lies and dissimulations is legion, and seems to be getting worse as he ages. History will yet record his abysmal diplomatic role in the many mistakes of the Palestinian national movement..."

Erekat is part of a government that tortures his own people to crash dissent he supports terrorism by supporting the Palestinian pay for slay policy. Erekat should be in jail not in Harvard.

Ezequiel Doiny is author of "Obama's assault on Jerusalem's Western Wall"