EU and US Are Involved in the Torture of Palestinians

By Kawther Salam • Mar 14th, 2010 palestinethinktank.com


Sunday, March 14 2010 – The European Union, US
war criminal General Keith Dayton, the Egyptian
and the Jordanian regimes, are all jointly
responsible for the torture of Palestinian
prisoners at the PA jails. Dayton is the de-facto
head of the corrupt PA repression system; his
forces taught the PA thugs numerous kinds of
torture and how to violate the rights of political detainees.

US agents are complicit together with Palestinian
officers at the PA jails in these criminal
activities; also, the EU has trained the corrupt
police forces of the PA on how to arrest and
torture political opponents. Britain, the US and
the EU have invested hundreds of millions of
pounds, dollars and Euros, respectively, to
support the corrupt regime of the PA in the
occupied West Bank. These funds were used to
rebuild the corrupt PA repression system, not to
help the people in any way or fashion. Recently,
over 1200 political prisoners were jailed by the
PA. Among them are teachers, engineers, students
and … union leaders, etc. The PA also recently
kicked out over 2000 teachers from the ministry
of education in the West Bank from their jobs;
many of them have been jailed, interrogated and
tortured by the Dayton thugs at the PA jails.

The Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) in
Britain confirmed that the PA did not stop for
one moment in the practice of torture in its
prisons, since it declared a cessation of torture
in the beginning of October 2009. The
organization said in a report issued on Tuesday,
in addressing the conduct of security services
after the announcement to stop torture in its
prisons, “The Palestinian Authority is using new
methods in the torture which are more severe in
addition to the old methods." And the number of
new techniques in the torture report exhibited
greater severity along with the older methods and
basic treatment for many Palestinian victims of this torture.

The (AOHR) indicated in its report, that they
sent letters to the Prime Minister of the
caretaker government in Ramallah, Salam Fayyad,
in order to allow a delegation from the
organization to visit detention centers in the
territory of the Palestinian Authority, but they never received a response.

It is understood concerning the Palestinians in
the West Bank under the occupation, who are
protected by the Geneva Conventions and rule of
international law, that any attack on any of
their rights and particularly the right to life,
liberty and physical integrity is a breach of international law.

The group said that the occupation authorities
are guilty, on a daily basis, of dozens of
violations of law against the Palestinian
citizens including: murders, arrests, torture,
confiscation of land and demolition of houses,
and the security services of the Palestinian
Authority are complicit with these violations,
including: arrest, torture and abuse of civil
institutions and public freedoms, all clearly
with the criminal aim to destroy the morale of
the people and its legitimate resistance
undertaken for the sake of freedom and self-determination.

They emphasized that the Palestinian Authority
security services' cooperation with the Israeli
authorities reached an unimaginable level of
criminality at the expense of the dignity and
life and freedom of the Palestinian citizens,
adding that the Palestinian Authority's security
services – led by Dayton and connivance from the
European Union and the CIA – whose agendas and
policies were implemented purely for Israeli
motives,  transformed the lives of the Palestinian citizens into a living hell.

The (AOHR) also confirmed that the West Bank has
become a springboard for the activities of
foreign intelligence agencies through which to
provide espionage support and logistical support
to security agencies for the implementation of
external operations against Palestinian militants
by unlawful operations outside the occupied territories.

They stressed that the file of human rights
violations in the Palestinian Authority territory
are under close scrutiny as also the response of
the decision makers in the European Union, and
that this file will take the direction of more in
depth revelation than that of those responsible
for these violations of international justice.

The organization pointed out that the Director of
General Intelligence, Major General Majed Faraj
and military intelligence official, Brigadier
General Abu Nidal and the head of Preventive
Security, General Ziyad Hab al-Rih, are directly
responsible for the arrest of citizens and
torture of Palestinians in centers located
outside the control of the law. The organization
considers that every officer or soldier of
various ranks carried out torture or illegal
detention and are responsible for their actions
as perpetrators of crimes against humanity. Nor
is the top leadership exempt from this.

The organization pointed that President Mahmoud
Abbas, as president of the Authority, is directly
responsible for the acts of its employees and the
General Intelligence and Preventive Security is
responsible for serious violations of the law
that are committed against Palestinian civilians.

The human rights organization pointed out that
the Jordanian Government is also responsible for
serious violations committed by the Palestinian
Authority security services, where the government
trained elements of these services in all the
tactics and security thereof and provided the
necessary equipment for them. The organization
called on the Jordanian government to immediately
stop the training of Palestinian security services.

The file follows the arrest and torture, movement
by movement, in Palestinian prisons, and demands
the Authority Stop the Torture Involved and the
deception carried on to divert the world’s
attention from what is going on in the detention centers.

The organization called on the Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court, Luis Ocampo, to
move immediately and prosecute for the aggravated
suffering of the Palestinians under occupation,
whether or not in detention, for torture and
humiliation. Also, that these crimes be declared
as crimes against humanity and violations of the
Fourth Geneva Convention and within the jurisdiction of the Court.

The European Union demanded an end of support for
the security services until it is resolved and
consolidation of a police based on the
Palestinian citizens' rights and which do not
serve other agendas is brought about.

The organization also called upon the Presidency
to set up a committee of legal experts and
specialists in the field of Human Rights to
investigate human rights violations in the
territory of the Palestinian Authority and to
work hard to stop Torture and Unlawful Arrests.
In addition, the organization called upon the
European Police Mission to withdraw from the
territory of the Palestinian Authority.

The organization called on U.S. President Barack
Obama to withdraw Gen. Keith Dayton, and end the
mission of American Intelligence in the territory
of the Palestinian Authority, and to bring the
perpetrators of human rights violations to justice.