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answer surprises me. He tells the
story of an old Gazan man whose
12-year-old son was shot by sol-
diers during a rock throwing
demonstration. The boy was crit-
ically wounded, so Israeli medics
had him airlifted to a hospital in
Israel.
The father asked permission
to cross over into Israel to visit
his 'son. He was refused permis-
sion and told to return the next
day. The next day, the authori-
ties informed him that his son
had died and gave him a permit
to go into Israel to pick up the
corpse. He departed in the after-
noon in his truck. After a slew of
bureaucratic hassles, with his
dead son lying on the seat beside
him, the father headed back to
Gaza.
He arrived at the border check-
point at midnight. The guards re-
fused to let him pass. He pleaded
with them to let him go bury his
son. The guards insisted that he
must wait for a military escort.
With his son lying across his lap,
the father waited. He pleaded
with the guards to let him go. Fi-
nally, after three hours, they let
him go, but told him to follow the
coastal route. The father headed
out but was soon stopped again.
This time the soldiers made him
wait for two more hours until an
escort finally showed up. At 5
a.m., the man arrived home to
bury his son. "No Israeli leader,
says Mr. "Eid, "spoke up and said
`How can a Jewish nation allow
this to happen in our country?' "

International laws
forbid all forms of
physical torture, the
Landau Commission
Report calls for
"limited physical
pressure".

The Oslo Accords and the
founding of the Palestinian Au-
thority have presented Mr. Tid
and his B'Tselem colleague with
a new, more dangerous challenge.
Within two months of taking
power in Gaza, the Palestinian
Authority's Preventive Security
had killed a young man at its
headquarters in Gaza City. Mr.
Tid immediately wanted to in-
vestigate this and • other in-
stances, but BTselem balked. As
an Israeli institution, it felt it had
no business reporting on the
Palestinian Authority's activities.
Mr. Tid also believes its decision
was political: As supporters of the
fragile peace process, they want-
ed to avoid any bad publicity that
might upset the ongoing pro-
ceedings.
As the Preventive Security's
activities expanded, however, Mr.
`Eid and B'Tselem decided to get

involved. In August, Mr. "Eid pub-
lished a report on gross human
rights violations by the Palestin-
ian secret police. According to Mr.
Tid, even before the expansion
of Palestinian self-rule in the
West Bank, the Preventive Se-
curity force already wields fear-
some power in the lives of
Palestinians.
The report documents numer-
ous incidents of abduction, tor-
ture and summary punishment
without formal charges. Most of
the cases involved property
crimes or moral transgressions,
such as sexual relations outside
of wedlock. In several instances,
the plainclothes security agents
tracked down accused men and
shot them in the legs. In ex-
change for cooperation against
Islamic militants, the Israeli po-
lice — legally responsible for the
security of the Palestinians on
the West Bank — have given
Preventive Security a free reign
in the occupied territories (except
East Jerusalem).
During seven years of report-
ing on Israeli abuses, Mr. Tid
sometimes received threats, but
none that seriously worried him.
Now the stakes have changed.
When his latest report came out,
Col. Jibril Rajoub, head of Pre-
ventive Security, immediately is-
sued a statement refuting the
report's contents and identifying
Bassam "Edia as an Israeli pawn
and collaborator — "a big agent
of the Israeli police." The accu-
sation, absurd as it may sound,
has severe implications. "That
kind of claim puts your life in
danger," says Mr. Tid a husband
and father of eight children. "I
cannot continue to work and trav-
el in the territories. I am really
afraid. "B'Tselem has appealed
to Arafat personally to demand
a refraction of Col. Rajoub's state-
ment, but so far to no avail.
"This kind of behavior exists
in Syria, Iraz, Jordan, Saudi Ara-
bia, Libya, Egypt," says Mr. Tid
"and it will exist here, too." He
does not, however, see it as part
of Arab culture. The Koran may
contain some harsh measures, he
says but not random violence.
"These leaders are not honoring
Islamic traditions." Mr. Tid's
message to his people is simple:
You suffered under the Israeli oc-
cupation for 28 years. Now don't
let someone else oppress you un-
der a different flag. He hopes that
the people will have learned
something from the intifada —
that they must never idly toler-
ate oppression. But he fears that
in the end oppression will prevail.
With the publication of this lat-
est report, Mr. `Eid has set a new
and precarious course for him-
self: "I have always wanted to ex-
pand and develop my life and
that has given me courage. The
success I have achieved is not just
my success. It is because my
cause is right and good:I must
not abandon that cause now." CI

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