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PA arrested more than 2000 Palestinians in 2016

January 4, 2017 at 10:46 am

Prison cell [Derek Key/Flickr]

The Arab Organisation for Human Rights has revealed that the Palestinian Authority summonsed and arrested 2,214 Palestinian citizens during 2016, Quds Press reported on Tuesday. In a report, the organisation said that the data it has collected showed an increase in the arrest and summons of Palestinians for political and union activities.

The report also cited enforced disappearance and torture of some of the prisoners in addition to a violent crackdown on peaceful protesters and journalists.

“Six PA security services with a budget of more than a million dollars, one third of the authority’s total budget, spend most of the money on cracking down on freedom, chasing activists and cooperating with the occupation forces,” said the AOHR.

It reiterated that the crimes of the PA security services against the Palestinians are not subject to any legal investigations or accountability, and noted that the PA courts sometimes issue release orders for the prisoners which the security services simply ignore.

Like the Israeli occupation authorities, the PA security services imprison Palestinians under administrative orders with neither charge nor trial. Such imprisonment by the PA is said to be “by the order of the governor.”