Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) stated that the escalation of systematic violations by the Palestinian Authority’s security services in the West Bank, especially torture in detention centres and prisons, has turned Palestinian citizens into double victims of grave violations.
On the one hand they are subjected to repression by the Israeli occupation and to violations by the Palestinian Authority’s security services on the other hand, amid lack of redress or accountability given the collapse of internal protection mechanisms.
The families of a number of detainees in the Tubas Governorate issued urgent appeals stating that their sons have been subjected to various forms of physical and psychological torture for more than five months inside Al-Junaid Prison and other detention centres run by the Palestinian security services in the West Bank.
AOHR UK added that the detainees are Ahmed Abu al-Ayda, Wadih Fuqaha, Arabi Abu Dawas, Ayman al-Masry, Bakr Abbas, Obada al-Masry, Imran Muslimani, and Yasser Masaeed, noting that these young men are being held in harsh conditions and are being deprived of their most basic legal and human rights.
AOHR UK highlighted that the testimonies received by families explained that their sons were subjected to beatings with sticks and electrical cables, hanged by their hands for long hours, and repeatedly insulted and humiliated. They were also denied visits and phone calls, and were denied adequate medical care despite the obvious injuries, wounds, and bruises on some of their bodies.
AOHR UK added that all the aforementioned detainees are being held without legal basis or specific charges and have not been brought before the judiciary within the legally mandated period. Security services have ignored decisions issued by Palestinian courts ordering the release of a number of detainees, in a blatant challenge to judicial independence and a clear obstruction of the rule of law. This reinforces a climate of impunity and confirms the executive authority’s encroachment on judicial institutions.
AOHR UK explained that repeated facts and testimonies confirm that torture is not an individual act of investigators or officers, but rather a pattern that escalates and declines according to the intensity of anti-occupation activity. It occurs under the direct supervision of senior leaders and with the full knowledge of the Palestinian Authority’s presidency.
AOHR UK stated that despite annual reports by UN bodies and independent human rights NGOs documenting hundreds of violations, no judicial measures have been taken to hold perpetrators accountable. This is due to the absence of parliamentary and judicial oversight and the executive authority’s dominance over the judiciary, which has reinforced a culture of impunity and entrenched a climate of fear and intimidation in Palestinian society.
In previous reports, UN bodies, such as the Committee Against Torture and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, expressed concern about the spread of political detention and torture in PA prisons. However, these condemnations have not been seriously addressed by Palestinian officials. Instead, repression against students, journalists, activists, and political opponents continues unabated.
AOHR UK emphasised that the widespread arrests, torture, and suppression of protests denouncing the occupation’s crimes by the PA security services severely harm the Palestinian people’s resilience in the face of the crimes of the occupation and its settler gangs. It also contributes to encouraging the occupation to proceed with its projects aimed at undermining the rights of the Palestinian people.
AOHR UK held PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, and the heads of the security services, especially the Preventive Security Service and the Intelligence Service, fully responsible for these crimes, which serve only the occupation’s agenda, given the historical turning point the Palestinian people are experiencing, with escalating genocide in the Gaza Strip and creeping genocide in the West Bank.
AOHR UK reiterated its call to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into the crimes committed by the Palestinian Authority’s security forces. These crimes constitute war crimes, as they are committed under the occupation and in close cooperation with it, contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Convention, which criminalises cooperation with the occupation by any means that harms the rights of the occupied people.
