Hamas Accused of Terrorizing Fatah Rivals

by Charles Lenchner · 2009-02-22 19:33:00 UTC
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While working with the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, I compiled reports of torture victims inside the prisons of the Palestinian Authority. Some reports were incredible: Palestinian security officers would use methods they learned while being tortured in Israeli interrogation dungeons. In some cases, the Palestinian-on-Palestinian torture session would take place in HEBREW as an added mind game.

The victims were often innocent people victimized for things like land disputes, family feuds, and power struggles. Many of them were Hamas supporters and fighters. So it should come as no surprise that when the tables turn, the former victims find it easy to become the perpetrators.

You might have missed this report from Amnesty International:

Palestinian Authority: Hamas' deadly campaign in the shadow of the war in Gaza.

Since the end of December 2008, during and after the Israeli military offensive which killed some 1,300 Palestinians, most of them civilians, Hamas forces and militias in the Gaza Strip have engaged in a campaign of abductions, deliberate and unlawful killings, torture and death threats against those they accuse of "collaborating" with Israel, as well as opponents and critics.

At least two dozen men have been shot dead by Hamas gunmen in this period. Scores of others have been shot in the legs, kneecapped or inflicted with other injuries intended to cause permanent disability, subjected to severe beatings which have caused multiple fractures and other injuries, or otherwise tortured or ill-treated.

No one should be under the illusion that one side or the other is made up of nice people.

Charles Lenchner
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