Comment by Khalid Suleiman
"John Dugard, the UN human rights envoy to the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, has castigated the world body, accusing it of watching passively and doing nothing to stop serious violations of Palestinian human rights.
In an interview with the BBC Sunday, Dugard said the UN should withdraw from the Quartet of Middle East mediators unless the group addresses Palestinian human rights.
Dugard said the rift between Fatah, which is backed by Israel and the West, and Hamas, the democratically-elected Islamic movement, was threatening the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.
He added that the UN, instead of siding with one faction, which is Fatah, should be playing the role of mediator.
“Instead the international community has given its support almost completely to one faction-to Fatah.”
The former South African professor of international law echoed recent remarks by a former UN Middle East envoy, Alvaro de Soto, in which de Soto argued that the UN image of impartiality had been badly damaged by its involvement in the Quartet because the US dictated policy.
Human rights activists operating in the West Bank have spoken of “nearly a total collapse of law and order all over the West Bank .”
“It is a police state, the judicial authority doesn’t exist, and police forces routinely refuse to heed court orders to release abducted Palestinians accused of being sympathetic to Hamas,” said Ahmed, who wouldn’t give his last name for possible retribution by the PA security agencies.
“They kill people, they arrest people and they torture people. The government does nothing, and the judicial system does nothing.”
Several innocent people have been murdered and many others injured at the hands of security personnel or faceless gunmen affiliated with the Fatah organization in the West Bank ever since Hamas’s takeover in the Gaza Strip in mid-June......"
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