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Palestinian officials arresting, injuring journalists, Amnesty International charges
By Freedom Forum Online staff

09.06.00

The Palestinian leadership has been accused of attempting to undermine freedom of expression by arresting, jailing and sometimes torturing its critics.

In a detailed report issued yesterday, Amnesty International, the human rights organization, claims that "human rights defenders, journalists, religious figures, writers, government officials, trade unionists and academics have all been detained as prisoners of conscience," adding that "they are almost invariably detained outside the law and often held incommunicado."

The report, "Palestinian Authority: Silencing Dissent," cites the Press and Publications Law of 1995 as contributing to an urge to suppress news. The law "regulates every publication produced or imported into areas under PA (Palestinian Authority) jurisdiction and gives the PA very wide powers to regulate the media as well as research centers, news agencies, libraries and other institutions which process and disseminate information."

Amnesty International contends that this law effectively bans the publication of a wide range of news and information, such as "any information considered harmful to religion or morality, or which may harm national unity, or which shakes confidence in the national currency."

In listing what the report refers to as "the pattern of violations," Amnesty cites the arrest of Abbas al-Mumani, a freelance photographer for Reuters, in May 1998. The report claims that during the first five days of his detention, when he was held incommunicado, Abbas al-Mumani "was allegedly whipped with cables, denied sleep, food and use of a toilet and forced to remain in painful positions for long periods."

Amnesty says he escaped on the sixth day by jumping out of a third-floor window, was arrested again that evening, then released five days later without being formally charged.

The report also claims that "many journalists have reported being subjected to ill-treatment at the hands of the security forces while they were going about their duties." It cites as an example police officers severely beating Munir Abu Rizq, chief editor of the daily al-Haya al-Jadida (New Life), when he tried to cover a session of a military court "which was trying three Palestinians, two of whom were later sentenced to death and executed for murder."

Amnesty claims that "newspapers, research centers, news agencies, television and radio stations have all been closed for days or even weeks," noting that in May and June "two private radio stations in the West Bank ... and three private television stations ... were closed by the Palestinian police for several days."

"The distribution of publications, particularly newspapers, has also been restricted on occasion," the report says. In March, "customs officials impounded seven boxes of Amnesty International documents at Gaza Airport, including copies of two reports about human rights violations in Saudi Arabia."

Amnesty also cites the case of Maher Alami, a freelance journalist, who was arrested on June 6. He was held for 12 days after being questioned by the police the previous week about a story he had written supporting a teachers' strike and about an interview on a local television station. Police allegedly told him, "You talk too much."

"The day before his arrest, Maher al-'Alami gave a (television) interview ... about the importance of respecting the rule of law and media freedom," arguing that "journalists should not be detained for more than 48 hours by the PA without a warrant and that the Palestinian security forces did not have the right to close media outlets," according to Amnesty International.

The organization calls for an end to what it refers to as human rights violations, asks the PA to "respect the right to freedom of expression" and "to conduct an urgent review" of the Press and Publications Law of 1995.