(Gatestone Institute) Khaled Abu Toameh - Hamas and Palestinian Authority media outlets regularly report about the abuse of human rights and torture in each other's prisons and detention centers. While the PA is asking to win recognition for a Palestinian state, is the international community willing to welcome yet another Arab state that tramples upon human rights, and practices torture in its prisons? A recent report by a Hamas-affiliated website sheds light on some of the torture methods employed by PA interrogators at the notorious Jericho Central Prison. A recently released Palestinian described how anyone who arrives at the facility is first blindfolded and his hands tied behind his back before he is severely beaten. One of the most common forms of torture, he recounted, is where a prisoner's hands are shackled and he is hung from the ceiling for several hours while being beaten. In another form of torture, the victims are whipped on their bare feet. In 2013, two Palestinian detainees reportedly died from torture in Jericho Prison five days apart. A London-based human rights organization reported 3,175 cases of human rights violations by the PA security forces in the West Bank during 2016. Meanwhile, the rest of the world closes its eyes and ears and continues to pretend that all is rosy in the land of Abbas.
2017-02-02 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive