Freedom in the World 2004 - Palestinian Authority-Administered Territories [Israel]

Political Rights: 5
Civil Liberties: 6
Status: Not Free
Population: 3,390,000
GNI/Capita: N/A
Life Expectancy: N/A
Religious Groups: Muslim, Christain
Ethnic Groups: Palestinian, Bedouin
Capital:

Overview

Palestinians continued their intifada (uprising) in 2003, which led to Israeli incursions into areas previously ceded to Palestinian control. Israel intermittently reoccupied some West Bank towns and cities, carried out armed raids, and imposed strict curfews and roadblocks in and around Palestinian areas. The Israeli measures, sometimes resulting in Palestinian civilian deaths, generally occurred after terrorist attacks against Israelis by Palestinian Islamist groups and by more secular groups such as Tanzim and the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which are affiliated with Palestinian chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. Crises gripped Palestinian politics throughout the year, with two separate appointments to the post of prime minister in accordance with the U.S.-backed "road map" to peace put forward in April. The plan called for consolidating Palestinian security services under the prime minister; Arafat's refusal to do so prompted the first prime minister to resign. The Israeli government decided in principle to "remove" him from power, although it ruled out killing him. A seven-week cease-fire (hudna) declared by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and radical Palestinian groups ended in renewed violence against Israel. The PA did not carry out all its obligations under the road map, including foremost the need to confront and dismantle terrorist groups. The rule of law eroded in some Palestinian cities, where violent armed gangs generally operated unchallenged.

In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel came to occupy Sinai, the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. Israel annexed Jerusalem's Old City and East Jerusalem in 1967 and the Golan Heights in 1981.

Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza began an intifada in 1987, primarily attacking targets of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to protest Israeli rule. Israel and Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) conducted a series of secret negotiations in Oslo, Norway, producing an agreement in September 1993. Premised on the land-for-peace formula articulated in UN Security Council Resolution 242 of November 1967, the Declaration of Principles provided for Israeli troop withdrawals and gradual Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and Gaza in exchange for an end to Palestinian terrorism and recognition of Israel.

Elections for the first PA Legislative Council and for head of the council's executive authority, held in January 1996, were considered to be generally free and fair. Arafat's Fatah movement won 53 of the 88 council seats, and independents won 35. Arafat gained the chairmanship of the executive authority with 88 percent of the vote.

In May 1994, Israel turned over most of Gaza and the West Bank town of Jericho to the PA. Over the next two years, Israel redeployed its forces in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel concluded its redeployment from six major Palestinian cities in December 1995 and agreed to withdraw troops from 80 percent of Hebron in January 1997. As a result of the provisions of the Oslo agreement implemented, the PA has had full or partial control of up to 40 percent of the territory of the West Bank, and 98 percent of the Palestinian population. However, the IDF has reentered some PA-controlled territory several times since the eruption of the second intifada in September 2000.

In the United States at Camp David in July 2000 and at Taba, Egypt, in the fall of 2000 and early 2001, Prime Minister Ehud Barak and U.S. president Bill Clinton engaged the Palestinian leadership in far-reaching negotiations. Israel discussed for the first time compromise solutions on Jerusalem, agreeing to some form of Palestinian sovereignty over East Jerusalem and Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem's Old City. Israel also offered all of the Gaza Strip and more than 95 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians. However, the Palestinian leadership rejected the Israeli offers. Some analysts suggested that Arafat was not satisfied that Palestinian territory in the West Bank would be contiguous and that Israel would recognize a "right of return" that would allow Palestinian refugees to live in Israel. Following a controversial visit by Likud party leader Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in September 2000, the Palestinians initiated an armed uprising. The site, considered the third holiest in Islam, is home to al-Aqsa mosque and was once the site of the Jewish temple. Snap Israeli elections in February 2001 took place against the backdrop of continuing Palestinian violence. Sharon, promising Israelis both peace and security from terrorism, trounced Barak at the polls. Sharon was reelected in national elections in January 2003.

