The proponents of peace have declared for years that if only the Palestinians had western-trained security forces, the terrorism would stop. But they didn’t seem to notice that their millions of dollars per year to fund the Palestinian police force was going to a force that uses torture on a regular basis.
The horrific torture of hundreds of people by Palestinian security forces in the West Bank is being funded by British taxpayers.
An investigation by The Mail on Sunday has found that the forces responsible get £20million a year from the UK.
The victims – some left maimed – are rounded up for alleged involvement with the militant Islamic group Hamas, yet many have nothing to do with it.
I will be waiting for the UN to denounce this. But first, the Daily Mail, being the British press, must blame Israel for it somehow.
Not only are PA forces carrying out torture, the authority ignores judges’ orders to release political detainees. Last month at least 30 journalists, teachers and students were arrested – as the crackdown on Hamas was praised by a senior Israeli defence official as a necessary ‘iron fist policy’.
Say, do you think the Brits are aware that the Palestinians are using their money to pay torturers?
A British diplomat in Jerusalem said: ‘Obviously we are very aware of problems with the Palestinian security forces. We are working hard to improve their standards across the board – including human rights standards.’
This is some of what the Brits’ £20 million pounds per year is paying for:
The commonest ‘mini’ method, known as ‘shabah’, involves hanging up shackled victims by their arms. The teacher told how he was held in a cellar at Jenaid prison last month.
‘First they shackled my hands behind my back, tied a rope round the shackles and looped it over a beam. They pulled until I was standing on tiptoes, just still able to take some weight on my legs. Then they jerked the rope so it all came on to my arms and held me there until I was on the point of passing out. They were laughing, saying it would dislocate my shoulders. They did it over and over for five or six days.’
Sometimes sharp-edged sardine cans were placed under his heels, so that when weight came back on his legs, they inflicted deep cuts. Two other victims independently described this, too.
The Brits are now going to send intelligence officers into the West Bank to teach the PA torturers to stop torturing. Their initial budget? £100,000.
Interestingly, none of the wire services have managed to find this story worth picking up and spreading. Apparently, only Israel can be guilty of human rights abuses. Just imagine the number of headlines around the world media if it were the Israeli police forces that were abusing prisoners like this.
What time is it, kids? That’s right. It’s Israeli Double Standard Time.
Ah, yes, the British are working on this, very quietly. That’s the way they and the rest of the world deal with Arab transgressions and outrages, quietly.
So torture by Palestinian policemen draws no notice. Hamas operatives massacring almost thirty Fatah people in a mosque draws no notice. The Israelis evict several squatters after a lengthy judicial process and the world is scandalized.