Middle East Monitor / January 15, 2020
The Palestinian Authority (PA) committed 4,703 rights violations against Palestinians in West Bank and Jerusalem during 2019, the Committee of Families of Political Prisoners revealed yesterday.
In a report, the committee said that the violations included detention on political grounds and freedom of expression, as well as use of degrading psychological and verbal torture.
The violations also included 1,079 arrests, 743 summons, 1,620 detentions and 31 cases of security coordination between the PA security services and the Israeli occupation.
According to the report, the PA carried out 389 raids of homes and workplaces, 26 kidnappings and 48 cases of property appropriation.
Meanwhile, the PA security services did not respond to 64 court orders to release political prisoners, while 24 prisoners went on hunger strike protesting against harsh prison conditions.
The most serious offense was the killing of Palestinian youth Mahmoud Al-Hamalawi while being tortured by the PA’s Protective Security Apparatus in Ramallah.
At the same time, the report documented 172 cases of suppression of freedoms, 35 cases of the deterioration in prisoners’ health due to torture and harsh imprisonment conditions and 315 cases of arbitrary trials.
The violations targeted 424 university students, 79 journalists, 265 youth and rights activists, 317 employees, 94 traders, 43 engineers and 70 teachers, headmasters and academics, eight school students, eight doctors, six municipal council members, 18 imams, five MPs, and ten lawyers.