Violence raged throughout Palestinian areas in 2003. In response to successive waves of suicide bombings inside Israel and attacks on Jewish settlers and IDF personnel in the West Bank and Gaza, Israeli forces carried out several incursions into Palestinian-ruled territory, killing and arresting many suspected militants throughout the year.

Israel killed several top Hamas and Islamic Jihad figures and other radical Islamists suspected of committing or preparing attacks against Israel. Palestinians condemned Israel for the killings – often carried out by helicopter gunships or undercover units – and labeled them "assassinations." Israel also faced international criticism for the killings, which it termed "targeted killings." Israel justified the policy on the grounds that its repeated requests that the PA detain Palestinians suspected of planning or carrying out attacks had gone unheeded. Hamas and Islamic Jihad reject Israel's right to exist and are committed by their respective charters to its destruction. The U.S. government classifies the organizations as terrorist groups, making no distinction between their so-called military and political wings. In September, the European Union (EU) officially labeled Hamas a terrorist organization. Both groups routinely recruit Palestinians – including young men and women – to carry out suicide attacks. Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades also became increasingly involved in suicide attacks in 2003.

Israeli reprisal raids and killings of Palestinian militants sometimes resulted in the deaths of numerous Palestinian civilians. Israel denied the intentional targeting of civilians, saying that Palestinian gunmen and other militants were deliberately positioning themselves among civilians, thus putting them in harm's way.

In October, the Popular Resistance Committee, composed of breakaway members of Hamas, Fatah, and the Palestinian police, killed three Americans with roadside explosives as a U.S. diplomatic convoy traveled in the Gaza Strip. The involvement of former members of the Palestinian police suggested that elements within the PA may have collaborated in the attack. The incident marked the first deliberate attack against American targets by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip or West Bank. While the PA made some arrests, the U.S. government was not satisfied that the PA was engaged in a determined effort to apprehend the culprits. In November, the United States offered a reward of $5 million for information leading to the arrests of the attackers.

Israel and the PA took some steps toward implementing a road map to peace put forward by the United States, Russia, the United Nations, and the EU. The multistage, performance-based plan is premised on demonstrative Palestinian commitments to ending violence, to be followed by Israeli troop pullbacks and easing of curfews and travel restrictions on Palestinians. The road map also calls for a freeze on Israeli settlement activity once Palestinian terrorism ends. Progress toward these goals was conditioned on the PA's first implementing sweeping political and economic reforms and establishing an "empowered prime minister" committed to combating and dismantling violent Palestinian organizations, and who would replace Arafat as lead Palestinian negotiator and as head of Palestinian security services.

Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza have become a major sticking point in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and in relations between Israel and the international community. The road map demands a freeze on settlement activity. While Israel dismantled some illegal outposts in the West Bank – composed mostly of small, makeshift trailers – it did not remove all outposts, nor did it cease construction activity in existing settlements.

In March, the Palestinian parliament approved the creation of the post of prime minister. In April, Yasser Arafat appointed Mahmoud Abbas as the new prime minister but refused to relinquish control over Palestinian security services or over negotiations with Israel. Arafat also rejected Abbas's proposed cabinet, endangering the possibility of reform and setting the stage for an inevitable political crisis.

The two men immediately clashed over the reorganization of Palestinian security services, with Abbas trying to abide by road map demands that he consolidate and take control over more than one dozen separate security agencies. Arafat blocked the appointment of Muhhamad Dahlan to head the Interior Ministry, which has control over security affairs. Israeli and American officials generally favored Dahlan for his pragmatism. With Arafat in charge, radical Palestinian groups and militias acted with relative impunity, helping to further undermine the rule of law in the West Bank and Gaza.

Prime Minister Abbas was able to negotiate a three-month cease-fire (hudna) between the PA and radical Palestinian groups at the end of June. However, he refused to confront and dismantle the groups, as required by the road map. While attacks against Israel did markedly decrease during the hudna, isolated attacks took place, including a suicide bombing. Israel argued that the radical groups used the downtime afforded by their cease-fire to rebuild their arsenals, regroup, and plan future attacks. Israel accused Arafat of providing funds to armed groups opposed to the cease-fire, including the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad called off the cease-fire in August after Israel assassinated Ismail Abu Shanab, a Hamas official, in Gaza. The assassination came 48 hours after a Hamas suicide bombing aboard a bus in Jerusalem killed 18 people, in violation of the Palestinians' own cease-fire, to which Israel was not a party. With the ending of the cease-fire, Israel resumed antiterrorist operations in the West Bank and Gaza, reimposing roadblocks and sending troops back into Palestinian areas from which it had withdrawn during the lull in violence.

