Palestine Report - Vigilante justice thriving
Vigilante justice thriving
by Hiba Tahan
THREE ARMED, masked men lead a prisoner from the prosecutor general's holding cell inside the Ramallah courthouse to the main street near the Manara circle. There, before a swiftly gathering crowd of curious and puzzled people, they execute him, shooting him straight through the head.
Kayed Shalbayeh, 41, was killed on July 6, 2003. His murderers had pointed their weapons at the Palestinian police inside the courthouse, ordering the ill-prepared and unarmed policemen to release their prisoner from his cell. The vigilantes had determined that Shalbayeh was guilty of collaboration with the Israelis and would not be deterred from carrying out their sentence.
Shalbayeh had been absent from his home in the Amari Refugee Camp south of Ramallah for the past 10 years. He was first arrested by the Israelis on charges of theft and then escaped into Israeli territory for fear of punishment by his family. Then rumors started that he was involved with the Israeli security services, rumors that would eventually lead to his execution.
"We tried several times to hand our son over to the Palestinian security services so that it could be proven whether or not he was guilty of collaboration," says his father Abu Hasan. "But now, after we finally managed to hand him in, we will never be sure if he was guilty or not because he was killed without a trial." The courts had twice heard Shalbayeh's case, but had each time failed to reach a verdict.
Legislative Council member Mufeed Abed Rabbo says Shalbayeh's death is symptomatic of the absence of the rule of law, which has had serious repercussions for Palestinian society. "Such incidents will recur in light of the absence of a national authority with full executive, legislative and judicial institutions," he says. He describes the respective authorities currently as isolated units, with their own separate interests and programs, which do not in any way serve society as a whole. "The lack of the rule of law has helped allow disorder to reign in the Palestinian street; there is no entity capable of upholding citizens' rights and arbitrating disputes," he adds.
In light of the absence of an appropriate environment that would allow the forces of law and order to carry out their proper roles protecting the weak, continues Abed Rabbo, there will always be injustice. The culprits, he adds, are those who take advantage of the lack of security and law in the society, though the root cause is the Israeli occupation and repeated Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas and the targeting of the Palestinian security services and its members. "This situation means it is not possible to have a security system capable of providing safety for Palestinian citizens."
Abed Rabbo says there are a number of cases where murders were committed as a result of the state of lawlessness, especially the killing of "collaborators" at the hands of certain groups who have no valid proof against them. Eighty-four Palestinians have been killed as collaborators over the last three years, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. Of these, 82 were extra judicial.
Attorney Hussein Abu Hnoud, who monitors the Palestinian Authority for the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights, says the absence of uniformed police hugely contributes to the chaos on the Palestinian streets - the murders, theft, the lack of respect for traffic rules, the refusal to carry out court orders. "[The police] are nowhere to be seen, there are no police cars, and they don't have weapons or equipment. There are no police stations for people to turn to nor are there courts to arbitrate disputes," he says. "The fact that court rulings are not implemented leaves it up to people themselves to protect their rights, with no recourse to the law. They must instead depend on force and tribal or factional power."
Abu Hnoud also attributes the spread of unlicensed weapons to the above. "This has resulted in killing and in assault on private and public property and many injuries. It has also increased feelings of hate and the resort to private vengeance."
Abu Mohammed Al Kiswani of the Ramallah-area village of Biddo is a victim of the situation. For over a year, he has been going back and forth to the Jerusalem district police station in his village, over a dispute with someone whom he prefers not to name from the neighboring village of Beit Iksa. Kiswani alleges that this person turned a piece of his land into a dumping ground, using his social clout and the absence of law to avoid repercussions. But the station in Biddo is now manned only by a single policeman, and he is powerless to do anything but register complaints and document cases. Going to Beit Iksa to confront the alleged culprit is difficult; security service members avoid traveling through Israeli checkpoints for fear of arrest.
