These accounts require careful listening, particularly now. Reconciliation rhetoric fills the air with discussions of Palestinian statehood and Palestinian Authority rehabilitation. Yet do we truly understand this Authority and its systematic human rights violations? Are we aware that the Authority employs horrifying torture practices characteristic of history's darkest regimes? This occurs despite the Oslo Accords' commitments prohibiting harm to collaborators.
Two weeks ago, the Jerusalem District Court received nine civil lawsuits against the Palestinian Authority from nine collaborators who endured torture and imprisonment under PA authority. These represent contemporary horrors occurring under Mahmoud Abbas' rule, rather than historical incidents from the Arafat era, with some cases dating back to recent years. Plaintiff A. displays visible torture evidence: burn scar rows along his leg at regular intervals, resulting from heated metal repeatedly applied during sadistic Palestinian Authority interrogation in 2020.
These nine lawsuits supplement dozens of previous legal actions, most resulting in Palestinian Authority liability and court-ordered victim compensation. Bahaa al-Shuwamra, 42, from Hebron, received 2 million shekels ($565,000) after winning his case. His Israeli cooperation began in 2000. "Initial contact occurred through another Palestinian operative, developing into direct Shin Bet communication by 2004. Our collaboration continued through 2008, involving extensive weapons seizures and terror attack prevention. They ambushed me in 2008 while conducting commercial transport work. They lured me near Dura for supposed cargo work. I responded without understanding the Palestinian Authority's arrest capabilities. Oslo signatories promised collaborator protection. I feared beatings but never anticipated detention. Armed personnel seized me, covering my head before vehicle transport."
"How does the Palestinian Authority protect murderers?"
Previous Authority persecution had targeted Bahaa. His residence was attacked two years earlier. "In 2006, ten masked men fired 200 bullets at my house and fled. It was a message they wanted to send me. After this incident, the officer I operated with called me. He said that because there are suspicions about me, they want to protect me. They offered me to stay in Israel, but I decided to return to the Palestinian Authority. I thought the Authority was weak."
Bahaa maintained cooperation for two additional years before seven years of Palestinian Authority imprisonment under Abbas' administration. "When they arrested me, I was in shock. Very quickly, they started with torture. I was naked in my underwear all the time. For a very long period, I was in isolation in a room of one meter by one and a half meters. The floor was full of water. You can't sleep. They pour water on you. You urinate in the water. In interrogations, they beat people all the time. They put me in a shower, with my hands tied and eyes covered, and inserted something like a knife, a stick into my back. They would bring people from outside for interrogations. It was like a party to beat detainees. They tie two-liter bottles to each hand, and the hands must be at a 90-degree angle. You're not allowed to lower them. If you lower them, you get beaten on the head.
"Hebron terrorists who murdered a female soldier and seized her weapon surrendered to the Authority for protection from Israeli arrest. These killers participated in our interrogations, delivering beatings. Blood-stained individuals attacked me during Palestinian Authority sessions. How do you explain this? How does the Palestinian Authority protect murderers?"
Seven years of wandering between facilities brought consistent torture experiences. "Once, one of the guards gave me a terrible slap in the face, and my whole head went back; I still suffer from it today. Another time, they brought the imam so we would say our last words because they wanted to kill us. He came with his Quran. I didn't believe they would give us a trial; I thought they would murder us and throw the bodies in the garbage. In the end, they gave me a trial and I received a seven-year sentence. Part of the time, I was in Jericho. They crammed 50 men in a room. There aren't beds for everyone, no place to sit. I suffered greatly."
The crime: attempts at preventing terror
In 2015, Bahaa was released and moved to Israel. Today, he lives in Beer Sheba with his wife and children and works in construction. In 2018, he began the process of filing a lawsuit against the Authority, a process that lasted a long time, and about a year ago, he finally received approximately 2 million shekels ($565,000) in compensation that was offset from tax money Israel transfers to the Authority. "I live with dignity today. I'm active in Likud, and after October 7, I came to support the South and reserve soldiers. A person who helped thwart terror is a person who loves life. He deserves honor, he deserves everything."
In the last decade, the Arbus-Kedem-Tzur law firm has represented about 100 collaborators in lawsuits against the Authority. "Until today, we received about 50 court rulings with a total sum of compensation in the scope of 120 million shekels ($34 million)," attorney Barak Kedem said. "Part of the compensation we already collected through enforcement, and the lion's share is still in collection and offset stages from Palestinian Authority tax money. Recently, we filed nine new lawsuits, and there are several more on the way.
"In the past, when we talked about torture, we would say this characterizes Arafat's Palestinian Authority. There was some thought that with Abu Mazen [Abbas] it's already different, that the Authority changed. But the new stories prove this is not so. All the cruel practices still exist. This is here and now, and these are the cruelest things in the world. One of the new plaintiffs showed me a hole in his lip, created from a heated skewer. These tortures are directed against political suspects, meaning land sellers to Jews or collaborators, against anyone who harms the Palestinian Authority's interests. The Palestinian Authority not only encourages terrorists and finances 'shahids,' it also harms collaborators who try to prevent terror."