In September, relations between Arafat loyalists and Prime Minister Abbas worsened. An armed standoff between Arafat supporters and Palestinian police at a civil service building in Gaza underscored Abbas's ultimate inability to affect meaningful political reform, including replacing the heads of key political posts. The standoff arose after Mohammad Abu Sharia, an Arafat loyalist, refused orders from Abbas to give up his post as civil service commissioner. Also in September, Palestinian police ended a violent two-day clash with Hamas that followed the arrest of seven Hamas members suspected of kidnapping a policeman.

Abbas resigned in early September in protest against Arafat's refusal to hand over control of the various Palestinian security services and because of threats made against him by radical groups, including the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Abbas also blamed his resignation on Israel, particularly its failure to freeze settlement activity.

Ahmed Qureia, a longtime lead Palestinian negotiator in talks with Israel, replaced Abbas in September. However, like his predecessor, Qureia ruled out a crackdown on armed radical groups. Soon after his appointment, he clashed with Arafat over control of security forces. Arafat responded by consolidating all security authority in a new national security council answerable solely to himself. Though Qureia initially threatened to resign unless Arafat relented to his demand for control over security services and cabinet appointments, the prime minister ultimately acquiesced to Arafat's continued exclusive authority. Despite U.S. and Israeli efforts to sideline him – including Israel's besiegement of Arafat's Ramallah compound – Arafat remained at the center of Palestinian political life all year. Moreover, despite U.S. and Egyptian assistance, Qureia was unable to reach long-lasting cease-fire arrangements with radical Palestinian groups.

Later in September, after devastating suicide bomb attacks in Israel, the Israeli cabinet decided in principle to "remove" Arafat from power at a time of its choosing, stating that he was the chief impediment to peace. In October, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon publicly ruled out killing Arafat as an option.

In the fall, a group of former Israeli and Palestinian politicians revealed a private peace initiative negotiated in secret in Geneva, Switzerland. Based largely on the terms of reference discussed by Israeli and Palestinian negotiators at the Taba, Egypt, talks in December 2000-January 2001, the nongovernmental "Geneva accord" envisioned an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the dismantling of Jewish settlements in those areas, the division of Jerusalem, and sole Palestinian control of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City with international monitoring. In return, Palestinians would pledge peace and possibly drop their demand for a "right of return" of refugees to Israel. While the accord drew some limited support from the Israeli and Palestinian publics, their respective leaders largely ignored it. Another peace plan, headed by former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon and Palestinian academic and peace activist Sari Nusseibeh, also garnered limited support.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Palestinian residents of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem chose their first popularly elected government in 1996. Independents won 35 of the 88 Palestinian Legislative Council seats, while members of Yasser Arafat's Fatah party won the remainder. Arafat became chairman of the council's executive authority with 88 percent of the vote. Despite some irregularities, particularly in East Jerusalem, international observers regarded the vote as reasonably reflective of the will of the voters. The Legislative Council has complained of being marginalized by the executive authority. Although it has debated hundreds of draft laws, few have been signed into law. The Palestinian government indefinitely postponed local elections in May 1998, citing the threat of Israeli interference. As per agreements with Israel, the council has no real authority over borders or defense policy.

The creation of the post of prime minister in March – and the subsequent appointments to the post – came about largely as a result of international pressure; there were no elections held.

Palestinian residents of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem do not have the right to vote in national elections in Israel. Arabs in East Jerusalem, while holding Israeli identity cards and given the right to vote in Jerusalem municipal elections, can also vote in Palestinian elections.

The PA continued to face accusations of autocratic leadership, mismanagement, and political corruption. Arafat's autocratic tendencies have put him at odds with the Legislative Council. Despite a temporary surge in popularity when Israel threatened to expel him, Arafat faced enormous internal and international pressure to institute widespread political and economic reforms.