Another well-publicized example of the absence of the rule of law is the incident involving the director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, Khalil Shikaki. On July 13, Shikaki's office was raided by around 100 young men, primarily from refugee camps, who proceeded to wreck the office furniture and equipment. They then attacked Shikaki himself, pelting him with eggs.
The mob attacked Shikaki's center because of a recent survey on the status of refugees it had commissioned, which reportedly found that only a small minority of Palestinian refugees were committed to the right of return. Shikaki defended himself from his accusers, saying that the mob's claims were completely erroneous and that the survey's conclusions intended no belittling of the right of return. In a statement to the media, he also said that those who attacked him were a stray group instigated by a "bunch of hypocrites" who only pretend to care about the interests of the refugees. There was no police to break up the mob.
Abed Rabbo says that whenever people take the law into their own hands in the name of keeping the peace, severe damage is incurred to the public. It is partly for this reason that members of the Legislative Council are trying constantly to remind citizens that they cannot settle accounts on their own.
"All the Legislative Council members are endeavoring to improve the situation. However, in light of the current circumstances, the influence of the Legislative Council is limited simply because it does not have the right tools for enforcing the law. Our role is confined to verbal, media, political and tribal influences in solving problems and minimizing their proliferation," says Abed Rabbo.
Abu Hnoud agrees that all parts of the system have to be functioning for it to work. "The courts alone cannot carry out their role as long as there is no enforcement capability," he says. "The courts presently have a very small role. The presence of the security services is vital to ensure the efficiency of the courts."
In essence, Abu Hnoud says, the role of the courts has been limited to recording cases. In any case, court rulings are only a way of maintaining rights in the future, so at the present time, their role is unfulfilled.
Professor of Sociology at Birzeit University Mohammed Abu Hilal, says that the situation is only natural for a society absent efficient courts or a police force, and doesn't signify an underlying social malaise.
"What is very important now in confronting this problem is to adhere to the family, because the institution of the family is capable of preserving society and its members," he says. -Published August 06, 2003©Palestine Report
by Hiba Tahan
THREE ARMED, masked men lead a prisoner from the prosecutor general's holding cell inside the Ramallah courthouse to the main street near the Manara circle. There, before a swiftly gathering crowd of curious and puzzled people, they execute him, shooting him straight through the head.
Kayed Shalbayeh, 41, was killed on July 6, 2003. His murderers had pointed their weapons at the Palestinian police inside the courthouse, ordering the ill-prepared and unarmed policemen to release their prisoner from his cell. The vigilantes had determined that Shalbayeh was guilty of collaboration with the Israelis and would not be deterred from carrying out their sentence.
Shalbayeh had been absent from his home in the Amari Refugee Camp south of Ramallah for the past 10 years. He was first arrested by the Israelis on charges of theft and then escaped into Israeli territory for fear of punishment by his family. Then rumors started that he was involved with the Israeli security services, rumors that would eventually lead to his execution.
"We tried several times to hand our son over to the Palestinian security services so that it could be proven whether or not he was guilty of collaboration," says his father Abu Hasan. "But now, after we finally managed to hand him in, we will never be sure if he was guilty or not because he was killed without a trial." The courts had twice heard Shalbayeh's case, but had each time failed to reach a verdict.
Legislative Council member Mufeed Abed Rabbo says Shalbayeh's death is symptomatic of the absence of the rule of law, which has had serious repercussions for Palestinian society. "Such incidents will recur in light of the absence of a national authority with full executive, legislative and judicial institutions," he says. He describes the respective authorities currently as isolated units, with their own separate interests and programs, which do not in any way serve society as a whole. "The lack of the rule of law has helped allow disorder to reign in the Palestinian street; there is no entity capable of upholding citizens' rights and arbitrating disputes," he adds.
