Palestinian vs. Palestinian
4,)
GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
o
Jerusalem
po
3/19
1999
6 Detroit Jewish News
Violence in Gaza shows
resentment ofArafat's regime.
review Attar's case. He also ordered
the release of all those involved in the
protests. Some observers said Arafat
had no choice in the matter.
"I would regard this as an act of
submission," Palestinian human rights
activist Bassem Id said in an interview.
"Arafat is giving in to the street.
"He simply runs the business
without a proper legal system," he
said, echoing a familiar Palestinian
complaint that the legal system is
totally dependent on Arafat's execu-
tive powers.
"We don't need a revolution," Id
Palestinians in Rafah
stone a Palestinian police
station March 10 after
hearing that Raed Attar,
a Rafah resident, was
sentenced to death by a
Palestinian court for his
role in the death of Rifat
Joudeh, a Palestinian
security agent.
Pho to by the Associated Press
alestinians took to the
streets last week to
protest. The demon-
stration was not aimed
at either of the usual targets,
Israel and the United States, but
rather against the Palestinian
Authority.
The protests provided a dra-
matic reminder of the deep frus-
trations that periodically boil to
the surface of Palestinian society.
"This is not yet an intifada
against (Yassir) Arafat," said Res.
Col. Shalom Harari, a former
Arab affairs adviser at Israel's
Defense Ministry, using the term
for uprising. "But it means that if
Arafat goes, the streets may be ripe
for a military coup against the
present ruling establishment."
Along with the frustrations
among his people over the lack
of progress in the peace process,
Arafat has to contend with the
frequently violent internecine
strife involving local clans.
Perhaps most dangerous of all is the
deep resentment felt by the Palestinian
masses regarding what they perceive as
a corrupt judicial system.
It was this sense --7- that an arrogant
ruling elite is regularly dispensing
injustice in the Palestinian courts —
that brought the crowds into the
streets last week for two consecutive
days of violent demonstrations.
The protests erupted after a
Palestinian court handed down a
death sentence in a politically charged
murder case.
The March 10 sentence had been
imposed on Raed Attar for the slaying
last month of policeman Rifat Joudeh.
To protest the verdict, members of
Attar's family marched in the southern
Gaza town of Rafah, where they
protested outside the local headquar-
ters of the Palestinian police.
The police opened fire to disperse
the crowd — and when the smoke
cleared, two Arab teenagers lay dead
on the streets.
Arafat, who has the final say on
death sentences, subsequently bowed
to public pressure and agreed to
lasted only a few hours.
Z, And last month, a
19, Palestinian colonel who had
been convicted of rape was
executed by a firing squad
on the night the sentence
§ was issued.
..
Palestinians have long corn-
plained that security officials
act as if they are above the
law, that they treat the local
population as they please.
Police officers enter homes
without court orders and
carry out searches without any c
legal authority, critics charge.
In addition, critics com-
plain,
the judicial system is
Palestinians in. the south Gaza
subservient
to political expe-
pr-ay
over
the
town olRaja h
diency.
body of1-111111h ,Salimieh, I 7,
According to Id, some
who was shoi r0 art.'a h /Ty
400
political prisoners have
of:peer,.
Palestinian
been languishing in
Mardi 10 durilig
Palestinian jails for more
than two years without trial.
Compounding the situa-
tion are the large numbers of
security agencies operating
without any clear-cut distinc-
tions regarding mission or
added. "The laws are all there, they
responsibility.
only need to be executed" properly
At least eight different security agen-
and consistently.
cies work for the Palestinian Authority,
To accomplish this, Id called for
with members often belonging to rival
the appointment of a respected inde-
clans.
pendent judge to head the Palestinian
At last week's trial, it emerged that
judicial system. Palestinians have long
Attar and two co-defendants, who
been complaining about the swift,
were convicted but not sentenced to
summary sentences dispensed by the
death, were members of one of the
Palestinian courts.
security agencies. But there were also
Last year, two Palestinian security
claims that they were members of
officials who killed two agents of
Hamas. In any event, all three were on
another agency — and who belonged
Israel's wanted list.
to a different clan — were executed,
Arafat is also engaging in an ongo-
with Arafat's approval, after a trial that
ing sparring match with human-rights
groups and Palestinian legislators.
Earlier this month, a human rights
group based in the West Bank town of
Ramallah said complaints by Palestinian
citizens against the Palestinian
Authority nearly doubled last year.
The Palestinian Independent
Commission for Citizens Rights dealt (-1
with 825 complaints last year, an
increase of 97 percent from 1997,
according to its annual report. Haidar
Abdel Shafi, the group's commissioner,
blamed the absence of checks on the
Palestinian Authority's power for the
increase.