Arafat frequently scuttles the legislative process or refuses to sign council rules into law. In February, the Palestinian Committee for Drafting the Constitution submitted a revised basic law to Arafat. According to Palestinian officials, he signed the law in May. The Palestinian Legislative Council had passed the constitution-like law in 1997, although for years, Arafat refused to endorse it. Once enacted, the law would presumably curtail Arafat's own authority. In April, the PA revealed a draft constitution. The constitution would strengthen the judiciary, one of the weakest Palestinian institutions.

Throughout 2003, the new Palestinian finance minister, Salam Fayad, tried to make the PA's finances more transparent. In February, Forbes magazine estimated Yasser Arafat's personal worth to be at least $300 million. Arafat reportedly has diverted international funds donated to the PA toward weapons purchases and support for terrorism, allegations supported by Israeli and U.S. intelligence. An IMF audit in September revealed that Arafat had diverted $900 million in public money to a special account under his control.

Rampant corruption within the PA and the rapid deterioration of both civil order and the ability of the PA to deliver basic services have benefited Hamas, a radical, violent Islamic group that operates an extensive private charitable social services network. Vocal opposition to Israel and to the Oslo accords has turned Hamas into a growing political alternative to Arafat's Fatah party.

Under a 1995 Palestinian press law, journalists may be fined and jailed and newspapers closed for publishing "secret information" on Palestinian security forces or news that might harm national unity or incite violence. However, another press law, also signed in 1995, stipulates that Palestinian intelligence services do not reserve the right to interrogate, detain, or arrest journalists on the basis of their work. Nonetheless, several small media outlets are pressured by authorities to provide favorable coverage of Arafat and the PA. Arbitrary arrests, threats, and the physical abuse of journalists critical of the PA are routine. Official Palestinian radio and television are government mouthpieces. Palestinians generally have unfettered access to the Internet.

Journalists covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Palestinian political affairs face harassment by the PA. PA officials reportedly threaten journalists who file stories deemed unfavorable. PA-affiliated militias have also warned Israeli journalists to stay out of Palestinian areas. International press freedom groups have called on the PA to cease harassment of journalists.

In January, Palestinian intelligence agents raided Al-Jazeera TV's Gaza bureau without a warrant, detaining a correspondent. In September, five armed men claiming they were members of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, raided the Arabiya satellite TV bureau in Ramallah, smashing equipment and threatening to kill workers. The station had received threats over what was perceived to be biased reporting in favor of Israel.

Arafat has yet to ratify a 1996 law passed by the Palestinian Legislative Council that guarantees freedom of expression. In July, hundreds of Palestinians ransacked the Ramallah offices of Khalil Shikaki, a Palestinian pollster. The protestors, who also physically attacked Shikaki, were angry over a poll released by Shikaki's institute that showed most Palestinian refugees would not choose to return to Israel proper if Israel granted them the "right of return"; the PA insists on the "right of return" in negotiations with Israel.

The PA generally respects freedom of religion, although no law exists protecting religious expression. The basic law declares Islam the official religion of Palestine and also states that "respect and sanctity of all other heavenly religions – Judaism and Christianity – shall be maintained." The PA requires all Palestinians to be affiliated with a religion, which must be indicated on identification cards. Personal status law, which governs marriage and divorce, is based on religious law; for Muslims, it is derived from Sharia, and for Christians, from ecclesiastical courts. Some Palestinian Christians have experienced intimidation and harassment by radical Islamic groups and PA officials. In August, Muslim squatters seized Christian-owned land in Bethlehem. Several other similar illegal land seizures have reportedly taken place. In October, Palestinians torched and nearly completely destroyed Joseph's tomb, a Jewish shrine in Nablus.

Palestinian schools teach hatred of Israel and textbooks and curriculums promote its destruction. Student life at Palestinian universities is often heavily politicized. Pressure from student groups affiliated with Palestinian political and religious organizations sometimes has a chilling effect on the work of students.