In light of the absence of an appropriate environment that would allow the forces of law and order to carry out their proper roles protecting the weak, continues Abed Rabbo, there will always be injustice. The culprits, he adds, are those who take advantage of the lack of security and law in the society, though the root cause is the Israeli occupation and repeated Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas and the targeting of the Palestinian security services and its members. "This situation means it is not possible to have a security system capable of providing safety for Palestinian citizens."
Abed Rabbo says there are a number of cases where murders were committed as a result of the state of lawlessness, especially the killing of "collaborators" at the hands of certain groups who have no valid proof against them. Eighty-four Palestinians have been killed as collaborators over the last three years, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. Of these, 82 were extra judicial.
Attorney Hussein Abu Hnoud, who monitors the Palestinian Authority for the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights, says the absence of uniformed police hugely contributes to the chaos on the Palestinian streets - the murders, theft, the lack of respect for traffic rules, the refusal to carry out court orders. "[The police] are nowhere to be seen, there are no police cars, and they don't have weapons or equipment. There are no police stations for people to turn to nor are there courts to arbitrate disputes," he says. "The fact that court rulings are not implemented leaves it up to people themselves to protect their rights, with no recourse to the law. They must instead depend on force and tribal or factional power."
Abu Hnoud also attributes the spread of unlicensed weapons to the above. "This has resulted in killing and in assault on private and public property and many injuries. It has also increased feelings of hate and the resort to private vengeance."
Abu Mohammed Al Kiswani of the Ramallah-area village of Biddo is a victim of the situation. For over a year, he has been going back and forth to the Jerusalem district police station in his village, over a dispute with someone whom he prefers not to name from the neighboring village of Beit Iksa. Kiswani alleges that this person turned a piece of his land into a dumping ground, using his social clout and the absence of law to avoid repercussions. But the station in Biddo is now manned only by a single policeman, and he is powerless to do anything but register complaints and document cases. Going to Beit Iksa to confront the alleged culprit is difficult; security service members avoid traveling through Israeli checkpoints for fear of arrest.
Another well-publicized example of the absence of the rule of law is the incident involving the director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, Khalil Shikaki. On July 13, Shikaki's office was raided by around 100 young men, primarily from refugee camps, who proceeded to wreck the office furniture and equipment. They then attacked Shikaki himself, pelting him with eggs.
The mob attacked Shikaki's center because of a recent survey on the status of refugees it had commissioned, which reportedly found that only a small minority of Palestinian refugees were committed to the right of return. Shikaki defended himself from his accusers, saying that the mob's claims were completely erroneous and that the survey's conclusions intended no belittling of the right of return. In a statement to the media, he also said that those who attacked him were a stray group instigated by a "bunch of hypocrites" who only pretend to care about the interests of the refugees. There was no police to break up the mob.
Abed Rabbo says that whenever people take the law into their own hands in the name of keeping the peace, severe damage is incurred to the public. It is partly for this reason that members of the Legislative Council are trying constantly to remind citizens that they cannot settle accounts on their own.
"All the Legislative Council members are endeavoring to improve the situation. However, in light of the current circumstances, the influence of the Legislative Council is limited simply because it does not have the right tools for enforcing the law. Our role is confined to verbal, media, political and tribal influences in solving problems and minimizing their proliferation," says Abed Rabbo.
Abu Hnoud agrees that all parts of the system have to be functioning for it to work. "The courts alone cannot carry out their role as long as there is no enforcement capability," he says. "The courts presently have a very small role. The presence of the security services is vital to ensure the efficiency of the courts."
In essence, Abu Hnoud says, the role of the courts has been limited to recording cases. In any case, court rulings are only a way of maintaining rights in the future, so at the present time, their role is unfulfilled.
Professor of Sociology at Birzeit University Mohammed Abu Hilal, says that the situation is only natural for a society absent efficient courts or a police force, and doesn't signify an underlying social malaise.
"What is very important now in confronting this problem is to adhere to the family, because the institution of the family is capable of preserving society and its members," he says. -Published August 06, 2003©Palestine Report
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