FYI
Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Date: Sat, 24 May 1997 09:46:46 -0700
From: MER Editorial <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Torturing Palestinians and the Daoud Kuttab case
M I D - E A S T R E A L I T I E S - Editorial
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TORTURING THE PALESTINIANS, AND THE CASE OF DAOUD KUTTAB
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MER EDITORIAL:
OPPRESSING, SUBJUGATING, AND TORTURING
THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
AND THE CASE OF DAOUD KUTTAB
MER - Washington - 5/24/97. The Palestinians remain today the
Blacks of the Middle East. They are oppressed, harrassed and
discriminated against at every turn. And not only by the Israelis;
but also by the Israeli-installed "Palestinian Authority" itself
as well as by the associated Arab "client-regimes" that control
the region holding nearly everyone in bondage.
This said, Israeli torture and subjugation of the Palestinians,
both collectively and individually, is particularly eggregious;
especially as it is the United States and other Western powers
that for decades have provided the money, guns, and political
cover that make it all possible.
Indeed, in the deceptive and duplicitous name of "peace process",
a regime of Middle Eastern apartheid has descended upon the
Palestinian people. Palestinians today are quite literally imprisoned
in Gaza and "autonomous areas", subjected to pass laws reminiscent of
the South Africa of old, and overall kept in a permanent state of
submission and subjugation.
What the Israelis call "law", when applied to Palestinians, is
little but a subterfuge for dispossession, repression, and lawlessness
of the most hypocritical kind. What the West calls "Palestinian
Authority" and "Palestinian police" is little but a subterfuge for
a mercenary force armed and paid to sub-oppress and control the
natives.
Recently the White House came to the defense of a Palestinian
journalist, Daoud Kuttab. Kuttab was arrested by the "Palestinian
Authority" after spreading the word about Arafat's still-growing
censorship, now expanded (ironically with American and Israeli money
and equipment) to jamming radio and TV programs -- as unbelievable
as that must sound to many who support, nearly always without
understanding, the so-called "peace process".
Though Arafat's PA's abuses are indefensable and increasingly
despicable, this is not the first nor the worst of them.
The real and serious problems are not for Palestinians like
Kuttab; persons well-known, with many influential friends, and in
this particular case with an American passport. Kutab is not likely
to be harmed; he will get out soon; he is well-funded with USAID and
George Soros grants designed to further this wretched apartheid
"peace process" which (also ironically) Kuttab supports (or he wouldn't
be given the grants or offered the American assistance); and he will
be more influential for having been arrested in this way. You can't
pay for this kind of publicity! Meanwhile, the sheer stupidity of the
Arafat regime seems to know no bounds, whether at the negotiating
table or in the streets.
But where is the White House when it comes to the torturing of
Palestinians to death by its "strategy ally" Israel? And where are
the Americans when Palestinian homes are blown up and "sealed" in
collective punishment tactics clearly outlawed by international
laws to which the U.S. is signatory? And where is the White House
when non-American and unknown Palestinians are harassed, beaten,
tortured, curfewed, and in general subjected to the most humiliating
kinds of discrimination and abuse -- increasingly by the PA as well
as directly by the Israelis -- and all with American money and guns!
The recent murder by torture of Khalil Ali Abu Daiyya -- see the
information that follows -- is not an isolated case. Israeli
repression, beatings, closures, barricades, curfews, torture, and
on and on, are actually daily occurrences and have been for
decades. Worse yet, with the post-Gulf War "peace process" the
situation for Palestinians has dramatically worsened on all fronts.
So the White House wants Arafat to let Daoud Kuttab go. Yet
the same White House closes its eyes and shuts its mouth while
the Israelis go on, year after year, created hatreds that are sure
to result in revenge in the bloody years now ahead; and when the
PA of Yasser Arafat mimics the same tactics.
MAB
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PALESTINIAN DETAINEE TORTURED TO DEATH
AUTOPSY REPORTS CONFIRM DEATH BY TORTURE
Jerusalem - 5/23/97.
Khalil Ali Abu Daiyya, 37 years old married with five children, died
from wounds inflicted from repeated beating and torture in the Russian
Compound jail and interrogation center in Jerusalem. An independent
autopsy conducted before his burial on 22 May reveal that Mr. Abu
Daiyya was subjected to severe beating, sustained multiple lacerations,
fractured bones and internal hemorrhage.
Mr. Abu Daiyya was arrested while with his wife in Jerusalem on 16
May. He was taken to the Russian Compound jail and there, according
to witness Mahmoud Abu Ter, severely beaten. Mr. Abu Ter heard
beatings on at least two occasions, and saw Mr. Abu Daiyya's bloodied
body.
Police transferred Mr. Abu Daiyya to the Givat Sha'ul Psychiatric
hospital, a move which Mr. Abu Daiyya resisted. He was beaten again
during his resistance on his hands, wrists and neck. He complained of
throat pains, and on 21 May was taken to Sharei Zedek hospital in
Jerusalem. There he was tied by his feet and hands and, when again
he tried to resist, was beaten until he died.
The exact time of death has been difficult to establish, as the
hospital and police reports differ.
The autopsy, conducted by Dr. Jillal Jabri, the General Director of
the Autopsy Department of the Palestinian Authority confirmed that:
-the body was subjected to severe beating
-the body sustained blows with heavy instruments
-the hands and feet had been bound
-fractures in various parts of the body
-the bones of the right side of the face, on an area spanning 15-20
centimeters, had been broken by a -dull heavy instrument.
-deep lacerations on right shoulder
-5th, 6th, 11th and 12th ribs broken
-severe internal hemorrhage
LAW expresses its outrage over this most recent killing. The Israeli
security services received the green light to use torture against
Palestinian detainees from the Israeli High Court itself, in a ruling in
November 1996. This ruling not only violates international law, but
also results in humiliation and, in this case, death. LAW urgently calls
on the international community to immediately respond to this latest
violence by condemning this action and demanding the end of the use of
torture by the Israeli security services...
____________________________
LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human
Rights and the Environment is a non-governmental organization,
dedicated to preserving human rights through legal advocacy.
PO Box 20873; Jerusalem. Tel: (972) (2) 5812364/5824559 -
Fax: (972) (2) 5811072 - email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
---------------------------------------5/24/97---------------------------
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