About six months ago, Israel Hayom exposed an amazing phenomenon: A long list of left-wing organizations consistently refuse to provide financial aid to Palestinians who fall victim to the Palestinian Authority's security forces because, among other reasons, these organizations aid only those who pursue legal action against the State of Israel.
Last August, Jerusalem District Court Judge Moshe Drori ruled that between 1995 and 2002, the Palestinian Authority was responsible for the murder, abduction, imprisonment, torture and rape of 52 people – Arab Israelis and Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria.
According to the ruling, the torture included atrocities such as electrocution, prolonged hanging upside down, pouring boiling plastic on prisoners, pulling out nails and teeth, sterilization, sleep and food deprivation, and the murder and rape of family members.
In the 1,800-page ruling, Drori said that the Palestinian Authority should be held liable for damages for the sufferings of these Palestinians. The ruling was a huge victory for the plaintiffs, but it soon became clear to them that to obtain the compensation, they had to provide expert medical opinions – a costly process.
Their attorneys, Barak Kedem and Aryeh Arbus, appealed to 15 human rights organizations that claim to be at the forefront of the struggle against the so-called "occupation" for the rights of the Arab-Israeli sector, and asked them for assistance. Of these 15, only two – Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and the Public Committee against Torture in Israel – heeded the call. The rest either denied the request or ignored it.
It turns out, however, that even these two groups went out of their way to avoid holding the Palestinian Authority liable for its crimes.
Citing the United Nations Convention against Torture, the two groups sent a letter to several government ministries last week calling on Israel to allocate resources for the full rehabilitation of the victims, including medical and psychological treatment and welfare benefits.
These groups, however, conveniently forgot several key articles in the treaty.
Article 4.2 states, "Each state party shall make these offenses punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature." Article 12 says, "Each state party shall ensure that its competent authorities proceed to a prompt and impartial investigation, wherever there is reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed in any territory under its jurisdiction." Article 14 says, "Each state party shall ensure in its legal system that the victim of an act of torture obtains redress and has an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation, including the means for as full rehabilitation as possible."
In other words, if the convention is taken seriously – as Physicians for Human Rights and the PCATI claim to do – it is not enough to demand that the Finance Ministry allocate several million shekels for the victims' rehabilitation efforts and that state authorities be called upon to exhaust all measures, domestically and internationally, to ensure the culprits – PA officials – are brought to justice.
Israel would be within its rights to demand an international investigation into the acts of torture committed in the Palestinian security forces' dungeons, and it would also be within its rights to ensure that the PA pays the damages awarded to the victims. The full list of demands UNCAT imposes on the PA was detailed in a letter sent to the government in response on behalf of the victims' lawyers.
Israeli left-wing organizations cite UNCAT articles selectively, bringing to a new height their efforts to whitewash Palestinian Authority crimes in the name of their alleged aspiration for peace and equality. These groups hold Israel responsible even when the Palestinian Authority tortures its subjects, while PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies walk away scot-free. Is anyone surprised?