The PA requires permits for rallies and demonstrations and prohibits violence and racist sloganeering. Nonetheless, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic preaching and incitement to violence are regular features of daily mosque prayer services and official radio and television broadcasts. The PA also operates children's military training summer camps, which are usually named after suicide bombers and where violence against Jews is praised and glorified.

Labor affairs in the West Bank and Gaza are governed by a combination of Jordanian laws and PA decisions. Workers may establish and join unions without government authorization. Palestinian workers seeking to strike must submit to arbitration by the PA Labor Ministry. There are no laws in the PA-ruled areas to protect the rights of striking workers. Palestinian workers in Jerusalem are subject to Israeli labor law.

Palestinian judges lack proper training and experience. Israeli demands for a Palestinian crackdown on terrorism have given rise to state security courts, which lack almost all due process rights. There are reportedly hundreds of administrative detainees currently in Palestinian jails and detention centers. The same courts are also used to try those suspected of collaborating with Israel or of drug trafficking. Defendants are not granted the right to appeal sentences and are often summarily tried and sentenced to death. Executions often take place immediately after sentencing and are carried out by firing squad. According to the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, alleged collaborators are routinely tortured in Palestinian jails and are denied the right to defend themselves in court. These practices are not prohibited under Palestinian law.

The limits of Palestinian justice and the further breakdown of the rule of law were underscored several times during the year. Offshoots of Arafat's Fatah party controlled the largely anarchic West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus with impunity. In July, members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades detained and beat Haider Irsheid, Jenin's governor, accusing him of collaborating with Israel. Arafat ordered his release five hours after his detention, leading to speculation that Arafat had himself ordered Irsheid's abduction and beating after the governor had publicly called for the disarmament of the Martyrs Brigades. In Nablus, hundreds of people protested the uncontrolled presence of gunmen after a young mother was shot and killed in the street during an attempted abduction of someone else. In November, gunmen attempted to assassinate the city's mayor, Ghassan Shaka.

Armed militias sometimes summarily execute Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel. These murders, which sometimes take place publicly, generally go unpunished. In July, masked gunmen entered a Ramallah courtroom and shot and killed a suspected collaborator. The next month, masked gunmen believed affiliated with the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades killed another man in Ramallah also suspected of collaborating with Israel. The Brigades also murdered another alleged collaborator in Ramallah. In October, Brigades members, together with Islamic Jihad gunmen, shot and killed two suspected collaborators in the West Bank town of Tulkarm; they later displayed the bodies in the central square of the town's refugee camp, underscoring the impunity Palestinian militia enjoy.

In October, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades publicly threatened to execute Palestinians who sell land to Jews. In 1997, the PA issued a death penalty edict for Arabs who sell land to Jews.

Violence between Palestinians and settlers is not uncommon. In 2003, several Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were ambushed and killed by Palestinian gunmen. Some were targeted while traveling in cars or buses. Others were attacked while in their homes and schools. These attacks generally went unpunished by the PA. Settlers sometimes attack Palestinians. In September, three settlers were convicted by an Israeli court of planning a bomb attack at a Palestinian school in the West Bank. Israeli police prevented the attack from taking place.

The intifada, and Israeli closures of the Palestinian territories, have exacted a serious toll on the Palestinian economy. According to a World Bank study issued in March, two million Palestinians – 60 percent of the total population – live below the poverty line of two dollars of income per day. The study cited unemployment at 50 percent. Economic output plunged as tens of thousands of Palestinians who normally work in Israel were denied entry into the country at various times during the year in response to terrorist attacks.

While Palestinian women are under-represented in most professions and encounter discrimination in employment, they do have full access to universities and to many professions. Personal status law, derived in part from Sharia (Islamic law), puts women at a disadvantage in matters of marriage, divorce, and inheritance. Rape, domestic abuse, and "honor killings," in which unmarried women who are raped or who engage in premarital sex are murdered by a relative, are not uncommon. Since societal pressures prevent reporting of such incidents, the exact frequency of attacks is unknown. According to media reports, an average of one honor killing per week takes place in the West Bank and Gaza. These murders often go unpunished, or perpetrators serve extremely short prison sentences.