Palestinian authorities ‘crush dissent with torture’

Leaderships in West Bank and Gaza engage in similar tactics, alleges rights group

Security forces of the rival Palestinian governments routinely use torture and arbitrary arrests, among other tactics, to quash dissent by peaceful activists and political rivals, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

The charges come in a new report released by the New York-based watchdog, following a two-year investigation that included interviews with nearly 150 people, many of them ex-detainees. It accused both the Western-backed Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza of using “machineries of repression” to stifle criticism.

Suspending assistance

Human Rights Watch also said the systematic use of torture could amount to a crime against humanity under the United Nations’ Convention against Torture, and called on countries that provide funding to Palestinian law enforcement to suspend their assistance.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ government joined the convention after Palestine was accepted as a nonmember state at the UN.