Exploiting the Palestinian divide has never been easier, as the PA and Israel know well

The Palestinian Authority continues to make news for the wrong reasons, a trend which it copies from Israel which is also seeking to increase Palestinian fragmentation. Yesterday, Israeli media reported on a ruling issued by the Jerusalem District Court, which allows Palestinians detained by the PA and who collaborated with Israel to seek compensation from the Authority for torture.

Such Palestinians are considered to have been detained illegally by Judge Moshe Drori, who stated that there were several considerations that prompted the ruling. Since the court is considering such arrests to be illegal, Drori stated that, “The arrest of the PA on grounds that are not within its jurisdiction, especially when it comes to security grounds, has security implications in itself, since the arrest is intended, from the point of view of the Authority, to direct the behaviour of its residents against the State of Israel and in support of terrorist activities.” Drori’s comments, published in Israel National News, point towards selectivity, while the use of torture, which is common to both Israel and the PA, is relegated to a secondary issue. Attorney Barak Kedem deemed Drori’s ruling to reflect Israel’s “deep moral obligation to those who were tortured and murdered.”

For the PA, the court proceedings will not bode well. However, there is a parallel world of torture within the PA security services in which Palestinian victims will not be able to resort to justice, let alone get compensation. Drori’s ruling exacerbates this divide, while also shedding light upon the duplicitous stance embraced by Israel and the PA when it comes to torture.

Read: PA’s Abbas assaulted PFLP leader

If the torture victims are classified as Palestinian collaborators with Israel, the avenues for such individuals, once released, will allow them to retain their privileged status in Israel, albeit attracting scorn from Palestinians loyal to resistance. The PA’s financial loss in compensation decided by courts will not affect its torture practices on Palestinians who have fallen victim to the security services through security coordination with the occupying power. Nor will Palestinian journalists tortured by the PA have any right to legal recourse.

Like the PA, Israel has no qualms about allowing torture to continue, if it means stifling legitimate anti-colonial struggle. Israel’s purported moral obligations are nothing but a veneer that furthers repression, whether directly or indirectly. In this case, elevating Palestinian collaborators and forcing the PA to pay compensation for torture will only serve to promote the message that treason is well rewarded. The PA, in its attempt to play its roles as prime collaborator with Israel against Palestinians as well as leadership representation, has entered a stalemate in authority that is manipulated by the powers that have allowed its existence to extend to this day.

Beneath all the hyperbole of rights, representation and justice, Palestinians are still tortured by the PA security services before being transferred to Israel for additional torture. Exploiting the Palestinian divide has never been easier, given that the internationally-recognised Palestinian leadership has not objected to its assigned role of creating a spectrum of victims which are then classified as deserving or undeserving according to the political hegemony. That in itself is yet another form of collaboration with the occupier to the detriment of the people of Palestine.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.