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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 - 30 June 1999 Issue No. 435 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 24 - 30 June 1999 Issue No. 435
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Interview Travel Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Palestinian NGOs under attack
By Khaled AmayrehThe Palestinian Authority (PA) opened fire on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in the West Bank and Gaza Strip accusing the heads of these bodies of graft and corruption as well as besmirching the image of "our people's struggle".
PA Justice Minister Freih Abu Maddian, who spearheaded the campaign, branded NGOs as "a bunch of thieves, fat cats" and "a band of foreign agents who are working against Palestinian national interests".
"These organisations are serving suspicious goals and their overall role in our country is by no means constructive" said Abu Maddian.
Abu Maddian told the PA's Voice of Palestine that NGOs, "particularly the so-called human rights organisations" were only acting at their masters' and financiers' beck and call. He claimed some NGOs' directors receive a monthly salary of up to $10,000 which he said equalled the combined salaries of 10 judges.
The same charges were repeated several times over by PA printed and electronic media which charged that NGOs "were playing a negative role in the Palestinian struggle and were deliberately distorting the image of the Palestinian Authority".
These charges, including allegations of financial irregularities, were vehemently denied by Iyad Al-Sarraj, a prominent human rights activist in the Gaza Strip. He accused the PA of "launching an indiscriminate attack on NGOs and human rights organisations for political reasons".
Sarraj argued that the PA, particularly the justice minister, was seeking to punish and discredit human rights organisations for their role "in exposing the many violations of human rights and abuse of the rule of law under the PA". He challenged Abu Maddian to name the organisation whose director receives a monthly salary of $10,000. "We reject this indiscriminate vilification of NGOs. If the PA has evidence of any financial irregularities or wrong doing against any organisation, it should name the offending organisation," Sarraj told the Palestinian daily Al-Quds on 13 June.
Basem Eid, head of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, welcomed any sincere effort by the PA to ensure that NGO operations are in full conformity with the law. In return, however, Eid demanded that the PA "put its own house in order" and "open its doors to human rights organisations if indeed it has nothing to hide".
The vitriolic attack by the PA came two days after Agence France Presse (AFP) published a report from Gaza describing the PA justice system as "primitive" and suggesting that PA officials had squandered $100 million that had been earmarked for rebuilding the judicial system. The report quoted the Special UN Coordinator in the Gaza Strip as saying that there was still no real separation of powers in the PA regime and that a thorough restructuring of the PA justice system was needed in order to meet the requirements for a modern civil society.
On 14 June the Network of Palestinian NGOs published a statement in leading Palestinian newspapers urging the PA to implement the Charitable Societies Law immediately. This was passed by the PA Legislative Council more than two years ago. The statement also pointed out that accountability and financial transparency were the guiding principles of NGOs operating in the occupied territories.
Claims that the PA attack against NGOs was politically motivated were supported by the fact that the 10 most outspoken human rights organisations were singled out for criticism. There are more than 1,000 NGOs currently operating in self-rule areas which provide a whole range of activities from agriculture to public health.
The PA's attack against NGOs came only two days after Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat decided to fill the long vacant post of attorney general and chief justice. These two posts had remained unoccupied for nearly two years clearly indicating that the Palestinian judicial system was experiencing serious problems.
Zuheir Surani, a veteran Gazan jurist and lawyer of reportedly impeccable credentials, was appointed as new attorney general. Surani, 63, succeeds Fayez Abu Rahma, who resigned 18 months ago in protest at what he described as "undue interference" in the administration of justice by the executive authority and the refusal of PA security agencies to carry out court orders. The naming of Surani as head of the Palestinian judicial system coincided with the appointment last week of Radwan Al-Agha as head of the PA High Court. This post had been vacant for over 16 months. The former Chief Judge Qusay Al-Abadleh is thought to have resigned for virtually the same reason as the previous attorney general.
The Palestinian jurist community and human rights organisations have generally lauded the two appointments as "a step in the right direction". Raji Surani, of the Palestinian Independent Commission on Human Rights and a cousin of the new attorney general, said he hoped the two appointments would save the Palestinian justice system from "the catastrophic conditions" it is now experiencing.
However Surani warned that the new attorney general and chief judge would eventually meet the same fate as their predecessors if the executive leadership refused to come to terms with the supremacy of the law -- a reference to Arafat's PA and its generally undisciplined security agencies.
