From Bassem Eid: Uri Avnery Attack on Palestinian Human Rights Groups & Response

The New Collaborators (Ma'ariv 16.9.98)
by Uri Avnery

The classic collaborator was a despised person. He snitched on his friend, who was later executed by Israeli troops, or captured and tortured. Now we have a new species of collaborator. They are respectable. They receive international appreciation and fat budgets from humanitarian foundations. They tell of the awful situation in the liberated Palestinian territories. Human rights are trampled upon, Arafat is an evil despot, all of his men are corrupt to the bone.

The Israeli market is hungry for this merchandise, especially when it comes from Palestinians. Those who appear on Israeli television, receive full page articles in the Israeli press (which ignores human rights violations committed by Israel) are placed on a pedestal by Israeli administration officials. Israel's mighty international propaganda machine makes sure that the information is passed on to the world's press.

In May 1999 Arafat is planning to announce the establishment of the Palestinian state. For this he needs massive support from international public opinion and the enlightened Israeli public. The propaganda assault's purpose is to undermine this support. If it is to be another dictatorial and corrupt Arab state then why bother to struggle for its establishment? If Arafat is another Third World tin-pot dictator, then why give him a hand?

True, not all the information is false. The Palestinian state-in-waiting does indeed have serious problems in the fields of human rights and corruption. It is being established in a rush, from scratch, in territories that were under the corrupt and iron-fisted rule of the Civil Administration. Like any Arab leader, Arafat has had to take into account the structures of Arab society, which is ruled by large families. To preserve unity, he had to give away a lot of jobs to members of these families, and not all of them are honest or talented. Within the untrained security forces there are abuses of power. There is a conflict over the proper roles for the legislative council and the presidency.

The Palestinian public has figures and activists struggling against these phenomena with integrity, and all power to them. There are others who use the phenomena for oppositional power politics. No one accuses Arafat himself of corruption or dictatorial tendencies, and there is a general feeling that the situation is getting better, although much too slowly.

If there was already a Palestinian state whose existence was secure, the struggle against these phenomena would have to take a central role in its public life. But the Palestinian people are in the midst of a fateful struggle for its very existence. Step by step the basis for the existence of the Palestinian people is being destroyed. Only a fraction of this is portrayed by the Israeli press, who, on the other hand, enthusiastically cover the corruption and oppression of the PNA. I am sorry to see even 'leftist' journalists participating in this campaign. It is they who are leading the attack. Why? Most of them genuinely feel the pain of the Palestinians, and don't understand that they are being used by the propaganda of Netanyahu's people. Others, who are usually charged with being PLO supporters, find it convenient to show a 'balance.'

To others it is a comfortable excuse to break away from the Palestinian cause, since there is no point in supporting an evil and corrupt body. Some of them hate Arafat for ideological reasons (since he is not a leftist.) But all Palestinians, even his most extreme opponents, admit openly that in the fateful struggle for the existence of the Palestinian people and the establishment of its state, there is no alternative to Arafat. Whoever destroys his standing in the international arena is pulling the carpet from under the feet of the Palestinian cause at its most critical stage, along with the chance for peace.

Blind Support for Arafat (Ma'ariv 28.9.98)
by Bassem Eid

In response to Uri Avnery's 'the new collaborators' 16.9.98.

Uri Avnery has come out with a sharp critique of Palestinian human rights organizations who focus on the corruption and human rights violations under the PNA. His attack determined, unequivocal, and total. For him, there is a community of oppositional human rights activists, supported by foundations abroad and supporting Netanyahu in his propaganda against the establishment of a Palestinian state. Did Avnery ignore the fact, that these charges, along with the word 'collaborator', represent a call to punish or imprison people such as myself, as happened in the cases of Eyad Sarraj and Daoud Kuttab? It is strange and sad to see a man of peace such as Avnery take such a step, given his knowledge of the possible consequences.

It isn't however, the first time that Avnery has played such a role. Also in 1995, following the release of the B'tselem report on torture committed by the newly established Preventive Security Service on those held in its prisons, Avnery attacked me and B'Tselem for helping to blacken the reputation of the PNA. My friends were in shock: how is that a figure of the left, a well known peace activist, uses the same tired old excuses paraded in the past by the Israeli government and right wing political figures went we reported human rights violations committed by Israel. We learned then, that unfortunately, in the face of a popular misconception, supporters of peace are not always supporters of human rights.

Avnery's argument, according to which there is sometimes a conflict between political interests and human rights, is acceptable to me. But why must he distinguish between "active people struggling? with integrity" and the rest of us? Are we to find within the Palestinian human rights community human rights activists who publicize non-existent violations? All of the organizations, including the one I am the head of, are in contact with international organizations such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, whose trustworthiness is generally recognized.

Our reports seem to match their reports, or perhaps it is the other way around. I am convinced, that if Avnery had a single example of unprofessional work, or false charges raised by a significant human rights outfit, he would have presented it with relish. It is that he knows all too well, that the difficult and often shocking facts we present are indeed an accurate reflection of reality under the PNA. The difference between us is that Avnery feels that these facts should be hidden, whereas we argue that the reality of them must be vigorously fought.

Avnery feels Arafat's pain, and is saddened because we do not allow political interests to divert the attention of the Palestinian people from what is happening on the ground. He should keep in mind that it is not we who are torturing prisoners, committing extrajudical executions, or accepting bribes, but rather Arafat's people. It is he - Arafat himself, and let there be no equivocating about it - who is ultimately responsible for all of these phenomena.

A well known claim is that one of the Israeli goals behind the Oslo peace process was to rule the Palestinians via a proxy dictatorship that will secure stability and security for Israel at the cost of inter Palestinian strife and human rights abuses. I am sure that Avnery is not a party to such goals, but his blind support for Arafat - at the expense of the many Palestinian victims of torture and unjust imprisonment - does not do much for the Palestinian people.

To remove any doubt, let me state for the record that I support the establishment a Palestinian state, with Arafat as its duly elected president. At the same time I support my right to resist the many human rights violations carried out by his underlings. This is a democratic principle learned from the Israelis. Only a short sighted political fool would call upon us to forget that lesson. We hope that when it is time for our Palestinian state to be formally and practically established, the Palestinians within it will be physically and mentally unmolested. The rule of the security services in the PNA through illegitimate means and the blind support offered by those like Avnery, are only keeping us farther away from our goal.

The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group admin@phrmg.org / www.phrmg.org