"There's no difference between the Authority and Hamas. People think the horrors we saw on October 7 were Hamas, but the Palestinian Authority carries out the same horrors. It's a different party, but exactly the same people who would commit the same horrors, only ten times worse, because the Palestinian Authority is much larger and has more capabilities and resources. If they had the opportunity, they would do October 7 squared. These are people with the peak of cruelty in the world."
Q: Is there a fixed pattern of torture? Is this systematic, or are there certain interrogators who are particularly cruel?
"It's systematic. There are tortures that repeat constantly, for example, hanging with legs up and head down, and whipping the interrogated person while beating them. These are testimonies we heard from the hostages in Gaza. What Hamas does, the Authority also does. We heard about several cases where they forced detainees to sit naked on a glass bottle. Two thugs force the detainee to sit, until the bottle penetrates through the anus. Sometimes the bottle is broken, and then the person's intestines open up. This is something that cannot be rehabilitated afterward. It's a nightmare.
"There's a recurring pattern of damage to teeth. Many people had their teeth broken with clubs or teeth extracted with pliers. We also have a female collaborator, whose fingernails and toenails were extracted with pliers. There's a recurring pattern of detainees being taken out naked in winter cold and having cold water poured on them. This repeated itself tremendously. Also, a pattern of pulling on genitals and tying to a door. There are lots of cigarettes burning and heated metal rods. It's a free-for-all. And of course, endless beatings, also with metal rods. There's a recurring pattern of putting a person in a narrow coffin for several days, so that he cannot move."
Q: How many female detainees are there?
"Recently, we began treating a husband and wife who both suffered torture. The woman was in prison for two years. It was a men's prison, and she was there in a separate room, but all the guards were men. When I asked her if she experienced sexual assault in prison, at some point, she broke down and started crying hysterically. It was difficult for her to speak next to her husband. We had another case of a 19-year-old girl who was arrested on suspicion of collaboration. They tortured her and then shot her in the head and threw her body away. The family filed a lawsuit and received compensation of 4.5 million shekels ($1.27 million). But women are quite rare. Women are less active in the security arena. Most of the tortured are afraid to speak, men too, especially recently. Because of the war, Israel has reduced the number of people who have permits to stay in Israel. A person who knows he's here on borrowed time, and tomorrow they might throw him across the checkpoint, is much more afraid to be interviewed."
"Today I walk with my head held high"
Among the veterans, it's easier to find someone willing to speak, but he also asks to remain anonymous so as not to harm his family members who remained in the Palestinian Authority. H., 54, grew up in Samaria. He studied at the university in Nablus. "A friend connected me to the Shin Bet, and I started passing information that prevented attacks and saved lives. During this period, most attacks came from the universities. I don't regret what I did." In 1996, the friend who connected him to the Shin Bet was arrested by the Authority, and shortly after, he was also arrested. "They came to my house and kidnapped me. They put me in the trunk of a car and took me to Jericho for interrogation. For six years, I didn't see a judge, prosecutor, or lawyer. In 2002, during 'Defensive Shield,' the Israeli army freed me. The Threatened Persons Committee gave me a residence permit in the country."
Since then, he has lived in central Israel with a residence permit, but without any other rights. "I have no health insurance, no driver's license, no work permit. I can't go to a doctor. My mother and brother stayed there. I haven't seen them since, we only talk on the phone. I have no wife and children, and there was no possibility after prison. In 2017, I filed a lawsuit against the Authority. In the end, the judge ruled in our favor. The compensation is 3 million shekels ($847,000), but I still haven't received the money."
Q: How do the tortures you underwent affect you today?
"I still suffer from them to this day. I wake up at night every three hours, screaming, shouting, seeing them in dreams. I have marks that don't disappear on the body and soul. They brought me to a state where I cannot have sexual relations. They put a type of copper in the sex organ and would light it with fire. The interrogators would tell me, 'We'll make sure you have no future and won't remember the past, only this pain. You won't have continuation, children, and grandchildren.' They succeeded in this. Thank God, today I see the neighborhood children as my children."
Over the years, he worked odd jobs, mainly renovations. Everything under the table because he's not allowed to open a business. He's alone, has no friends and family, and yet he says again and again: "I don't regret it. I walk with my head held high and tell myself, maybe the people walking here next to me were saved from an attack thanks to me. This gives me the strength to continue, like fuel. For several years I've wanted to leave the country, to move to live in another country, but for that I need a travel document. They don't give me a travel document. I can't get a Palestinian passport, there's no chance in the world, and in Israel I can't apply for recognition as a refugee."
Q: Why didn't the Shin Bet recognize you?
"The Shin Bet only recognized two percent of the collaborators. In 'Defensive Shield', many people came out of prison together, so they only gave us residence permits and that's it."
Q: Does the compensation awarded to you provide some justice?
"It's less than what I thought I would receive. I spent more than 3 million in 25 years, so more is due, but at least it will be like a pension. Soon, I won't have the strength to continue working. I'm hopeful that something will change for the better. That they'll give me a travel document, that I can meet my family in another country, and that I can start a new life."
