By Ramzy Baroud

The deadlock in the Peace Process is not the only challenge that the Palestinian Authority has to face before announcing an independent Palestinian State later this year. The Palestinian Authority has to prove to it’s own people first that it is capable of governing a state in which human rights and democracy are it’s foundation.

While Israel proudly uses the phrase “Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East”; it is obvious that Palestinian democracy is not something they wish to see.

As a matter of fact, Israel consistently demands that Arafat and the Palestinian Authority contributed to the unpromising democracy in the West Bank and Gaza.

However, no one can be blamed for the human rights violations committed against Palestinians by Palestinians but Palestinians themselves. Two simple reasons could be presented to validate such claims.

First, the Palestinian leadership, despite the pressure, willingly signed all the agreements with Israel, which later backfired. Therefore, the Israeli intervention should have been expected and even predicted.

Secondly, a great deal of the human rights violations committed by Palestinian Authority personnel is hard to link with Israeli pressure and American intervention and the demand of both.

This subject became a very demanding topic to address after the recent protest and hunger strike in Nablus, Jericho and Ramallah.

What started as a peaceful gathering of hundreds of Palestinians in Jericho was soon transformed into a violent takeover of the Palestinian national security forces headquarters.

The demonstration that followed the Friday prayer attracted huge crowds of sympathizers with the Islamic movement Hamas. It also included some wives and family members of Palestinian political prisoners.

Soon, once the demonstration reached the national forces building, the angry crowd rushed quickly to take over the building. One hour after the takeover, the crowd slowly pulled back and peace was restored with no serious confrontations to report.

Emotions are running high among Palestinians due to the increased arrests to Palestinians based on their political perspective and/ or activities.

The 3 week long hunger strike in the prisons of Jericho and Jenin are different from the one held earlier to protest the Israeli violations of the agreed upon accords. The recent one is a protest aimed to pressure the Palestinian Authority to stop adopting the iron fist policy against it’s own people.

The patience shown by Palestinian officers and leadership in Jericho deserves to be recognized and highly appreciated. Yet, a similar polity needs to be adopted on a larger scale by the Palestinian Authority itself.

In Nablus, as well, protesters filled the streets of the old city after the Friday Prayer at al-Nasir mosque. Hundreds of them sat in a large circle in front of the mosque carrying signs, flags and pictures of political prisoners.

Al-Fateh leaders in the area called for the Palestinian Authority to legally “forbid” the use of such arrests and to immediately clear it’s prisons from all those arrested with no charges or no trials.

Some children merged from the crowd holding pictures of their imprisoned fathers wearing shirts that said, “give me back my father”.

It was not an expected day in which Palestinian children could demand the release of their fathers from Palestinian jails.

The strike is continuing, and it grows larger and larger.. The anger and frustration of the Palestinians streets is reaching an all time high level.

Even though the hardship of Arafat’s and the Palestinian Authority’s position is undeniable no justification could be convincing enough for treating the political opposition the same way the Israelis did.

Last Thursday, Dr. Ahmed Al-Zahar, the prominant Hamas leader was arrested in Gaza, AL-Quds newspaper reported. No explanation was given for the arrest and whether he’ll be released soon or not.

Peace in the Palestinian house can’t be restored until dialogue becomes the common language to reach results, rather than arrests and iron fists.

Ramzy Baroud