The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG), a Jerusalem-based Arab-run organization, states that since the beginning of the intensified PA-led terrorist war on Israel over three years ago, 297 PA Arabs have been killed by fellow Arabs.
The PHRMG says that the figures show "systematic abuse of Arab residents of the Palestinian Authority by competing local Arab gangs and by the PA itself." The organization calls the phenomenon an "ever more acute intrafada."
The PHRMG, headed by Bassam Eid, is self-defined as "an independent, non-governmental organization working to end human rights violations committed against Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, regardless of those responsible."
A PHRMG press release this week notes: "Palestinians are torn between various political factions and traditional family values such as honor and pride. Secularism and religious militancy coexist among the population of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The political tasks and responsibilities of Chairman and Prime Minister remain unclear. These societal phenomena divide Palestinians internally. Much of Palestinian-on-Palestinian violence is related to these societal divisions. The legal system of rights and duties is confused at best, and wrought by corruption and cronyism at worst."
The organization charges that official arms of the PA engage in severe torture and, for those suspected of cooperating with Israel, "extremely violent [treatment] by vigilantes or PA forces," which "often results in death." A wing of PLO leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah terrorist organization is mentioned explicitly among the referred-to "vigilantes." In one instance involving Fatah members, PHRMG states, a suspect was killed "after being forced to 'confess' his crimes in front of his family."
Other totalitarian practices noted by the PHRMG include intimidation of the press: "Journalists critical of the PA and its policies, such as Seifeddin Shahin (al-Arabiya Satellite Channel), have been continually subjected to violence, either at the hands of PA officials or by unknowns affiliated with a political splinter group."
Non-political internal violence is also noted and decried by the PHRMG:
"Internal violence also includes the widely unreported domestic abuse of women, and rape," the PHRMG reports. "[The] traditional concept of honor pertaining to women makes it socially taboo to discuss abuse of any kind... Weapons have also turned family feuds increasingly deadly… [In one case] an innocent [was] shot dead, and family belongings were burnt and destroyed in a spree of revenge and counter-revenge, involving whole family clans and Fatah members."
In conclusion, the PHRMG "urges both the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government to quell this phenomenon. We fear that otherwise a future Palestinian state will be born into civil war."
The PHRMG says that the figures show "systematic abuse of Arab residents of the Palestinian Authority by competing local Arab gangs and by the PA itself." The organization calls the phenomenon an "ever more acute intrafada."
The PHRMG, headed by Bassam Eid, is self-defined as "an independent, non-governmental organization working to end human rights violations committed against Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, regardless of those responsible."
A PHRMG press release this week notes: "Palestinians are torn between various political factions and traditional family values such as honor and pride. Secularism and religious militancy coexist among the population of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The political tasks and responsibilities of Chairman and Prime Minister remain unclear. These societal phenomena divide Palestinians internally. Much of Palestinian-on-Palestinian violence is related to these societal divisions. The legal system of rights and duties is confused at best, and wrought by corruption and cronyism at worst."
The organization charges that official arms of the PA engage in severe torture and, for those suspected of cooperating with Israel, "extremely violent [treatment] by vigilantes or PA forces," which "often results in death." A wing of PLO leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah terrorist organization is mentioned explicitly among the referred-to "vigilantes." In one instance involving Fatah members, PHRMG states, a suspect was killed "after being forced to 'confess' his crimes in front of his family."
Other totalitarian practices noted by the PHRMG include intimidation of the press: "Journalists critical of the PA and its policies, such as Seifeddin Shahin (al-Arabiya Satellite Channel), have been continually subjected to violence, either at the hands of PA officials or by unknowns affiliated with a political splinter group."
Non-political internal violence is also noted and decried by the PHRMG:
"Internal violence also includes the widely unreported domestic abuse of women, and rape," the PHRMG reports. "[The] traditional concept of honor pertaining to women makes it socially taboo to discuss abuse of any kind... Weapons have also turned family feuds increasingly deadly… [In one case] an innocent [was] shot dead, and family belongings were burnt and destroyed in a spree of revenge and counter-revenge, involving whole family clans and Fatah members."
In conclusion, the PHRMG "urges both the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government to quell this phenomenon. We fear that otherwise a future Palestinian state will be born into civil war."