MER EDITORIAL:

MER - Washington - 5/24/97. The Palestinians remain today the Blacks of the Middle East. They are

oppressed, harrassed and discriminated against at every turn. And not only by the Israelis; but also by the

Israeli-installed "Palestinian Authority" itself as well as by the associated Arab "client-regimes" that control

the region holding nearly everyone in bondage.

This said, Israeli torture and subjugation of the Palestinians, both collectively and individually, is particularly eggregious; especially as it is the United States and other Western powers that for decades have provided the money, guns, and political cover that make it all possible.

Indeed, in the deceptive and duplicitous name of "peace process", a regime of Middle Eastern apartheid has descended upon the Palestinian people. Palestinians today are quite literally imprisoned in Gaza and "autonomous areas", subjected to pass laws reminiscent of the South Africa of old, and overall kept in a permanent state of submission and subjugation.

What the Israelis call "law", when applied to Palestinians, is little but a subterfuge for dispossession, repression, and lawlessness of the most hypocritical kind. What the West calls "Palestinian Authority" and "Palestinian police" is little but a subterfuge for a mercenary force armed and paid to sub-oppress and control the natives.

Recently the White House came to the defense of a Palestinian journalist, Daoud Kuttab. Kuttab was arrested by the "Palestinian Authority" after spreading the word about Arafat's still-growing censorship, now expanded (ironically with American and Israeli money and equipment) to jamming radio and TV programs -- as unbelievable as that must sound to many who support, nearly always without understanding, the so-called "peace process".

Though Arafat's PA's abuses are indefensable and increasingly despicable, this is not the first nor the worst of them.

The real and serious problems are not for Palestinians like Kuttab; persons well-known, with many influential friends, and in this particular case with an American passport. Kutab is not likely to be harmed; he will get out soon; he is well-funded with USAID and George Soros grants designed to further this wretched apartheid "peace process" which (also ironically) Kuttab supports (or he wouldn't be given the grants or offered the American assistance); and he will be more influential for having been arrested in this way. You can't pay for this kind of publicity! Meanwhile, the sheer stupidity of the Arafat regime seems to know no bounds, whether at the negotiating table or in the streets.

But where is the White House when it comes to the torturing of Palestinians to death by its "strategy ally" Israel? And where are the Americans when Palestinian homes are blown up and "sealed" in collective punishment tactics clearly outlawed by international laws to which the U.S. is signatory? And where is the White House when non-American and unknown Palestinians are harassed, beaten, tortured, curfewed, and in general subjected to the most humiliating kinds of discrimination and abuse -- increasingly by the PA as well as directly by the Israelis -- and all with American money and guns!

The recent murder by torture of Khalil Ali Abu Daiyya -- see the information that follows -- is not an isolated case. Israeli repression, beatings, closures, barricades, curfews, torture, and on and on, are actually daily occurrences and have been for decades. Worse yet, with the post-Gulf War "peace process" the situation for Palestinians has dramatically worsened on all fronts.

So the White House wants Arafat to let Daoud Kuttab go. Yet the same White House closes its eyes and shuts its mouth while the Israelis go on, year after year, created hatreds that are sure to result in revenge in the bloody years now ahead; and when the PA of Yasser Arafat mimics the same tactics.

MAB

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Jerusalem - 5/23/97. Khalil Ali Abu Daiyya, 37 years old married with five children, died from wounds inflicted from repeated beating and torture in the Russian Compound jail and interrogation center in Jerusalem. An independent autopsy conducted before his burial on 22 May reveal that Mr. Abu Daiyya was subjected to severe beating, sustained multiple lacerations, fractured bones and internal hemorrhage.

Mr. Abu Daiyya was arrested while with his wife in Jerusalem on 16 May. He was taken to the Russian Compound jail and there, according to witness Mahmoud Abu Ter, severely beaten. Mr. Abu Ter heard beatings on at least two occasions, and saw Mr. Abu Daiyya's bloodied body.

Police transferred Mr. Abu Daiyya to the Givat Sha'ul Psychiatric hospital, a move which Mr. Abu Daiyya resisted. He was beaten again during his resistance on his hands, wrists and neck. He complained of throat pains, and on 21 May was taken to Sharei Zedek hospital in Jerusalem. There he was tied by his feet and hands and, when again he tried to resist, was beaten until he died.

The exact time of death has been difficult to establish, as the hospital and police reports differ.

The autopsy, conducted by Dr. Jillal Jabri, the General Director of the Autopsy Department of the Palestinian Authority confirmed that: -the body was subjected to severe beating -the body sustained blows with heavy instruments -the hands and feet had been bound -fractures in various parts of the body -the bones of the right side of the face, on an area spanning 15-20 centimeters, had been broken by a -dull heavy instrument. -deep lacerations on right shoulder -5th, 6th, 11th and 12th ribs broken -severe internal hemorrhage

LAW expresses its outrage over this most recent killing. The Israeli security services received the green light to use torture against Palestinian detainees from the Israeli High Court itself, in a ruling in November 1996. This ruling not only violates international law, but also results in humiliation and, in this case, death. LAW urgently calls on the international community to immediately respond to this latest violence by condemning this action and demanding the end of the use of torture by the Israeli security services... ____________________________

LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment is a non-governmental organization, dedicated to preserving human rights through legal advocacy. PO Box 20873; Jerusalem. Tel: (972) (2) 5812364/5824559 - Fax: (972) (2) 5811072 - email: lawe@netvision.net.il

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