Authorities Crush Dissent in Palestine

The Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas authorities in Gaza routinely arrest and torture peaceful critics and opponents, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. As the Palestinian Authority-Hamas feud has deepened, each has targeted the other’s supporters. The 145-page report, “Two Authorities, One Way, Zero Dissent,” evaluates patterns of arrest and detention conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip 25 years after the Oslo Accords granted Palestinians a degree of self-rule over these areas, and more than a decade after Hamas seized effective control over the Gaza Strip. Human Rights Watch detailed more than two dozen cases of people detained for no clear reason beyond writing a critical article or Facebook post or belonging to the wrong student group or political movement.