UPDATES

On the danger of being a human rights activist in Gaza

Jan 18, 2012 | Allon Lee

On the danger of being a human rights activist in Gaza
Mahmud Abu Rahma

It is lucky that freedom of speech is not the main selling point for Palestinian statehood because the stabbing of a human rights activist in Gaza who dared criticise the Hamas government and resistance groups would undermine the enterprise’s bona fides.

Mahmud Abu Rahma, international relations director at the al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, was “stabbed multiple times by several masked attackers on Friday evening”, according to an AFP report.

As AIJAC blogged last week, Abu Rahma had published a damning opinion piece on December 31 on the intimidation, injuries and deaths suffered by civilians in Gaza from resistance groups based in residential areas firing guns, bomb and rocket making, and training for terrorist acts. He had also criticised the Hamas government in Gaza for not protecting the rights of individuals from the activities of resistance groups.

Perversely, Abu Rahma himself has now become a victim of the corrosive phenomenon he wanted to publicise.

The knifing attack followed threats and a beating by masked men the day after the article was published. The first assault had prompted his organisation to complain to the government to protect Abu Rahma.

The Palestinian news service, Maan, which ran Abu Rahma’s original article, reported he had “received texts and phone calls threatening him because of his views”. He told Maan: “They said I am a collaborator and I should wait for my punishment, saying I must revoke what I said or else”.

Intimidation, arbitrary arrest and threats of and actual acts of physical violence are a regular response meted out in Gaza and the Fatah-led West Bank for anyone daring to express a difference of opinion. Generally only high profile cases receive any publicity.

Last year, Palestinian journalist Majdoleen Hassouneh had to go into hiding because the Palestinian Authority’s security forces on the West Bank wanted to arrest her for reporting on a sit-in strike held by relatives of prisoners in West Bank jails. After she refused to report for interrogation, her two brothers were arrested.

Foreigners are not off limits either. Two recent examples include the murder last year of pro-Palestinian Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza by an extremist Salafist group for bringing moral corruption from an “infidel state”.

Juliano Mer-Khamis, an Israeli-born director and political activist, whose mother is Jewish and father a Christian Arab, was murdered outside a theatre in Jenin on the West Bank by masked assailants in 2011, also for moral corruption.

Both men were known for their trenchant anti-Israel views.

– Allon Lee

RELATED ARTICLES


455daec3 C2a8 8752 C215 B7bd062c6bbc

After the Israel-Hamas ceasefire for hostages deal

Nov 29, 2023 | Update
Screenshot of Hamas bodycam footage as terrorists approach an Israeli vehicle during the terror organisation's October 7, 2023 attack in southern Israel, released by the IDF and GPO (Screenshot)

Horror on Video / International Law and the Hamas War

Oct 31, 2023 | Update
Sderot, Israel. 7th Oct, 2023. Bodies of dead Israelis lie on the ground following the attacks of Hamas (Image: Ilia Yefimovich/dpa/Alamy Live News)

Israel’s Sept. 11, only worse

Oct 11, 2023 | Update
Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu (r) gets his long-awaited face-to-face meeting with US President Joe Biden in New York (Photo: Avi Ohayon, Israeli Government Press Office)

Netanyahu meets Biden, other world leaders, in New York

Sep 27, 2023 | Update
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who gave an address on Aug. 28 threatening the US and laying out the Iranian-led axis's new "unity of the arenas" doctrine. (Photo: Shutterstock, mohammad kassir)

US-Iran prisoner swap deal set to go through

Sep 12, 2023 | Update
A rally of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party last year: Yet outside these faithful, Abbas is not only largely unpopular, but his rule over the PA has seen the Palestinian parliament dissolved, judiciary sidelined, and his party hollowed out (Photo: Shutterstock, Anas-Mohammed)

The Crisis in the PA

Aug 28, 2023 | Update

SIGN UP FOR AIJAC EMAILS

RECENT POSTS

(image: Antoni Mantorski/Shutterstock)

Anti-Zionism is an Abhorrent Ideology Regardless of Antisemitism

Image: Shutterstock

Rise of anti-Semitism echoes older, more dangerous eras

Screenshot 2024 03 15 At 6.19.20 pm

Four Corners “Forever War” episode reflected the endless crusade of its creator, John Lyons

Image: Shutterstock

AIJAC “gravely disappointed” by Australian Government’s decision to resume UNRWA funding

Fighters from Hamas' Qassam Brigades (Image: Shutterstock)

This is no time to throw Hamas a lifeline

(image: Antoni Mantorski/Shutterstock)

Anti-Zionism is an Abhorrent Ideology Regardless of Antisemitism

Image: Shutterstock

Rise of anti-Semitism echoes older, more dangerous eras

Screenshot 2024 03 15 At 6.19.20 pm

Four Corners “Forever War” episode reflected the endless crusade of its creator, John Lyons

Image: Shutterstock

AIJAC “gravely disappointed” by Australian Government’s decision to resume UNRWA funding

Fighters from Hamas' Qassam Brigades (Image: Shutterstock)

This is no time to throw Hamas a lifeline

SORT BY TOPICS