Israeli court finds PA guilty of torturing Palestinians

A Jerusalem court ruled that the PA tortured tens of Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) viciously brutalized Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel, and now an Israeli court has ruled that the PA must compensate these victims for physical and emotional distress.

The Jerusalem District Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of 51 Palestinians who filed suits against the PA, and hundreds of millions of shekels are expected to be awarded in damages.

The plaintiffs testified that between 1990 and 2003 they were incarcerated for different periods of time, some of them held for years, and suffered unimaginable brutal torture at the hands of their interrogators.

The Plaintiffs testified that they were beaten, burned with cigarettes, and subjected to starvation and a broad array of other physical and psychological abuse.

Several of the victims subsequently died of their wounds or were executed without trial.

The PA denied that any torture took place within its facilities.

The court, following 90 sessions over the course of more than a decade, handed down an unprecedented ruling in favor of the plaintiffs, with Judge Moshe Drori holding that the testimony and evidence proved the allegations beyond any reasonable doubt.

Drori also ruled that when the PA makes an arrest for cooperation with Israel, the arrest is on security grounds and is not within the PA’s authority under the Oslo Interim Agreement, making such arrests therefore illegal.

Attorney Barak Kedem, who represented the plaintiffs, stated that “the State of Israel has a deep moral obligation to those who were tortured and murdered because of the suspicion that they helped prevent terrorism from its streets. The court in its important decision has taken the first step towards the fulfillment of a supreme moral duty.”

The ruling may cause diplomatic and legal complications between Israel and the PA, and the PA is sure to attempt to evade paying damages.

The plaintiffs have already commenced a proceeding to force the PA to pay for court proceedings, as prescribed by the court.

The Palestinian security forces have previously come under fire from advocacy groups and Palestinian detainees based on their abuse of human rights.

By: World Israel News Staff